From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

KTAR-FM
City of license	Glendale, Arizona
Broadcast area	Phoenix, Arizona
Branding	News 92.3 KTAR-FM
First air date	1985
Frequency	92.3 (mHz)
Format	News/talk radio
ERP	100 kW
Class	C
Callsign meaning	Keep Taking the Arizona Republic (reference to co-ownership with The Arizona Republic at one point)
Owner	Bonneville Holding Company
Website	http://www.ktar.com/

KTAR-FM is a talk radio station in Phoenix, Arizona. KTAR-FM, which is operated at 92.3 mHz in the FM band, is owned by Bonneville Holding Company (a subsidiary of Bonneville International). It is co-owned with KTAR-AM on 620 kHz in the AM band, which split off from KTAR-FM on 1 January 2007 as to provide more news on 92.3 FM and more sports on 620 AM, which absorbed the assets of co-owned KMVP at 860 kHz in Phoenix.

Contents 1 History 1.1 KEZC, KJJJ, and KKFR 1.2 News 92.3 KTAR-FM 2 External link

See also KKFR

In 1982, the construction permit for KEZC was issued on 92.3 FM. In 1984, KJJJ-FM, a country music station, signed on. In 1985, KJJJ-FM flipped from country, and KKFR premiered as a gold-based Top 40 outlet known as "The Fire Station." Over the years they began shifting towards a rhythmic/dance music mix. They also adopted the "Power 92" moniker in 1988 and patterned their direction on (then-future and now-former sister station) KPWR/Los Angeles. They would later modify it to "Power 92.3" in 2000.

From 1993 to early 1994, they evolved to a mainstream Top 40 and leaned slightly toward modern rock (to less of an extent than other Top 40 stations in other markets), but it didn't sit well with its listeners and the ratings slipped, and from January to March 1995, the rhythmic and dance music returned to the KKFR playlist. By 1997, they began dropping dance cuts, leading to the transformation into a R&B/Hip-Hop approach. By the end of the year, the station was no longer Top 40 at all. Today, they still lean this way, but beginning in 2005 they would once again start adding more rhythmic pop tracks into the current mix.

Chancellor Media (which later became AMFM, Inc.) purchased the station in late 1998 from its longtime owners, but when the company merged with Clear Channel Communications, they had to divest the station to meet FCC ownership regulations. Emmis Communications stepped in and became its owner in 2000.

In 2006, Emmis sold the station to Bonneville International. In turn, Bonneville announced a format change that would add a station to the Phoenix dial and change the Arizona radio landscape. Bonneville announced it would gradually move the news and talk aired on KTAR-AM 620 to KKFR beginning 18 September 2006 (which was the day KKFR became KTAR-FM), and the AM property would merge with KMVP, the local ESPN Radio station, which would then be complete by 1 January 2007. When the merges, format changes, and divestitures were completed (such as a sale of KMVP-AM), KTAR-FM would become the news station, KTAR-AM would become "Sports 620 KTAR" and acquire the broadcast rights to sports teams that KTAR held, and KMVP-AM would be divested after a simulcast period with KTAR-AM. Meanwhile, the former occupant of 92.3, KKFR, went through changes; its intellectual property was acquired by Riviera Broadcast Group (which already owned KEDJ and two stations in Las Vegas), and shortly thereafter moved to 98.3 FM licensed to Mayer, which was KKLD in Prescott Valley. Sunburst Media let Riviera operate and later own the station; KKFR took over KKLD and created the new KKFR. In 2007, less than a month after the split of the KTAR radio stations, the station tweaked its identity to News 92.3 KTAR-FM; previously, the "-FM" was not used, as the station was simulcasting with KTAR-AM.

The decision to split KTAR into a news/talk station and an all-sports station was made by the management team of Erik Hellum, general manager; Russ Hill, director of news/talk and sports programming; and Scott Sutherland, director of sales. Hill oversaw the move of Bonneville's station KSL to FM and was brought into manage the product changes. Sutherland was quickly promoted to market manager of Bonneville's Seattle stations following the successful split.

It should be noted that Bonneville is pushing more news stations that it owns across the country onto FM, such as WTOP and WTWP in Washington, DC and KSL-FM in Bonneville's home market of Salt Lake City, Utah.

• Query the FCC's FM station database for KTAR