KSL Newsradio is a pair of

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 ...

s serving the

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

region, consisting of the original AM station, KSL,

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 ...

to Salt Lake City on 1160 kHz, and FM station KSL-FM, licensed to Midvale on 102.7 MHz. Owned by

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 ...

, a broadcasting subsidiary of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ch ...

, the stations share studios with sister television station

KSL-TV KSL-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is the Flagship (broadcasting), flagship television property of locally based Bonneville International, the for-profit bro ...

in the Broadcast House building at the

Triad Center The Triad Center is a complex of office buildings in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. Originally planned as a large development, containing several office and residential buildings (including the tallest buildings in Utah), the proje ...

in downtown Salt Lake City. The AM station broadcasts with 50,000

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 non-directional, day and night, the maximum power permitted by 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 jurisdicti ...

. A Class A clear channel station, it covers most of north-central Utah in the daytime and can be heard in much of western North America at night. The KSL

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 ...

site is located west of

Salt Lake City International Airport Salt Lake City International Airport is a civil-military airport located about west of Downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, in the United States. The airport is the closest commercial airport for more than 2.5 million people and is within a 30-min ...

, while the KSL-FM transmitter is located on

Farnsworth Peak Farnsworth Peak is a peak located on the northern end of the Oquirrh Mountain range, approximately south west of Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The mountain is named for Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of the first completely electronic t ...

in the Oquirrh Mountains, southwest of Salt Lake City. The AM station is Utah's primary entry point for the

Emergency Alert System The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national warning system in the United States designed to allow authorized officials to broadcast emergency alerts and warning messages to the public via cable, satellite, or broadcast television, and bot ...

. Both KSL's AM and FM transmissions broadcast in HD Radio. KSL-FM carries the

Latter-day Saints Channel :''Mormon Channel is also the name of a waterway in Stockton, California.'' The Latter-day Saints Channel (formerly the Mormon Channel) is an over the air and Internet radio station owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

over its HD2 subchannel.

Programming

Both stations

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simulta ...

a format of

all-news All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to the discussion and broadcast of news. All-news radio is available in both local and syndicated forms, and is carried on both major US satellite radio networks. All-news stations can run the ...

during key hours on weekdays and talk programming the rest of the time.

Weekdays

Once a month during non-election cycles (usually on the last Thursday of the month), the

Governor of Utah A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

has airtime on the station for a "Let Me Speak to the Governor" segment, where calls are taken from constituents, with the governor answering questions and concerns. A notable program from KSL's history was Herb Jepko's ''Nitecap adio Network', a call-in show airing overnight on 1160 KSL from 1964 to 1990. Nightcaps was one of the first U.S. radio talk shows to be syndicated nationally, airing on numerous

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 ...

Network stations.

Weekends

Programming airing on weekends includes ''KSL Outdoors'', ''The KSL Greenhouse Show'', ''Cougar Sports Saturday'', ''The Movie Show Matinee'', Best of ''The Doug Wright Show'', ''

Meet The Press ''Meet the Press'' is a weekly American television news/interview program broadcast on NBC. It is the longest-running program on American television, though the current format bears little resemblance to the debut episode on November 6, 1947. ' ...

'', ''

Ric Edelman Fredric Mark "Ric" Edelman is an American investor and author. He is the founder of Edelman Financial Services (later, Edelman Financial Engines), the author of several personal finance books, and the host of a weekly personal finance talk radi ...

'' as well as numerous LDS religious shows and

paid programming Paid or PAID may refer to: * ''Paid'' (1930 film), an American film starring Joan Crawford * ''Paid'' (2006 film), a Dutch film *''Personality and Individual Differences'', a journal See also * Paide Paide is a town in Estonia and the ...

. KSL was the flagship station of

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...

's football and men's basketball teams until BYU Radio took over the duties in 2017. KSL remains an affiliate for those teams though. Commentary for football games is provided by Greg Wrubell, the "Voice of the Cougars." Due to its affiliation with the LDS Church, KSL, along with its television counterparts and other LDS-affiliated outlets in Utah, airs simulcasts of the General Conferences, held twice a year during April and October. On Sunday mornings, KSL airs its longest-running show, ''

Music and the Spoken Word Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact definition of music, definitions of mu ...

'', a weekly broadcast of

The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, formerly known as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, is an American choir, acting as part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). It has performed in the Salt Lake Tabernacle for o ...

which is also syndicated nationwide via CBS Radio and television. Continuously airing since

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

, it is one of the longest-running radio programs in the world, and one of only two radio shows to be inaugurated into the National Association of Broadcasters' Hall of Fame, along with the '' Grand Ole Opry''. On Sunday mornings and evenings for 22 years, KSL has broadcast "Religion Today" with host Martin Tanner, which focuses on Christian and Jewish history and doctrine.

