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| Broadcast area | Seattle-Tacoma-Puget Sound region |
| Frequency | 710kHz |
| Branding | Seattle Sports |
| Programming | |
| Format | Sports |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| KTTH,KIRO-FM | |
| History | |
First air date | April 27, 1927; 98 years ago (1927-04-27) (as KPCB at 650) |
Former call signs | KPCB (1927–1935) |
Former frequencies | 650 kHz (1927–1937) |
Call sign meaning | Sounds likeCairo |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 6362 |
| Class | A |
| Power | 50,000 watts |
Transmitter coordinates | 47°23′55″N122°26′0″W / 47.39861°N 122.43333°W /47.39861; -122.43333 (KIRO-AM tower) |
| Repeater | 97.3 KIRO-FM HD2 (Tacoma) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live |
| Website | sports |
KIRO (710kHz "Seattle Sports") is acommercialAM radio station inSeattle, Washington, owned bySalt Lake City–basedBonneville International. The station airs asports radioformat and is anESPN RadioNetwork affiliate. The station's studios and offices are located on Eastlake Avenue in Seattle'sEastlake district.
KIRO is aClass Aclear channel station. It broadcasts at the maximum power for U.S. AM radio stations, 50,000 watts. By day, it uses anon-directional antenna. To protect the other Class A station onAM 710,WOR in New York City, and the previously allocated Class B station on 710,KSPN in Los Angeles, KIRO must use adirectional antenna at night, thereby protecting those two stations. Thetransmitter is off Dockton Road SW onVashon Island.[2] KIRO is Washington State's primary entry point station in theEmergency Alert System.
The station began broadcasting on April 27, 1927, as KPCB on 650kilocycles. Its founder was Moritz Thomsen of the Pacific Coast Biscuit Company (hence thecall sign KPCB) and it was powered at 100 watts. Among its announcers wasChet Huntley, later of television'sHuntley-Brinkley Report. In 1935, Saul Haas's Queen City Broadcasting Company took over the station. Queen City increased the power to 500 watts.[3] Haas, who was well connected inliberal politics and the business community, wanted a simple, pronounceable, and recognizable call sign for his new station. He chose KIRO, which is usually pronounced like the capital ofEgypt, "Cairo", not like the Illinois city.
In 1937, KIRO was assigned theAM 710 frequency and was granted an increase in power to 1,000 watts. Soon after, KIRO acquired the SeattleCBS Radio Network affiliation rights fromKOL. Known as "The Friendly Station," KIRO personalities broke from the formal announcing style that was commonplace during the early days of radio. KIRO carried CBS's dramas, comedies, news, sports, soap operas, game shows andbig band broadcasts during the "Golden Age of Radio".
On June 29, 1941, a new, 50,000-watt transmitter onMaury Island became operational. From the 1930s through the 1950s, KIRO recorded countless hours of CBS programming for time-delayed rebroadcast to itsPacific Time Zone listeners. These electrical transcriptions are, in many cases, the only recordings made of World War II-era news coverage over the CBS Network. The discs were donated to theUniversity of Washington in the early 1960s and are now held at theNational Archives as the Milo Ryan Phonoarchive Collection.
In 1948, the original KIRO-FM went on the air at 100.7 MHz. It initiallysimulcast its AM sister's programming but in the 1960s it became abeautiful music outlet. In 1975, it changed its call letters to KSEA and today isKKWF. Preparing for a future television allocation, KIRO moved in 1952 from downtown studios to a larger building onQueen Anne Hill. This peak was already home to the KING-TV transmitter and would soon be the site forKOMO-TV as well. Queen City Broadcasting was awarded Seattle's last remainingVHF TV license in 1958, and signed on as CBS affiliateKIRO-TV on February 8. Aside from a short two-and-a-half year period from 1995 to 1997 when it served as a UPN station, KIRO-TV has served as Seattle's CBS television affiliate since.
Haas sold KIRO toThe Deseret News Publishing Company, part ofthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in 1963. He earned a handsome return on his investment 28 years earlier. When the LDS Church reorganized its broadcasting properties asBonneville International Corporation, Haas joined Bonneville's board. Bonneville executives Lloyd Cooney and Ken Hatch arrived in Seattle to lead KIRO-AM-FM-TV, in 1964. Like many network radio affiliates following the demise of full-time block programming, KIRO spent the 1960s playingmiddle of the road music in addition to long-form news and interview shows.
Morning hostJim French spent several years broadcasting from the rotating restaurant atop theSpace Needle and was live on the air from that perch during a6.7-magnitude earthquake in April 1965. Bonneville moved its Seattle radio and TV stations to the newly constructed "Broadcast House" at Third and Broad Streets in 1968.
In 1973, KIRO ended a 35-year affiliation with CBS and switched to theMutual Broadcasting System.[4] Around this time, KIRO also picked upHerb Jepko's "Nitecap," a groundbreaking overnight telephone-talk show fromSalt Lake Citysister stationKSL, a 50,000-watt "flamethrower" like KIRO.
