KELA (1470

kHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that on ...

) is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

broadcasting a

talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featur ...

format, co-

licensed A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

Centralia Centralia may refer to: Places Australia *Central Australia, sometimes called "Centralia" Canada * Centralia, Ontario ** RCAF Station Centralia, a former Royal Canadian Air Force training base ** Centralia (Essery Field) Aerodrome United States ...

and

Chehalis Chehalis may refer to: People * Chehalis people, a Native American people of Washington state **Lower Chehalis language **Upper Chehalis language * Sts'Ailes people (Chehalis people), a First Nation in British Columbia * Chehalis First Nation, Bri ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

, United States. The station airs a

format Format may refer to: Printing and visual media * Text formatting, the typesetting of text elements * Paper formats, or paper size standards * Newspaper format, the size of the paper page Computing * File format, particular way that informatio ...

and is currently owned by Bicoastal Media. The station is powered at 5,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

s by day, but reduces power to 1,000 watts at night to avoid interfering with other stations on

AM 1470 AM or Am may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * A minor, a minor scale in music * ''A.M.'' (Chris Young album) * ''A.M.'' (Wilco album) * ''AM'' (Abraham Mateo album) * ''AM'' (Arctic Monkeys album) * AM (musician), American musician ...

. It uses a

non-directional antenna In radio communication, an omnidirectional antenna is a class of antenna which radiates equal radio power in all directions perpendicular to an axis (azimuthal directions), with power varying with angle to the axis (elevation angle), declining ...

at all times. The studios, offices and

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which i ...

are on South Gold Street in Centralia.

Programming

Weekdays begin with two local news and talk shows, "The KELA Morning Report" and "Let's Talk About It," originally created by Ed Jeffries. Those shows are followed by nationally syndicated hosts:

Rush Limbaugh Rush Hudson Limbaugh III ( ; January 12, 1951 – February 17, 2021) was an American conservative political commentator who was the host of '' The Rush Limbaugh Show'', which first aired in 1984 and was nationally syndicated on AM and FM r ...

Sean Hannity Sean Patrick Hannity (born December 30, 1961) is an American talk show host, conservative political commentator, and author. He is the host of ''The Sean Hannity Show'', a nationally syndicated talk radio show, and has also hosted a commentar ...

Dave Ramsey David Lawrence Ramsey III (born September 3, 1960) is an American personal finance personality, radio show host, author, and businessman. An evangelical Christian, he hosts the nationally syndicated radio program ''The Ramsey Show''. Ramsey has ...

Clark Howard Clark Brian Howard (born June 20, 1955) is a popular consumer expert and podcast host of ''The Clark Howard Show''. Life and career Howard grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. His parents, Bernard and Joy Garson Howard, were prominent members of Atl ...

Coast to Coast AM ''Coast to Coast AM'' is an American late-night radio talk show that deals with a variety of topics. Most frequently the topics relate to either the paranormal or conspiracy theories. It was hosted by creator Art Bell from its inception in 19 ...

with

George Noory George Ralph Noory (born June 4, 1950) is an American radio talk show host. Since January 2003, Noory has been the weekday host of the late-night radio talk show ''Coast to Coast AM''. The program is syndicated to hundreds of radio stations in ...

and First Light. Most hours begin with world and national news from

Fox News Radio Fox News Radio is an American radio network owned by Fox News. It is syndicated to over 500 AM and FM radio stations across the United States. It also supplies programming for three channels on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. History In 2003, ...

. Weekends, the station airs some paid

brokered programming Brokered programming (also known as time-buy and blocktime) is a form of broadcast content in which the show's producer pays a radio or television station for air time, rather than exchanging programming for pay or the opportunity to play spot comm ...

and repeats of weekday shows. KELA's sports programming include

Sports Byline USA Sports Byline USA is an international sports radio network based in the United States. ''Sports Byline USA'' is also the name of the flagship program on the network. It was the first national sports talk show and was launched on October 24, 1988. ...

on weekday evenings, and on weekends

Fox Sports Radio Fox Sports Radio is an American sports radio network. Based in Los Angeles, California, the network is operated and managed by Premiere Networks in a content partnership with Fox Corporation's Fox Sports division and iHeartMedia, parent company ...

is heard. KELA is an affiliate of the

Seattle Mariners Radio Network The Mariners Radio Network is the name applied to the radio stations which carry Seattle Mariners baseball games throughout Washington state. Stations are listed by state, then city. All stations broadcast on the AM band unless otherwise noted. T ...

and the Seattle Seahawks Radio Network. It also carries

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

Huskies football and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

as well as local high school football and basketball games.