History

KZN/KFPT/KSL

Effective December 1, 1921, the U.S. Department of Commerce, in charge of radio at the time, adopted a regulation formally establishing a broadcasting station category, which set aside the wavelength of 360 meters (833 kHz) for entertainment broadcasts, and 485 meters (619 kHz) for farm market and weather reports. On April 21, 1922, the '' Deseret News'', a Salt Lake City newspaper owned by

(LDS), was issued a license for a new station on both broadcasting wavelengths. This was the first broadcasting station licensed in the state of Utah. The new station's

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 ...

was KZN. At this time call letters were generally randomly assigned from a roster of available call signs, but it is possible that the KZN call sign was derived from the

Zion Zion ( he, צִיּוֹן ''Ṣīyyōn'', LXX , also variously transliterated ''Sion'', ''Tzion'', ''Tsion'', ''Tsiyyon'') is a placename in the Hebrew Bible used as a synonym for Jerusalem as well as for the Land of Israel as a whole (see Nam ...

concept and common motif in the

Latter Day Saint movement The Latter Day Saint movement (also called the LDS movement, LDS restorationist movement, or Smith–Rigdon movement) is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian Restorationist movement founded by J ...

. The station was located on the roof of the Deseret News Building. KZN's first broadcast began at 3:00 p.m. on May 6, 1922, and included an 8:00 p.m. dedication address by LDS Church president

Heber J. Grant Heber Jeddy Grant (November 22, 1856 – May 14, 1945) was an American religious leader who served as the seventh president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Grant worked as a bookkeeper and a cashier, then wa ...

, followed by a speech by Salt Lake City Mayor C. Clarence Nelson. Advertisement for radio station KSL (1947)

In 1924, KZN was sold to John Cope and his father, F.W. Cope, who formed the Radio Service Corporation of Utah. Ownership was changed to Cope & Johnson, and the station's frequency to 1120 kHz. The call letters became KFPT, with this new call sign coming from an alphabetical roster of available call letters that were normally assigned to new stations. KFPT, still located atop the Deseret New Building, made its formal debut on June 13, 1924. In early 1925 ownership was changed to the Radio Service Corporation of Utah, and the station's frequency to 1150 kHz. On March 24, 1925, the call letters were changed from KFPT to KSL, and the frequency to 1000 kHz, with the "S" and "L" standing for "Salt Lake". (The KSL call sign had been assigned to a San Francisco station from March 1922 until it was deleted in June 1923.) Earl J. Glade (later a four-term mayor of Salt Lake City) joined the station in 1925 and guided KSL's operations for the next fourteen years.

John F. Fitzpatrick John Francis Fitzpatrick (January 18, 1887 - September 11, 1960) was the publisher of ''The Salt Lake Tribune'' from 1924 to 1960. He created the Newspaper Agency Corporation (NAC) in 1952. Early life Fitzpatrick was born January 18, 1887, in P ...

, publisher of '' The Salt Lake Tribune'' (owned by the Kearns Corporation) acquired a quarter interest of KSL for a modest price, as did the LDS Church. This was the Tribune's first business partnership with the LDS Church, though the Church later reacquired full interest in the station. In 1927, the station moved to 990 kHz. The recently formed

Federal Radio Commission The Federal Radio Commission (FRC) was a government agency that regulated United States radio communication from its creation in 1927 until 1934, when it was succeeded by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FRC was established by t ...

adopted

General Order 40 The Federal Radio Commission's (FRC) General Order 40, dated August 30, 1928, described the standards for a sweeping reorganization of radio broadcasting in the United States. This order grouped the AM radio band transmitting frequencies into thre ...

in 1928, which included 40 " clear channel" allocations, which were assignments providing for high-powered stations with extensive nighttime coverage. The resulting reallocation was implemented on November 11, 1928, with KSL given one of the "clear channel" assignments, on 1130 kHz. An upgrade from 5,000 to the current 50,000 watts was dedicated October 22, 1932. In March 1941, with the implementation of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement, KSL was shifted to 1160 kHz, although it maintained its status as a "clear channel" station. In 1932, KSL joined the

CBS Radio Network CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. ...

. It remained with

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

until 2005, when it switched to ABC News Radio. The station gained a television counterpart in 1949, the CBS affiliate

. (KSL-TV switched to

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

in 1995 after

KUTV KUTV (channel 2) is a television station in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside independent station KJZZ-TV (channel 14) and St. George–licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate K ...

Channel 2 came under the ownership of CBS, following its acquisition by Westinghouse). These stations remained subsidiaries of the ''Deseret News'' until 1964, when

Bonneville International Corporation 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 network ...

was formed as the parent company for the LDS Church's broadcasting interests. In the mid-1980s KSL adopted an all-talk format, completely dropping music programming, aside from its Sunday broadcasts of the Tabernacle Choir.

