Early years The station
signed on the air in 1927 as KGBS. It is considered the third oldest radio station in Seattle, following
KJR, which began broadcasting in 1922, and KOMO, now
KNWN, which began in 1926.
KIRO started broadcasting later in 1927, as KPCB. The following year, KGBS changed its
call sign to KVL. In the 1930s, it broadcast on 1370
kilocycles with only 100 watts of power. The studios were in the L.C. Smith Tower in downtown Seattle. The call sign became KEEN in 1936 and KEVR in 1940. It got a boost to 250 watts, but still only a fraction of its current output. In the early 1940s, the station was owned by the Evergreen Broadcasting Company, with its studios still in Smith Tower.
KING In 1947, broadcasting pioneer
Dorothy Bullitt bought KEVR and almost immediately asked for permission to change the call sign to KING (for
King County, Washington). Bullitt was a rare female executive in the male-dominated broadcasting industry. After Bullitt bought the call sign from a merchant ship, the
FCC granted the request to change to KING a few months later. Bullitt incorporated her broadcast holdings as
King Broadcasting Company. In 1948, King Broadcasting acquired KRSC-TV and KRSC-FM, changing their call letters to
KING-TV and
KING-FM. KRSC-TV had only been on the air eight months before King Broadcasting took it over. KING-FM first signed on in 1947. After initially
simulcasting KING (AM), KING-FM began adding
classical music in the evening and eventually classical became its full-time format. Under the Bullitts' watch, the once-small station became a powerhouse in Seattle during the 1950s and 1960s. The "Mighty 1090" featured legendary radio personalities such as Frosty Fowler, Ray Court, Mark Wayne, Buzz Lawrence, and late night talk with Irving Clark's
Clark on King. The station was an
affiliate of the
NBC Radio Network. Its local news often used KING-TV anchors. The format of music was
middle of the road (MOR), but also mixed in
jazz,
bossa nova and some
swing. When compared to its chief rival KJR, KING had a light-hearted and upbeat direction, an opposition to KJR's more hip direction, but not being as staid as KIRO. Some late 1960s personalities defected to KIRO. Bob and Jim, a duo team, was brought in from
KREM in
Spokane, and personality Larry Nelson came aboard from KOMO.
Top 40 era During the 1970s, the station flipped to
top 40 music and changed monikers to "Musicradio 11 KING", putting it in close competition with KJR. The line-up at the time included such Seattle radio personalities as Gary Lockwood (who later defected to KJR) and Bruce Murdock, with the
Murdock in the Morning Show. (Murdock later moved to
KLSY.) When KJR unveiled its yellow "Sunshine" window sticker, KING followed with its own red "Sunburst" sticker. KING-AM-FM-TV were located in studios on Aurora Avenue in Seattle.
Adult contemporary In April 1980, KING experienced a major change. As
AM music radio lost younger listeners to
FM, KING gave up on top 40 and flipped to
soft adult contemporary, while retaining the "Musicradio 11 KING" moniker. KING's
slogan was "Soft Rock and More". The station's tagline used in advertising was "You grew up with us, now we've grown up for you".
Talk and all-news On October 4, 1982, at 4 a.m., KING switched to a
talk radio format, mostly with local personalities. It was branded simply as "KING NewsTalk 1090". Personalities included Jim Althoff, Carl Dombek, Jeff Ray, Randy Rowland, Freddy Mertz,
Mike Siegel, Candace Siegel (no relation) and
Pat Cashman. This format produced moderately high ratings, though never as successful as the top 40 format had been. On September 2, 1994, at noon, the station fired all on-air personalities and switched to an
all-news radio format, carrying programming from the
AP News radio service "All News Radio." In February 1995, the Bullitts sold KING AM-FM to
Bonneville, the commercial broadcasting arm of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, based in
Salt Lake City. (The family had already sold KING-TV to the
Providence Journal Company in 1991.) Bonneville, in turn, sold KING-AM-FM to
EZ Communications later that year. The FM station was then sold by EZ to a non-profit organization that pledged to continue its classical music format as a commercial station. The TV and FM stations retained the KING call letters; for the AM station, the long-running KING call sign was dropped for KINF, followed by KNWX.
Country music In November 1995, the station swapped formats (but not call signs) with
KULL, which was a
simulcast of
country music station KRPM-FM 106.1. The 1090 facility became KRPM, an AM
simulcast for KRPM-FM/KCIN-FM. The simulcast continued after KCIN's flip to
rhythmic AC as
KBKS-FM in March 1996, as well as the shift to Top 40 (CHR) in May 1997. EZ merged with
American Radio Systems in July 1997; subsequently,
Westinghouse/
CBS bought American Radio Systems' stations (including KRPM) on September 19, 1997. In June 1998, CBS split off the radio division under the revived
Infinity Broadcasting name, which would be renamed
CBS Radio in December 2005. On February 1, 1999, the station broke from the KBKS simulcast and flipped to a locally programmed
classic country format with a simulcast of the morning show on sister
KMPS-FM. At that time, the station's call letters became KMPS, and then KYCW. The station began broadcasting in
AM stereo in March 2001.
