| Broadcast area | Spokane metropolitan area–Eastern Washington |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 920kHz |
| Branding | 920 News Now |
| Programming | |
| Format | News/Talk |
| Network | ABC News Radio |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| KEZE,KHTQ,KXLX,KXLY-FM,KXLY-TV,KXMN-LD,KVNI,KZZU-FM | |
| History | |
First air date | October 18, 1922; 102 years ago (October 18, 1922) |
Former call signs |
|
Call sign meaning | Part of the "XL Network" |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 61947 |
| Class | B |
| Power |
|
Transmitter coordinates | 47°36′30.61″N117°22′28.75″W / 47.6085028°N 117.3746528°W /47.6085028; -117.3746528 |
| Translator(s) | 100.7 K264CH (Spokane) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live |
| Website | kxly920 |
KXLY (920kHz) is acommercialAMradio station inSpokane, Washington. It broadcasts anews/talkradio format with the branding "920 News Now". The station is owned by QueenB Radio, with its license held byMorgan Murphy Media. Its studios and offices are on West Boone Avenue in Spokane.
KXLY uses anon-directional antenna, from atransmitter site off South Regal Street in Spokane.[2] By day, it operates with a power of 20,000 watts, which is reduced to 5,000 watts at night to protect other stations on920 AM from interference. Programming is also carried on 250-wattFM translator K264CH at 100.7MHz.[3]
Weekdays on KXLY begin with asimulcast of co-ownedKXLY-TV's wake up program,Good Morning Northwest.[4] The rest of the weekday schedule is made up ofnationally syndicated shows:Markley, Van Camp and Robbins,The Ramsey Show withDave Ramsey,The Erick Erickson Show,The Lars Larson Show,The Mark Levin Show, andBloomberg Radio. Weekends feature shows on money, health, home improvement, technology and the outdoors.
KXLY is theflagship station of The Cougar Sports Radio Network, which carriesWashington State Cougars football andmen's basketball games.[5] It is also the alternate affiliate ofSeattle Mariners Radio Networkbaseball. KXLY 920 has a news sharing arrangement with co-owned KXLY-TV Channel 4 and also carries updates fromABC News Radio.
From 1912 to 1927, radio communication in the United States was regulated by theU.S. Department of Commerce. In the early days, there were no formal requirements for stations, most of which operated under Amateur and Experimental licenses, making broadcasts intended for the general public. To provide a common standard, the department issued a regulation effective December 1, 1921, requiring that broadcasting stations would have to hold a "Limited Commercial License" that authorized operation on two designated broadcasting wavelengths: 360 meters (833 kHz) for "entertainment", and 485 meters (619 kHz) for "market and weather reports".[6]
The first two Spokane broadcasting station authorizations were issued to the Doerr-Mitchell Electric Company on March 23, 1922. One was for station KFZ.[7] The other went to theSpokane Chronicle on April 12, 1922, for KOE.[8] Both would share time on 360 meters. Because there was only the single entertainment wavelength, stations in a given region had to develop arrangements for broadcasts on the shared 360-meter wavelength.
In 1922, 17-year-oldEdmund B. Craney was an employee at the Radio Supply Company in Spokane, which was owned by Thomas W. Symons, Jr.[9] Craney was a member of theNorth Central High School radio club. In the summer of 1921, physics teacher Arthur L. Smith had arranged for the school to be issued a "Technical and Training School" station license, with thecall sign 7YL.[10] In addition, Craney held a license for amateur station 7AEG.[11]
Craney convinced his employer that the Radio Supply Company should operate a broadcasting station, to promote sales. The December 1, 1921, regulations that had established the broadcasting service required that station operators had to hold a "commercial second-class license or higher".[6] Craney arranged to take the training for the needed qualification.[12] On November 21, 1922, a broadcasting station license with the call sign KFDC was issued in the name of "Radio Supply Co. (E. B. Craney)."[13] It would also operate on 360 meters.
Craney reported that broadcasts originating from Radio Supply started on October 18, 1922.[12] The KFDC call letters were randomly assigned from an alphabetical roster of available call signs. The station's history makes it the oldest surviving Spokane radio station. (KHQ, nowKQNT, was first licensed earlier, on February 28, 1922, but did not move to Spokane until 1925. KFIO (nowKSBN), first licensed on May 22, 1923, has a slightly longer continuous history, because unlike KXLY it was never deleted and relicensed.)
Although initially licensed to broadcast on 360 meters, Craney later reported that technical issues meant that the station had difficulty maintaining its assigned wavelength.[12] In mid-1923 KFDC was reassigned to 1060 kHz.[14]
KFDCsuspended operations and was deleted on September 19, 1923.[15] However, the station was revived the next year, and was relicensed on April 23, 1924, to the Symons Investment Company, again on 1060 kHz. It got the sequentially assigned call letters of KFPY.[16] KFPY was housed in the Symons Building on 7 South Howard Street in Spokane. Beginning in 1925, audience members were welcomed to view live broadcasts, usually music programs or dramas. They took place at "The Golden Concert Studios of KFPY" on the second floor, which boasted a curtain, a stage and seating for 150. On the stage were two grand pianos and aWurlitzer Organ. It was through these facilities thatBing Crosby, then an unknownGonzaga University student, made his radio debut. Decades later, Crosby would partner with the station to launchKXLY-TV.[9] Other future stars who performed at the Golden Studios includeBob Crosby andPatrice Munsel.
KFPY was reported to be transmitting on 1100 kHz as of December 31, 1926.[17] In mid-1927, this was changed to 1220 kHz.[18] On November 11, 1928, under the provisions of theFederal Radio Commission'sGeneral Order 40, KFPY was assigned to 1390 kHz on a timesharing basis with KWSC inPullman, Washington.[19] This was changed to unlimited hours on 1340 kHz in August 1929.[20] In 1935 the station moved to 890 kHz.
KFPY was Spokane'sCBS RadioNetwork affiliate from 1929 until the 1990s. During the "Golden Age of Radio," the station carried CBS's dramas, comedies, news, sports, soap operas, game shows andbig band broadcasts.[9] In March 1941, stations on 890 kHz were moved to KXLY's current frequency of 920 kHz, as part of the implementation of theNorth American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA).[21]
Craney left KFPY in 1927 to foundKGIR inButte, Montana. He returned to Spokane in 1945 to buy KFPY, which was renamed to KXLY on December 19, 1946. The new call letters reflected Craney's "XL Network", a chain of stations he also owned in Butte, Helena, Bozeman, Great Falls and Missoula, all of which had call letters beginning with "KXL".
On February 22, 1953, the radio station expanded into television with the sign-on of KXLY-TV on channel 4. Like its radio cousin, the TV station was an affiliate of the CBS network, but has been with ABC since 1976. That same year in November, Craney sold KXLY and KXLY-TV to the Northern Pacific Radio and Television Corporation, headed by Joseph Harris, Norman Eisenstein, and Richard E. Jones.
In September 1959, an FM station was added, 99.9 KXLY-FM.[22] At first, KXLY AM and FM simulcast their programming. But by the early 1960s, KXLY-FM had its own format,beautiful music. In 1961, Northern Pacific sold KXLY-AM-FM-TV to the current owners,Morgan Murphy Media.[23][24]
In September 1998, the CBS Radio Network affiliation moved to 1510KGA. KXLY picked upABC News Radio for its network, matching its television counterpart's affiliation, which had made the switch 22 years earlier in 1976 after CBS ended its affiliation with the TV station.
On September 17, 2015, KXLY added anFM translator on 100.3 MHz. In April 2016, the translator moved to 100.7 FM.