KSGO (1450 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a

conservative talk radio Conservative talk radio is a talk radio format in the United States and other countries devoted to expressing conservative viewpoints of issues, as opposed to progressive talk radio. The definition of conservative talk is generally broad enough ...

format to the

St. George, Utah St. George or Saint George is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Utah, United States. Located in southwestern Utah on the Arizona border, it is the principal city of the St. George metropolitan statistical area (MSA). The cit ...

, United States, area. The station is owned by Canyon Media Corporation.

History

The 1450 kHz frequency was home to

KDXU KDXU may refer to: * KDXU (AM), a radio station (890 AM) licensed to serve St. George, Utah, United States * KDXU-FM, a radio station (106.1 FM) licensed to serve Colorado City, Arizona, United States * KIYK KIYK (107.3 FM broadcasting, FM) is a ...

from 1956 until 1985. In September 1985, KDXU switched its radio frequency to 890 kHz and increased power to 10,000 watts. KDXU broadcast engineer and local cable-TV owner Ray Carpenter filed for a new radio station on 1450 kHz, which was granted by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

(FCC); KATJ began operating with an adult contemporary music format in December using the former KDXU transmitter. The new station took its call sign from Carpenter's six grandchildren: Kelly, Amy, Traci, Troy, Jared and Joel. In November 1986, former

Bonneville International Bonneville International Corporation is a media and broadcasting company, wholly owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) through its for-profit arm, Deseret Management Corporation. It began as a radio and TV networ ...

executives Joseph A. Kjar, Donald Bybee and Blaine W. Whipple, organizing as Color Country Broadcasting, purchased the station from Carpenter, changing the call sign to KDLX "DeLux Radio" on January 1, 1987. KDLX moved immediately to new studio facilities Kjar, Whipple, and Bybee sold the station in November 1988 to Las Vegas broadcaster Jack London (Paul G. Maziar) who subsequently filed bankruptcy. London's partner in the purchase was veteran broadcast executive E. Morgan Skinner, Jr., a former Bonneville employee. The two sought to change the station's call sign to KSLI, for their consulting venture, Skinner and London, Inc. The change, which went into effect on November 16, drew the ire of Bonneville for being too close to its KSL radio and

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

stations in Salt Lake City; Bonneville threatened action against the station and ordered it to stop using the KSLI call sign by November 29. To avoid legal costs, London and Skinner acquiesced and changed the call sign to KSGI. On New Year's Eve 1988, the Quail Creek Reservoir Dam near

Hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its ...

broke, sending a wall of water down the

Virgin River The Virgin River is a tributary of the Colorado River in the U.S. states of Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. The river is about long.Calculated with Google Maps and Google Earth It was designated Utah's first wild and scenic river in 2009, during the ...

and causing over US$11 million of damage to houses, farms, roads and utilities, including KSGI, whose transmitter site was located near the river in St. George. The dam breach destroyed the transmitter building and tower site, sending parts of the transmitter downstream nearly Skinner put the station back to the air within two weeks, with the assistance of Las Vegas broadcaster Steve Gold, Las Vegas-based tower builder Dennis Todd and Las Vegas broadcast engineer Patrick O'Gara. In addition, the group bought the bankrupt KCCZ television station in 1993 and returned it to air as KSGI-TV. KZNU St George News Radio 1450 logo

Skinner sold the station, together with KZEZ 99.9 FM, which Skinner built with partner Lavon Randall, to

Simmons Media Group Redrock Media is a media company with headquarters in St. George, Utah, United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a feder ...

of St. George in 1998. Simmons operated KSGI under an LMA, changing the call sign to KTSP "Total Sports" in 1998 and again to KZNU in 2001. Simmons was unsuccessful at getting FCC approval of the purchase, resulting from multiple ownership issues, and partnered with M. Kent Frandsen to organize Canyon Media Corporation, of which Western Broadcasting, LLC (Simmons) retained a thirty-percent (30%) non-attributable interest. Canyon Media Corporation acquired KZNU and KZEZ in 2005; the latter is currently broadcasting country music with the call letters KONY. The station changed its call sign to KSGO on June 15, 2023.

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* * * * {{Simmons Media Group SGO News and talk radio stations in the United States Conservative talk radio Radio stations established in 1986 1986 establishments in Utah St. George, Utah