Early years On September 22, 1922, Colorado Springs' first commercial radio station, KFUM ("Known For Unsurpassed Mountain scenery"), was licensed. Its
call sign changed to KVOR ("Voice of the Rockies") when the station was purchased by the Reynolds Radio Co., founded by
Denver radio pioneer Dr. William "Doc" Reynolds. As of 1933, the studio and transmitter were both located at the Mining Exchange Building . During the
Golden Age of Radio, KVOR was a
CBS affiliate, airing its schedule of dramas, comedies, news, sports, soap operas, game shows and
big band broadcasts. It broadcast on 1270 kHz, at 1,000 watts of power, with studios in the
Antlers Hotel. In the 1940s, it moved to 1300 kHz. In 1960, it added an
FM sister station, KVOR-FM (now
KKPK),
simulcasting the AM station's programming. In 1968, KVOR received permission from the
Federal Communications Commission to boost its daytime power to 5,000 watts.
Middle of the road In the 1960s, as network programming shifted to television, KVOR switched to a
middle of the road format of popular music, news and sports, still as a CBS affiliate. By the 1980s, as music listening switched to FM, KVOR began adding talk programming to its line up, using
NBC's Talknet service at night.
Switch to talk By 1984, KVOR had completed the switch to all-talk programming, with its FM station moving to an
adult contemporary music format as KSPZ, "Z93". KVOR picked up talk shows from the
ABC TalkRadio network and added
ABC Radio News, replacing CBS as its network. In 1996, KVOR and KSPZ (now
KKPK) were acquired by Triathlon Broadcasting of Colorado Springs, which also owned
KVUU and KSSS (later KTWK). During this time, advertising time on these stations was controlled by Citadel Broadcasting through a
local marketing agreement (LMA), while the actual broadcast operations were under the control of Triathlon.
Citadel Broadcasting ownership In 1999, Citadel Broadcasting fully acquired KVOR, KSPZ and KTWK by exchanging
KKLI with Triathlon (now merged with
iHeartMedia, Inc.), thus ending the LMA. In March 2000, KVOR switched frequencies with then-KTWK on AM 740. The format became Classic country in December 2000, when the station changed calls to KUBL (standing for 'The Bull'). The station adopted a progressive talk format in 2002, and adopted the call letters KBZC, calling itself 'The Buzz 1300'.
Switch to sports In 2004, the format changed again to a
sports radio format, calling itself "Sports Animal 1300" and adopting the call letters KKML. The station signed on as an affiliate of
Fox Sports Radio then signed on with
ESPN Radio in 2007.
Return to classic country In July 2008,
Citadel Broadcasting abandoned the sports format in favor of a 'Classic Country' format as "KCS 1300 AM" to complement its sister Mainstream Country station
KATC-FM and to pay homage to the former "KCS Country" station (see KCS History). This format change also brought
Don Imus into the Colorado Springs Market, and used Jones Radio Networks Classic Country Satellite Programming as its lineup. The Jones format was changed in mid-2009 to
Citadel Media's in-house
Real Country format, featuring a mix of classic country and country currents.
Return to sports/Cumulus ownership The most recent change of 1300's format back to
sports radio took effect on November 5, 2009, with returning 'Sports Animal 1300' to Colorado Springs. Citadel merged with Cumulus Media on September 16, 2011. ==KCS history==