History

KELA first

signed on Signing may refer to: * Using sign language * Signature A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a handwritten (and often stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on do ...

the air in 1937. It was on 1440

kilocycle The cycle per second is a once-common English name for the unit of frequency now known as the hertz (Hz). The plural form was typically used, often written cycles per second, cycles/second, c.p.s., c/s, or, ambiguously, just cycles (Cy./Cyc.). The ...

s, powered at 500 watts, and owned by the Central Broadcasting Company. After the enactment of

North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA, es, Convenio Regional Norteamericano de Radiodifusión) refers to a series of international treaties that defined technical standards for AM band (mediumwave) radio stations. These agreem ...

(NARBA) in 1941, the station switched to its current dial position of 1470 kHz, powered at 1,000 watts. It was a

network affiliate In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or a ...

of the

Mutual Broadcasting System The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Old-time radio, golden ...

and the

Don Lee Network The Don Lee Network, sometimes called the Don Lee Broadcasting System was an American regional network of radio stations in the old-time radio era. Origin Don Lee made a fortune as the exclusive West Coast distributor of Cadillac automobiles. He ...

during the "

Golden Age of Radio The Golden Age of Radio, also known as the old-time radio (OTR) era, was an era of radio in the United States where it was the dominant electronic home entertainment, entertainment medium. It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcastin ...

." In the 1960s, the power was boosted to the current 5,000 watts in the daytime while keeping KELA's 1,000-watt nighttime power. As network programming moved to TV, KELA began airing a

full service Full service or Full Service may refer to: * Full-service radio, a wide range of programming * Full Service Network, a communications company Entertainment * "Full Service", a song by the New Kids on the Block from their album ''The Block'' * F ...

, middle of the road music format with news updates from Mutual. On August 24, 1965, it put an FM station on the air, 102.9 KELA-FM (now

KZTM KZTM (102.9 FM) is a Regional Mexican radio station serving the Tacoma and Olympia, Washington area. Owned and operated by Bustos Media, through licensee Bustos Media Holdings, LLC, the station is licensed to McKenna, Washington. The transmitte ...

). KELA-FM ran an

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country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

format, while carrying some of KELA's newscasts. Over time, 1470 KELA added more talk shows and reduced the music until it was a full-time talk station. It became an

ABC Radio News ABC News Radio is the news radio service of ABC Audio, a division of ABC News in the United States. Formerly known as ABC Radio News, ABC News Radio feeds, through Skyview Networks, five minute newscasts on the hour and news briefs at half-pas ...

affiliate. KELA-FM switched its

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

to KMNT but remained a country station. In 1996,

Jacor Jacor Communications was a media corporation, existing between 1987 and 1999, which owned many radio stations in the United States. In 1998, Jacor was purchased by Clear Channel Communications, now iHeartMedia, for $2.8 billion. Jacor Communicat ...

Communications bought KELA and KMNT for $4 million. Jacor was acquired by

Clear Channel Communications iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...

. In 2007, Clear Channel (now

iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...

) spun off KELA to Bicoastal Media but retained the FM station, which had changed its call letters to KNBQ.Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 2010 page B-575
/ref> KMNT's call letters and programming moved to

104.3 FM The following radio stations broadcast on FM frequency 104.3 MHz: Argentina * La Hormiga in Rosario, Santa Fe * Liverpool in Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires * LRM424 Platino in Las Rosas, Santa Fe * LRP759 Ciudad in San Javier, Santa Fe * LRS341 ...

, also owned by Bicoastal.

References

External links

{{News/Talk Radio Stations in Washington

ELA Ela or ELA may refer to: Companies and organizations * Basque Workers' Solidarity (Basque: '), a trade union * Earth Liberation Army * ELA Aviación, a Spanish aircraft manufacturer * English Lacrosse Association * Equatorial Launch Australia, ...

Centralia, Washington Chehalis, Washington