Hot talk/back to classic country/progressive talk Beginning August 4, 2001, the station ran announcements promoting a new format that advised listeners to "listen at their own risk". At 5 a.m. on Monday, August 6, the station flipped to
hot talk as "Extreme Radio 1090" featuring
Bob Rivers'
Twisted Radio in mornings (simulcast from
KZOK-FM). After morning
drive time, the station aired
nationally syndicated shows from
Jim Rome,
Ron and Fez,
Opie & Anthony,
Don and Mike and
Phil Hendrie. On weekends, the station carried sports programming from
Sporting News Radio. As with nearly all hot talk-formatted stations, the station's ratings were low, especially with the format change occurring a month before the
September 11 attacks. KYCW would return to classic country at 11 p.m. on May 19, 2002. The station's second version of the classic country format included the return of personalities previously heard the first time, including "Tall" Paul Fredericks, Mike Preston, program director Becky Brenner, "Buffalo" Phil Harper, and Sheldon Smith. The station, however, still had low ratings, usually peaking at a 1.3. On October 25, 2004, at midnight, the station flipped to
progressive talk and changed its call sign to KPTK days later. During its tenure as "Seattle's Progressive Talk", KPTK carried
syndicated progressive/liberal talk programs hosted by personalities such as
Ed Schultz,
Mike Malloy,
Randi Rhodes,
Thom Hartmann,
Norman Goldman,
Rachel Maddow,
Stephanie Miller,
Leslie Marshall, and
Bill Press. KPTK was also the
flagship station of
Air America Radio's
Ron Reagan Show. Beginning in 2011, KPTK became the flagship station of
Seattle Storm and
Seattle Thunderbirds broadcasts, though it was met with some controversy. The station's weekend programming included a mix of specialty syndicated and local programs, such as
The Ric Edelman Show (a financial advice show),
Ring of Fire,
Democracy Now!,
Swirl Radio (a show targeting the LGBT community),
Community Matters with CBS Seattle's director of public affairs and morning traffic reporter Lee Callahan,
Gardening In the Northwest with Scott Conner,
The Tina and Drew Show, and
Crash Talk with Mike Harber.
Sports radio In July 2012, CBS and
Cumulus Media announced a new sports radio network named
CBS Sports Radio to be launched in January 2013. The initial affiliate list that carried the network's full lineup included most of CBS'
owned and operated low-performing AM stations, while others were CBS-owned sports stations that would carry certain programs and hourly "CBS Sports Minute" updates. After much speculation, on November 14, 2012, CBS announced that KPTK would flip to the new network on January 2, 2013, branded as "1090 The Fan". (This was further confirmed by the station changing call letters to KFNQ on the same day.) The format change was met with much controversy on the station's
Facebook page, as well as being brought up by several of the station's hosts. To please displaced listeners,
Lakewood radio station
KLAY announced that it would carry Ed Schultz' and Stephanie Miller's programs after the station's flip, as well as
KBCS picking up Thom Hartmann's program. After the station's flip to all-sports, KFNQ aired a local afternoon show hosted by Steve Sandmeyer and Bill Swartz (later replaced by Jason Churchill). However, on July 11, 2015, the show was cancelled, resulting in KFNQ airing the entire CBS Sports Radio program lineup around the clock.
iHeart ownership On February 2, 2017, CBS Radio announced its merger with
Entercom (which locally owned
KHTP,
KISW,
KKWF, and
KNDD). On October 10, CBS Radio announced that as part of the process of obtaining regulatory approval of the merger, KFNQ would be one of sixteen stations to be divested by Entercom, along with
KJAQ and KZOK-FM. (KMPS-FM was retained by Entercom.) On November 1,
iHeartMedia announced its acquisition of KFNQ, KJAQ, and KZOK. To meet ownership limits set by the FCC,
KFNY (formerly KFOO) and
KTDD (formerly KUBE) were divested to the Ocean Stations Trust in order to be sold to a different owner. Until the completion of the divestment of KFNY and KTDD to the trust, CBS placed KFNQ, KJAQ, and KZOK into the Entercom Divestiture Trust. The merger of CBS and Entercom was approved on November 9, and was consummated on November 17. iHeart then began operating KFNQ under a
local marketing agreement. The sale of KFNQ to iHeart was completed on December 19, 2017. On February 8, 2018, the station dropped the "Fan" branding and relaunched as "1090 KJR", a
brand extension of co-owned KJR. With the change, KFNQ added the syndicated
Fox Sports Radio programs
The Dan Patrick Show,
The Herd with Colin Cowherd, and
The Doug Gottlieb Show. On March 16, 2022, the station changed callsigns to KPTR, foreshadowing a flip to conservative talk as "1090 The Patriot", which would occur on April 10. The new format would include conservative programming from
Premiere Networks, such as
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, the
Glenn Beck Radio Program, and
The Sean Hannity Show, with an early morning hour of financial news from
Bloomberg Radio. KFNQ's former lineup of CBS Sports Radio and Fox Sports Radio programming was concurrently moved to KJR, whose local programming had migrated to KUBE as "93.3
KJR-FM" earlier in March. ==References==