KIRO (AM)

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KIRO-AM
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Broadcast area	Greater Puget Sound area, Washington
Branding	Newsradio 710 KIRO
Slogan	The information you need, the people you trust
First air date	April 27, 1927 (as KPCB)
Frequency	710 kHz
Format	News/Talk/Sports
ERP	50,000 watts
Class	A
Owner	Bonneville International
Website	www.710kiro.com/

KIRO is a radio station based in Seattle, Washington, broadcasting on 710 kHz in the AM radio spectrum. Its format is primarily news and talk. The outlet is affiliated with the CBS Radio Network.

Contents 1 History 2 Schedule 3 Radio Ratings 4 External links

[edit] History

KIRO began broadcasting on April 27, 1927, as the 100-watt station KPCB 650. Its founder was Moritz Thomsen of the Pacific Coast Biscuit Company. Among its announcers was Chet Huntley, later of television's Huntley-Brinkley Report. In 1935 Saul Haas's Queen City Broadcasting Company took over the station. He changed the call letters to KIRO and increased its power to 500 watts. Haas, who was well connected in liberal politics and the business community, wanted a simple, pronounceable, and recognizable word for his new station. KING, after King County, Washington, was not available at that time.

In 1937, KIRO was assigned the 710 frequency and increased its power to 1,000 watts. Soon after, the Seattle CBS affiliation moved to KIRO from KOL. Known as "The Friendly Station," KIRO personalities broke from the formal announcing style that was commonplace during the early days of radio.

On June 29, 1941, KIRO's new, 50,000-watt transmitter on Vashon Island became operational. From the 1930s through the 1950s, KIRO recorded countless hours of CBS programming for time-delayed rebroadcast. These electrical transcriptions are, in many cases, the only recordings made of World War II-era news coverage over the CBS network. The discs were donated to the University of Washington in the early 1960s and are now held at the National Archives as the Milo Ryan Phonoarchive Collection.

In 1948, KIRO-FM took the air at 100.7 MHz, initially rebroadcasting its AM sister's programming. Preparing for a future television allocation, KIRO moved in 1952 from downtown studios to a larger building on Queen Anne Hill. This peak was already home to the KING-TV transmitter and would soon be the site for KOMO-TV as well. Queen City Broadcasting was awarded Seattle's last remaining VHF license in 1958.

Haas sold KIRO in 1964 to Bonneville International Corporation, part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Like many network radio affiliates following the demise of full-time block programming, KIRO spent the 1960s playing Middle of the road music in addition to long-form news and interview shows. Morning host Jim French spent many years broadcasting from the rotating restaurant atop the Space Needle and was live on the air from that perch during a 6.5-magnitude earthquake in April, 1965. Bonneville moved its Seattle radio and TV stations to the newly constructed "Broadcast House" at Third and Broad in 1968.

In 1973, KIRO ended a 35-year affiliation with CBS -- an affiliation it has since resumed -- and switched to the Mutual Broadcasting System. Around this time, KIRO also picked up Herb Jepko's "Nitecap," a groundbreaking overnight telephone-talk show from Salt Lake City sister station KSL. KIRO "Newsradio 71" debuted in June 1974, with news and talk segments replacing most music programming.

For 25 years, KIRO's morning news, anchored by Bill Yeend, consistently placed at or near the top of the Seattle Arbitron ratings.

Sports play-by-play has been a staple of the KIRO schedule throughout its years as a news/talk station. Since the team's inception in 1976, KIRO has been the flagship broadcaster for the Seattle Seahawks. From 1985 to 2002, the station originated Seattle Mariners baseball broadcasts. From 1978 to 1987 they were the flagship station of the Seattle SuperSonics. Additionally, KIRO has carried Washington Huskies and Washington State Cougars football for stints during the '80s and '90s. KIRO was also the radio home to popular sportscaster Wayne Cody, who did live sports reports, play-by-play, and a sports-related evening talk show.

Reporter Dave Ross joined the station from Atlanta station WSB in 1978 and took over as noon to 3 p.m. talk host in 1987. He moved to the 9 a.m. to noon timeslot after the retirement of Jim French in 1992. Ross unsuccessfully ran for Washington's eighth Congressional district as a Democratic candidate in 2004. While Ross unofficially announced his candidacy in May, he did not leave his on-air position until just prior to the July filing deadline. In response to complaints from state Republican party officials, Ross claimed that he was contractually bound to continue working for KIRO until he was a bona fide candidate.

Though he returned to the air immediately following the November election, the station's ratings did not recover entirely, and Ross was moved to the afternoon drive-time shift in February, 2005.

In addition to his KIRO work, Ross does a daily commentary on the CBS Radio Network and is a frequent substitute for Charles Osgood on CBS Radio's "Osgood File" segments.

After selling KIRO-TV to A.H. Belo Corp. in 1995, the Bonneville Seattle radio stations moved to facilities on Eastlake Avenue. KIRO (AM), KIRO-FM (now KKWF) and KNWX (now KTTH) were sold to Entercom Communications of Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, in 1997. Bonnevile reacquired KIRO, KTTH, and KBSG from Entercom in 2007.[1]

KIRO is one of the most listened-to stations in Seattle, according to Arbitron ratings, and has won numerous awards, including seven Edward R. Murrow Awards in 2004 alone.

[edit] Schedule

• 1:00am - 5:00am: 710 KIRO 1a-5a
• 5:00am - 9:00am: 710 KIRO Morning News
• 9:00am - 12:00pm: The Dave Ross Show
• 12:00pm - 1:00pm: The Ron Reagan show
• 1:00pm - 4:00pm: The Dori Monson Show
• 4:00pm - 7:00pm: The Ron and Don Show
• 7:00pm - 9:00pm: Sportstalk with New York Vinnie
• 9:00 - 1:00am: 710 KIRO 9p-1a

[edit] Radio Ratings

The following table shows the AQH Share information from Arbitron Ratings data.

AQH is an abbrieviation for Average Quarter-Hour Persons (AQH Persons). The average number of persons listening to a particular station for at least five minutes during a 15-minute period.

Share is the percentage of those listening to radio in the Metro who are listening to a particular radio station.

AQH Share Equation is [AQH Persons to a Station / AQH Persons to All Stations] x 100 = Share (%)

AQH Share for Persons age 12+, Mon-Sun 6AM-Mid

Station	Spring '05	Summer '05	Fall '05	Winter '06
KIRO AM 710	3.4 Share	4.3 Share	4.3 Share	4.3 Share

KIRO-AM 710 is currently ranked #4 of 36 radio stations in Arbitron Ratings Data for Winter of '06.

[edit] External links

• http://www.710kiro.com/