Early years The station began broadcasting January 24, 1947, and held the call sign
KYOR. It was owned by Silver Gate Broadcasting, and ran 250 watts during daytime hours only. The new owners were required to divest themselves of one station, so KSDO suspended operations. The station had a permit to increase daytime power and add nighttime operations, and San Diego Broadcasting intended to surrender the license of AM 1510 KUSN once construction of KSDO's new facilities was complete.
News talk era By the early 1970s, KSDO had adopted
news-talk format. In 1972, the station was sold to Generation II Radio San Diego, a subsidiary of
Firestone Communications, for $2.5 million. In 1976, the station was sold to
Pacific and Southern, a subsidiary of
Combined Communications, for $1,576,000.
Gannett purchased Combined Communications in 1979. Its power was increased to 10,000 watts the same year. From 1986 to 1997, former San Diego mayor
Roger Hedgecock hosted a program on the station.
Danuta Soderman hosted
Danuta Time in the late 1980s.
Michael Reagan hosted a show from 1989 to 1992. It was an affiliate of
NBC Talknet in the 1980s. Syndicated hosts on KSDO over the years included
Rush Limbaugh,
G. Gordon Liddy,
Larry King, and
Tom Leykis. It was also the flagship station of the
San Diego Chargers during its "
Air Coryell" years. As a talk station, KSDO's ratings were consistently among the top ten stations in San Diego, through 1996. In 1996, Gannett traded KSDO and five other stations to
Jacor Communications for
WTSP CBS 10 in Tampa. In 1997, Roger Hedgecock and Rush Limbaugh were moved to
KOGO, and the station switched to a financial news-talk format, with programming from
Bloomberg and
The Wall Street Journal.
Ray Lucia hosted middays, later moving to mornings. Syndicated talk shows aired at night. In late 2001, financial talk programming began to again make up the bulk of the station's daytime schedule.
Spanish Christian era In 2003, the station was sold to Hi-Favor Broadcasting for $10 million. The station adopted a Spanish language Christian format as an affiliate of
Radio Nueva Vida. By 2019, the station disaffiliated from Radio Nueva Vida, but continued to air a Spanish-language Christian format as Radio Inspiración. In 2016, Hi-Favor Broadcasting obtained a Special Temporary Authority (STA) from the FCC to broadcast with 2,500 watts from a single non-directional wire dropped from a cable hung from the tower of
KLSD radio, while a search is conducted for an alternate site. The STA has been extended twice each year since it was originally granted. ==References==