KSL-FM

There have been two separate stations that have held the KSL-FM call letters. The original KSL-FM debuted in 1946 on the then sparsely-populated FM band at 100.1 (later 100.3) MHz. After

ing KSL for a number of years, the FM station switched to a

beautiful music Beautiful music (sometimes abbreviated as BM, B/EZ or BM/EZ for "beautiful music/easy listening") is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in North American radio from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Easy listening, elevator mu ...

format, a contrast to the then-current KSL format of news and talk interspersed with middle of the road music. KSL-FM was sold to Simmons Family Inc. in 1977, due to FCC restrictions on multiple station ownership, and the new owners changed the call letters to

KSFI KSFI (100.3 FM) is a radio station in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. KSFI maintains studio facilities located at the KSL Broadcast House building in Salt Lake City's Triad Center (which also house KRSP-FM and the KSL-AM-FM- TV partners), ...

. The ownership limitations were later loosened, and KSFI and KSL returned to common ownership in 2003 when Bonneville repurchased the station, along with

classic rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, prima ...

KRSP-FM KRSP-FM (103.5 MHz, "103.5 The Arrow") is a radio station in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is owned by Bonneville International, a subsidiary of Deseret Management Corporation, the for-profit arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. KR ...

(103.5) and then-

hot AC Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet sto ...

KQMB (102.7). The second, and current KSL-FM, began broadcasting in 1985 as KQMB on 102.7 MHz. In September 2005, KQMB was converted to a simulcast of KSL, and changed its call letters to KSL-FM. The joint operation has been branded as "KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM & 1160 AM", though the AM signal was the main station. KQMB's former branding, call sign, and hot adult contemporary format were picked up by an unrelated company as 96.7 FM in

Levan, Utah Levan ( ) is a town in Juab County, Utah, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 841, and in 2018 the estimated population was 924 (an eight year increase of 9.9%). It is often said that the name of the town derives from i ...

. But KQMB 96.7 has been flipped from hot adult contemporary format to classic hits format on November 16, 2021.

Personalities

Hosts

* Amanda Dickson, "Utah's Morning News", "A Woman's View" * Tim Hughes, "Utah's Morning News","KSL Outdoors" * Dave Noriega, "Dave and Dujanovic" * Debbie Dujanovic, "Dave and Dujanovic" * Maria Shilaos, "Utah's Noon News", "KSL Greenhouse Show" * Boyd Matheson, "Inside Sources with Boyd Matheson" * Jeff Caplan, "Jeff Caplan's Afternoon News" * Alex Kirry, "Unrivaled" * Scott Mitchell, "Unrivaled" * Steve Salles, "The KSL Movie Show" * Doug Wright, "The KSL Movie Show" * Greg Wrubell, "The Kalani Sitake Show", "The Dave Rose Show", BYU football & men's basketball game broadcasts, Voice of the BYU Cougars * Lindsey Aerts, "The KSL Mom Show" * Justin and

Merrill Osmond Merrill Davis Osmond (born April 30, 1953) is an American musician, singer, and occasional actor. He is best known for being the lead vocalist and bassist of the family music group The Osmonds and The Osmond Brothers, as well as an occasional s ...

, "Sound Advice"

Reporters, anchors & producers

* Don Brinkerhoff * Randall Jeppeson (Executive Producer, "Utah's Morning News" with Tim & Amanda) * Marc Giauque (News Director) * Mark Jackson * Aimee Cobabe (Executive Producer, "Utah's Noon News") * Heather Kelly * Kira Hoffelmeyer (Executive Producer, "Jeff Caplan's Afternoon News") * Nick Wyatt * Paul Nelson * Mary Richards * Maria Shilaos (National News Desk)

Past personalities

Parley Baer Parley Edward Baer (August 5, 1914 – November 22, 2002) was an American actor in radio and later in television and film. Despite dozens of appearances in television series and theatrical films, he remains best known as the original "Cheste ...

(1930s) Director of Special Events * Grant Nielsen (retired), "Utah's Morning News" * Paul James (retired), Voice of the BYU Cougars * Rod Arquette, host of "Utah's Afternoon News" (now "Jeff Caplan's Afternoon News") * Scott Seeger, host of "Utah's Afternoon News" (now "Jeff Caplan's Afternoon News") * Mark Eubank (retired), KSL (radio) & KSL-TV meteorologist * Rebecca Cressman, host of "Utah's Noon News" * Doug Wright (retired), host of the "Doug Wright Show" * Herb Jepko (1960s), known for his Nitecaps show

References

External links

KSL NewsRadio
h2>

KSL

FCC History Cards for KSL
(covering 1927-1980)

KSL-FM

KSL-FM
in the FCC FM station database
KSL-FM
on Radio-Locator
KSL-FM
in

Nielsen Audio Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio broadcasting audiences. It was founded as the American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by merging ...

's FM station database
FCC History Cards for KFSI
(was KSL-FM from 1943 to 1978) {{Authority control Radio stations in Utah, SL Mass media in Salt Lake City Bonneville International Deseret Management Corporation News and talk radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1922 1922 establishments in Utah Clear-channel radio stations Radio stations licensed before 1923 and still broadcasting