"Newsradio 71 KIRO" debuted on July 15, 1974,[5] with news and talk segments replacing most music programming. In September 1974, KIRO switched affiliations again from Mutual, becoming anNBC Radio Network affiliate, but switched back to CBS in November 1976.[6][7]
In 1980, Lloyd Cooney left KIRO to run for theUnited States Senate. Ken Hatch became president, CEO and chairman, a position he held until 1995. Under Hatch's leadership, KIRO Inc. acquired KING AM, KING-FM, and Third Avenue Productions. KIRO, Inc. became one of the nation's premier regional broadcast groups, and was led by general manager Joe Abel during this period.[citation needed]
KIRO was afull serviceadult contemporary radio station by the mid 1970s, playing music during the day, talk in the evenings, and more music intensive on weekends with exception of times when sporting events were broadcast. By 1980, the station played music during the day with talk heard night and overnights.[8] The station added talk middays during the week in 1985.[9] By then amounts of music during drive times were down to about 4 songs an hour and during the day, with weekends playing 12 songs an hour. In 1986, KIRO was reclassified as a news and talk station, adding more news programming and dropping music altogether.[10]
In 1993, Bonneville attempted to merge the staff of KIRO radio with that of then-sister station KIRO-TV in an attempt at synergy (the staffs merged in June 1992, with KIRO radio's general manager and news director Andy Ludlum at the helm). Dubbed the "KIRO News Network", this meant that KIRO-TV anchors and reporters would be heard on the radio, while KIRO radio personalities would be seen during KIRO-TV newscasts; during this period, KIRO's radio programming originated from a massive newsroom especially constructed for what was called "News Outside the Box", sharing space with their TV co-workers. Local independent station KTZZ (currentlyKZJO) simulcast KIRO radio in the mornings with cameras mounted in-studio showing the KIRO staffers on-screen during this time.[11] The effort was a failure and was scrapped completely by September of that year.[12][13][14][15]
For 25 years, KIRO's morning news, anchored by Bill Yeend, consistently placed at or near the top of the SeattleArbitron ratings. Gregg Hersholt was the station's morning news anchor for the next 10 years until he left the station on May 28, 2010, ending his 26-year career there.Dave Ross now hosts Seattle's Morning News.
Sports play-by-play has been a staple of the KIRO schedule throughout its history. Since the team's inception in 1976, KIRO has been theflagship radio station for theNFLSeattle Seahawks. About that same time, it was also the flagship station for theSeattle Sounders of theNorth American Soccer League.[citation needed] From 1985 to 2002, and again since 2009, the station airsSeattle Mariners games. From 1978 to 1987, KIRO was the flagship station of theSeattle SuperSonics. Additionally, KIRO has carriedWashington Huskies andWashington State Cougars college football for stints during the '80s and '90s.
KIRO was also the radio home to popular sportscasterWayne Cody, who did live sideline reports during Seattle Seahawks football games, Washington Huskies college football play-by-play, NASL Seattle Sounders pro soccer play-by-play, and hosted a sports radio talk show weeknights that was the only one of its kind at the time in Seattle. In January 2020, KIRO announced it would serve as the flagship station for theSeattle Dragons of theXFL; the wording of the press release made it ambiguous as to whether or not they would carry live games.[16]
Dave Ross joined KIRO as a reporter fromAtlanta stationWSB in 1978 and took over as noon to 3 p.m. talk host in 1987. He moved to the 9 a.m. to noon time slot after the retirement of Jim French in 1992. Ross unsuccessfully ran forWashington's eighth Congressional district as aDemocratic candidate in 2004. While Ross unofficially announced his candidacy in May, he did not leave his on-air position until just prior to the July filing deadline. In response to complaints from state Republican party officials, Ross claimed that he was contractually bound to continue working for KIRO until he formally filed to become a candidate.
Ross returned to the air immediately following the November election. He was moved to the afternoon drive-time shift in February 2005. Ross moved back to his 9am-noon shift in May 2006. Since January 2012, Ross has hosted Seattle's Morning News from 5-9 a.m. In addition to his KIRO work, Ross does a daily commentary on the CBS Radio Network and is also substituted forCharles Osgood on CBS Radio's "Osgood File" segments.
After selling KIRO-TV to theA.H. Belo Corp. in 1995, Bonneville's Seattle radio stations moved to facilities on Eastlake Avenue. KIRO (AM), KIRO-FM (now KKWF) and KNWX (now KTTH) were sold toEntercom Communications ofBala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, in 1997. Bonneville reacquired KIRO, KTTH, and KBSG (now KIRO-FM) from Entercom in 2007.[17]
On August 12, 2008, KIRO began simulcasting its programming on sister station KBSG-FM, which dropped its long-runningclassic hits format. This began the transition of KIRO Newsradio from AM to FM.[18] To complete the transition, KIRO AM switched to asports radio format, as "710 ESPN Seattle," on April 1, 2009. It regained the rights to broadcastSeattle Mariners games, beginning in the 2009 season.[19] KIRO also simulcasts the Seattle Seahawks games withKIRO-FM, and has extensive team-related programming throughout the year. KIRO-FM continues the news/talk format.[20] In addition, 710 ESPN Seattle is the play-by-play home for theWashington State Cougarscollege football and basketball broadcasts.
Mike Salk was named Program Director of 710 ESPN Seattle on March 13, 2014, returning to the station after a stint inBoston. Before leaving for Boston, Salk had been a co-host on the station.[21]
On March 7, 2022, KIRO rebranded as "Seattle Sports". The rebranding, which coincided with rivalKJR moving its programming to FM stationKUBE, was not accompanied by any programming changes.[22]
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