KXBN (92.1
FM) is a
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
contemporary hit radio
Contemporary hit radio (also known as CHR, contemporary hits, hit list, current hits, hit music, top 40, or pop radio) is a radio format that is common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by ...
format. Licensed to
Cedar City, Utah, United States, the station serves the Cedar City /
St. George, Utah
St. 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 city lies in the northe ...
area. The station is currently owned by
Townsquare Media
Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wi ...
.
History
KSUB-FM
On December 12, 1973, the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC) granted a construction permit to the Southern Utah Broadcasting Company, owner of
KSUB
KSUB (590 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a news/talk format. Licensed to Cedar City, Utah, United States, the station is currently owned by Townsquare Media.
The station is also heard on a translator, K299BU, at 107.7 FM in Cedar City.
His ...
(590 AM), for a new FM radio station in Cedar City.
The construction process was beset with delays. After originally filing to use its AM transmitter site, Southern Utah Broadcasting opted to move the transmitter to
Iron Mountain. That application took 16 months to be granted, because the company had to assure the FCC that the move further south would not cause impermissible interference to an FM station in
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
, despite being nominally short-spaced to it.
Construction itself was a difficult process, because there were no utilities or access to the transmitter site; half a mile of power line had to be constructed, alongside a road up the east face of the mountain. The biggest problem, however, echoed one faced by its AM sister station nearly four decades prior. While the new tower was being put into place using a helicopter, gusty winds tangled the guy lines in the tower, and corrective efforts led to the tower crashing to the ground. KSUB-FM finally began broadcasting in November 1976, airing country music.
The Cedar City outlet was heard in St. George for the first time after securing FCC approval to build a translator there. TV translator systems in the region that also relayed FM signals also built translators to carry the station into
Millard County
Millard County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Utah. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 12,503. Its county seat is Fillmore, and the largest city is Delta.
History
The Utah Territory legislature created the county o ...
and
Kanab
Kanab ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Kane County, Utah, United States.[Find a County]
". ''N ...
. The station had five translators by January 1985.
KSSD and KCIN
On March 1, 1984, KSUB and KSUB-FM switched formats, with country music moving to AM and adult contemporary to FM, which became KSSD; the new call letters were inspired by the "Sun Kissed" motto for the area used by the St. George chamber of commerce. Cited as a move to put country music on a more accessible AM dial position, it was also a decision that came in advance of the 1985 opening of Kanab-based country outlet
KCKK (101.1 FM).
KSSD picked up the
Pure Gold syndicated format from
Satellite Music Networks
Satellite Music Network was the first satellite delivered network to provide complete live 24-hour-a-day music programming to local stations, under several different formats.
History
Affiliate stations, mostly in small and medium markets, ...
in 1988, marking a format shift to
oldies
Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as we ...
. By 1991, however, KSSD had switched back to country.
The call letters were changed on October 19, 1999, to KCIN, coinciding with a rebrand to "Kickin' Country".
"The Fox" and "B"
On June 21, 2001, a shuffle among co-owned radio stations moved the Kickin' Country format to
940 AM
The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 940 kHz: 940 AM is a Mexican and Canadian clear-channel frequency. XEQ Mexico City is the dominant Class A clear channel station on 940 kHz. See also List of broadcast station classe ...
, replacing adult standards "Magic 940". On the 92.5 frequency and its translators, it was replaced by KXFF "The Fox", airing an oldies format.
More than 35 years of ownership of KSUB, and later of KSUB-FM, by members of the Johnson family ended in 2005 when KSUB and its four sister stations were sold to Cherry Creek Radio for $5.8 million, marking the group's entrance into the southwestern Utah radio market.
Cherry Creek conducted a format shuffle in 2006 and moved the contemporary hit radio programming and call letters of KXBN, previously at
94.9 MHz, to 92.5. The station itself moved to 92.1 MHz in 2007; the move was part of an adjustment of allocations necessary to add new stations proposed for
Ash Fork and
Peach Springs, Arizona
, native_name_lang = hu
, settlement_type = Census-designated place
, image_skyline = Peach Springs-John Osterman Shell Gas Station-1929.jpg
, imagesize =
, image_caption = John Osterman Shell ...
.
Sale to Townsquare Media
On March 24, 2022. Townsquare Media has announced that it will acquire Cherry Creek Media for $18.75 Million including all of 35 stations that Cherry Creek owns. The deal is set to close by the end of June.
Translators and boosters
KXBN has one co-channel booster, KXBN-FM1 in
St. George. A permit for a second booster to be located in
Hurricane
A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...
, KXBN-FM2, has been granted and is awaiting construction.
The station is also carried on two translators owned by
Garfield County, K282AC (104.3 FM) on Barney Top and K272BA (102.3 FM) at
Panguitch.
References
External links
*
*
*
{{Townsquare Media
XBN
Radio stations established in 1976
1976 establishments in Utah
Contemporary hit radio stations in the United States
Cedar City, Utah
Townsquare Media radio stations