KWDZ

KWDZ
City of license Salt Lake City, Utah
Broadcast area Salt Lake City
Frequency 910 kHz
First air date 1945[1]
Format Silent
Power 5,000 watts (day)
1,000 watts (night)
Class B
Facility ID 2445
Transmitter coordinates 40°30′48″N 112°0′23″W / 40.51333°N 112.00639°W / 40.51333; -112.00639
Callsign meaning K Walt DiZney
(co-founder of The Walt Disney Company, former owner)
Former callsigns 1945-2003: KALL
Owner iHeartMedia
(Citicasters Licenses, Inc.)
Sister stations KAAZ-FM, KJMY, KNRS, KNRS-FM, KODJ, KZHT

KWDZ (910 AM) is a broadcast radio station licensed to Salt Lake City, Utah, serving the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The station is owned and operated by iHeartMedia. The KWDZ broadcast license is held by Citicasters Licenses, Inc.[2]

History

Radio Disney AM 910 logos used from 2008-2010 (up) and 2010-2013 (down).
The radio towers for KWDZ are located in Riverton, Utah.

The station was founded in 1945 and originally held the callsign KALL. It was originally owned by Mr. and Mrs. George C. Hatch and Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Hinkley. In 1946, John F. Fitzpatrick, publisher of The Salt Lake Tribune (owned by the Kearns Corporation), representing the Tribune, purchased fifty percent interest in the station from the owners. The Tribune's interest (Kearns-Tribune, Corp.) sold its interest in 1954 to permit its owner (Kearns-Tribune, Corp.) to apply for a license to buy a television license and to purchase a fifty percent ownership in KUTV Channel 2.[3]

KALL had long aired a full service format.[4][5] In the early 1990s, the station began airing a news/talk format, carrying programming such as The Rush Limbaugh Show and The G. Gordon Liddy Show.[6][7][8] On March 6, 2000, the station's format was adjusted when its sister station KNRS adopted a talk radio format, and the station adopted the slogan "talk radio with an attitude", carrying hosts such as Jim Bohannon and Phil Hendrie.[9]

In 2003, Disney/ABC purchased the station for $3,700,000, while the intellectual property and callsign was purchased by Clear Channel Communications for $2,000,000.[10] Clear Channel moved the station's talk programming and the KALL callsign to 700 kHz,[10] and on April 30, 2003, the station changed its call sign to the current KWDZ.[11]

In June 2013, Disney put KWDZ and six other Radio Disney stations in medium markets up for sale, in order to refocus the network's broadcast distribution on top-25 markets.[12]

On August 17, 2013, KWDZ dropped the Radio Disney affiliation and went Silent.[13]

After almost 1 year, KWDZ resumed operations on August 14, 2014.[14] Initially broadcasting locally originated automated programming upon its return to the air, Radio Disney programming returned sometime around October 2014. By that time, Disney had announced plans to sell all but one of Radio Disney's remaining 23 owned-and-operated stations. Originally planning to sign-off the stations on September 26, 2014, Disney later decided to keep the stations on the air until they were sold.

On May 29, Radio Disney Group filed an application to sell KWDZ to the Citicasters Licenses, Inc. subsidiary of iHeartMedia.[15][16] iHeart bought KWDZ (and WRDZ-FM) for $1.95 million.[17] Previously, Citicasters Licenses was owner of KWDZ (as KALL) until 2001 when the station was sold to Mercury Broadcasting Company as a result of iHeartMedia's (then known as Clear Channel Communications) acquisition of KTVX which brought them over ownership limits.[18] The sale was approved by the FCC on July 14, 2015.[19] The sale was completed on July 17, 2015[20] and the station went silent again.[21]

References

  1. ↑ "KALL First Air Date" (PDF). Broadcasting Telecasting Yearbook. 1950. p. 305. Retrieved November 6, 2011.
  2. ↑ "KWDZ Facility Record". United States Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
  3. ↑ Malmquist, O.N.:The Salt Lake Tribune-The First 100 Years, 1971, p. 389.
  4. ↑ Lynn Arave, "`Full-Service Station' KALL Marks 45 Years of Wide-Ranging Appeal", Deseret News, September 29, 1990. Accessed August 20, 2015
  5. ↑ Lynn Arave, "KALL Moves News Staff, Joins Forces With KUTV", Deseret News, May 18, 1990. Accessed August 20, 2015
  6. ↑ Lynn Arave, "KJQ Sends Deejays Packing, Will be Going to New Format", Deseret News, October 2, 1992. Accessed August 20, 2015
  7. ↑ Lynn Arave, "KRSP Makes Change In Morning Team", Deseret News, February 7, 1992. Accessed August 20, 2015
  8. ↑ Lynn Arave, "Z-93's Biggest Event of Year, `Livestock '93,' Set for July 31", Deseret News, July 23, 1993. Accessed August 21, 2015
  9. ↑ Lynn Arave, "KNRS tunes in format change as an all-talk station", Deseret News, March 5, 2000. Accessed August 20, 2015
  10. 1 2 Lynn Arave, "Radio dial: A Utah radio first: separate deals on content, frequency", Deseret News, February 28, 2003. Accessed August 20, 2015
  11. ↑ "KWDZ Call Sign History". United States Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
  12. ↑ Graser, Marc (June 4, 2013). "Radio Disney Stations Up for Sale (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved June 4, 2013.
  13. ↑ Notification of Suspension of Operations KWDZ - United States Federal Communications Commission
  14. ↑ "Resumption of Operations - KWDZ". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. August 14, 2014. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  15. ↑ "Application for Consent to Assignment of Broadcast Station Construction Permit or License". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. May 29, 2015. Retrieved May 29, 2015.
  16. ↑ Parties to the Application - FCC
  17. ↑ Venta, Lance (July 8, 2015). "Big 98.3 Indianapolis Update". Radio Insight. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
  18. ↑ Sale splits KALL radio between 2 new owners - Deseret News
  19. ↑ "Assignment of License". United States Federal Communications Commission, audio division. July 14, 2015. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
  20. ↑ "Consummation Notice". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. July 20, 2015. Retrieved July 20, 2015.
  21. ↑ "Notification of Suspension of Operations / Request for Silent STA". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. July 20, 2015. Retrieved July 20, 2015.

External links


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