KROD (600 kHz) 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 radi ...

in El Paso,

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. It airs a sports format and is owned and operated by Townsquare Media. The offices and studios are located on North Mesa Street (

Texas State Highway 20 State Highway 20 (SH 20) is a highway maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) that runs from New Mexico State Road 460 at the state line between Texas and New Mexico at Anthony in El Paso County to Interstate 10 at McNa ...

) in

Northwest El Paso Northwest El Paso (better known as West El Paso or the West Side) is an area of El Paso, Texas that is located on the west side of the Franklin Mountains. It is home to some of the most affluent neighborhoods within the city of El Paso, Texas. It h ...

. KROD broadcasts 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 ...

s around the clock. But at night, when radio waves travel farther, it uses a directional antenna to avoid interfering with other stations on

AM 600 The following radio stations 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 broad ...

. It is the West Texas primary entry point station for the Emergency Alert System. The

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

is located off Dyer Street ( U.S. Business Route 54) in far north El Paso.

Programming

The station is 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 ESPN Radio. KROD breaks from the ESPN Network on weekday afternoon

drive time Drive time is the daypart in which radio broadcasters can reach the most people who listen to car radios while driving, usually to and from work, or on public transportation. Drive-time periods are when the number of radio listeners in this cl ...

for "KROD Sportstalk with Steve Kaplowitz." The station carries Pacific Coast League baseball games as the flagship station of the

El Paso Chihuahuas The El Paso Chihuahuas are a Minor League Baseball team of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and the Triple-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. They are located in El Paso, Texas, and play their home games at Southwest University Park, which opened ...

. It also broadcasts the El Paso Rhinos in the Western States Hockey League, UTEP Miners football,

UTEP Miners men's basketball The UTEP Miners basketball team plays for University of Texas at El Paso in El Paso, Texas. The team is an NCAA Division I men's college basketball team competing in the Conference USA. Home games are played at Don Haskins Center. History ...

, UTEP Miners women's basketball, the NFL on Westwood One and

Texas Longhorns football The Texas Longhorns football program is the intercollegiate team representing the University of Texas at Austin (variously Texas or UT) in the sport of American football. The Longhorns compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision ...

History

Early Years

A construction permit for KROD was issued in 1936, to operate on 1500 kHz, then a local channel, with 100 watts full-time. The station signed on the air on June 1, 1940, as El Paso's second radio station after KTSM, which was established in 1929. The

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 assign ...

KROD stood for Dorrance D. Roderick, the station's original owner and the publisher of the ''

El Paso Times The ''El Paso Times'' is the newspaper for the US city of El Paso, Texas. The newspaper has an approximate daily circulation of 65,000 and 125,000 on Sundays. The paper is the only English-language daily in El Paso (when the ''El Paso Herald-Pos ...

'' newspaper. The studios were at 2201 Wyoming Street, now the home of Channel 38

KSCE KSCE (channel 38) is a religious independent television station in El Paso, Texas, United States, owned by Channel 38 Christian Television. The station's studios are located on Wyoming Avenue (northwest of I-10) in central El Paso, and its transm ...

. KROD was a CBS Radio

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 ...

, carrying its schedule of dramas, comedies, news, sports,

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

game show A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or demonstrative and are typically directed by a host, ...

s and

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...

broadcasts during the " Golden Age of Radio." A short time after going on the air, KROD increased its power to 250 watts and had a construction permit to move to 600 kHz. The move to AM 600 was coupled with an increase in power to 1,000 watts by day, 500 watts at night. A new four

tower array A tower array is an arrangement of multiple radio towers which are mast radiators in a phased array. They were originally developed as ground-based tracking radars. Tower arrays can consist of free-standing or guyed towers or a mix of them. Tower ...

was constructed during 1941. The 600 kHz transmitter was on Dyer Street in Northeast El Paso, where the Sunrise Shopping Center now stands. The transmitter moved to 10420 Dyer in the late 1960s.

Adding TV and FM Stations

By 1950, KROD had increased its power to 5,000 watts full time. An advertisement in the 1953 '' Broadcasting Yearbook'' said that KROD had the "greatest coverage of any radio station in El Paso," with the biggest audience, the largest dollar value and unrivaled local programs. In 1952, a television station was added, Channel 4 KROD-TV (now

KDBC-TV KDBC-TV (channel 4) is a television station in El Paso, Texas, United States, affiliated with CBS and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Fox affiliate KFOX-TV (channel 14). Both stations share studios on South Alto Mes ...

). Because KROD was a CBS affiliate, KROD-TV also aired CBS programming. As network programming moved from radio to television, KROD began playing music. In 1959, KROD-AM-TV were acquired by Trigg-Vaughn Stations, with Cecil Trigg serving as President. KROD moved to a full service middle of the road (MOR) format of popular music, news and sports. The station used the catch phrase "The Big 600." The station also aired University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) sports, specifically, NCAA Division I Men's Football and NCAA Division I Men's Basketball, for much of its history. This is depicted by the KROD banners in the movie ''

Glory Road ''Glory Road'' is a science fantasy novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, originally serialized in ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (July – September 1963) and published in hardcover the same year. It was nominated for ...

''. Channel 4 was sold to the Doubleday Broadcasting Company in 1973, changing its call letters to KDBC-TV, while KROD was sold to Desert Horizons, Inc. In 1978, KROD added an FM station, 95.5

KLAQ KLAQ (95.5 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station licensed to El Paso, Texas and airing a mainstream rock radio format. The station is owned by Townsquare Media and has studios and offices on North Mesa Street (Texas Route 20) in northwest El Pa ...

. While KROD continued its MOR format, KLAQ began by playing

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. In ...

music, later switching to

album rock Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM radio format created in the United States in the 1970s that focuses on the full repertoire of rock albums and is currently associated with classic rock. Album-orient ...

Oldies, Talk, Sports

In the 1980s, KROD switched to oldies music. New Wave Communications acquired KROD and KLAQ in 1995, switching AM 600 to a talk and sports format. In 1999, KROD and KLAQ changed hands again, this time to Regent Communications, Inc. On January 18, 2011, KROD dropped its talk programming, changing to all sports, with programming from ESPN Radio. KROD and KLAQ were also acquired by Townsquare Media."Chichuahuas and Townsquare Extend Partnership" El Paso Herald Post, Feb. 17, 2017
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References

External links

{{Coord, 31, 54, 56, N, 106, 23, 33, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title 1936 establishments in Texas Radio stations established in 1936 ROD Sports radio stations in the United States Townsquare Media radio stations UTEP Miners football