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|---|---|
| Broadcast area | NorthwesternOregon and SouthwesternWashington |
| Frequency | 1190kHz |
| Branding | NewsRadio 1190 KEX |
| Programming | |
| Format | News/talk |
| Network | ABC News Radio |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| KKRZ,KKCW,KFBW,KLTH,KXJM,KPOJ | |
| History | |
First air date | December 23, 1926 (1926-12-23) |
Former frequencies |
|
Call sign meaning | None, randomly assigned |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 11271 |
| Class | A |
| Power | 50,000watts |
Transmitter coordinates | 45°25′19.4″N122°34′1.3″W / 45.422056°N 122.567028°W /45.422056; -122.567028 |
| Repeater | 106.7 KLTH-HD2 (Lake Oswego) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | 1190kex.iheart.com |
KEX (1190kHz) is aclear channelAMradio stationlicensed toPortland, Oregon. It is owned byiHeartMedia, Inc., and airs anews/talkformat known asNewsRadio 1190. The station's studios and offices are on SW 68th Parkway, offInterstate 5 inTigard, Oregon.[2]
Because KEX is a 50,000-wattClass A station, it reaches all of thePortland metropolitan area and beyond, providing grade B coverage as far south asCorvallis and as far east asThe Dalles. At night, KEX can be heard around theWestern United States andWestern Canada. Thetransmitter is located off SE Lawnfield Road inSunnyside.[1] It uses anon-directional antenna in the daytime, but at night, to protect other stations on1190 AM, it switches to adirectional antenna with a three-tower array.
KEX airsnationally syndicated talk shows, largely fromPremiere Networks, asubsidiary of iHeartMedia. Weekdays begin withArmstrong & Getty from co-ownedKSTE inSacramento. That is followed byThe Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show;The Jesse Kelly Show;The Michael Berry Show from co-ownedKTRH inHouston;The Glenn Beck Radio Program;Our American Stories with Lee Habeeb;The Michael DelGiorono Show andCoast to Coast AM withGeorge Noory. A popular Premiere Networks talk program not carried by KEX isThe Sean Hannity Show, which airs instead onKUFO970 AM.
Weekends feature shows on money, cars, computers and home repair, as well as repeats of some weekday shows and some paidbrokered programming. Syndicated shows heard on weekends includeThe Weekend with Michael Brown,Bill Handel on the Law,At Home with Gary Sullivan andSunday Night with Bill Cunningham.
KATU Channel 2, theABC televisionaffiliate in Portland, supplies local news and weather.ABC News Radio is heard at the beginning of most hours with some news and sports reports fromNBC News Radio also heard.Bloomberg Radio provides business news updates.
The radio station has no relation to theKEX Hotel, anIcelandic-owned hotel in downtown Portland.
On December 23, 1926, KEX firstsigned on the air. The call sign was randomly assigned. Some sources show that the station may have originally started broadcasting on 670 kHz. On November 11, 1928, KEX started transmitting on 1180 kHz under the terms of theFederal Radio Commission'sGeneral Order 40. On March 29, 1941, the station moved to 1190 kHz under the terms of theNorth American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA).
KEX was anNBC Blue Networkaffiliate, carrying its schedule of dramas, comedies, news, sports,game shows,soap operas andbig band broadcasts during the "Golden Age of Radio."[3] In 1945, as the Blue Network becameABC Radio, KEX's affiliation continued. KEX was the first station to give the voice ofBugs Bunny,Mel Blanc, his own show. Blanc'sCobwebs & Nuts program debuted June 15, 1933, and ran Monday through Saturday from 11 p.m. to midnight.
The Oregonian Publishing Company, which ownedThe Morning Oregonian newspaper, acquired KEX in 1933.[4] From 1934 to 1943, the station's studios were located inThe Oregonian Building, in space shared with co-ownedKGW, nowKPOJ, which was theNBC Red Network affiliate in Portland.[4]Westinghouse Broadcasting expanded to the West Coast in 1944 with its purchase of KEX, then running 5,000 watts, and sharing its frequency with another Westinghouse station,WOWO inFort Wayne, Indiana.
In 1948, Westinghouse got theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) to increase KEX's power to 50,000 watts, day and night. Also in 1948, Westinghouse put KEX-FM on the air at 92.3 MHz (the frequency is now utilized byKGON).[5] KEX-FMsimulcast most of KEX's schedule. But few people had FM radios in those days and KEX-FM was taken off the air in the early 1960s. Also in the early 1960s, as network programming shifted from radio to television, KEX began airing a mix ofmiddle of the road music, talk, news and sports.[6][7][8]
Having reached the FCC's then-limit of seven AM stations, Westinghouse sold KEX to actor and singerGene Autry's media company, Golden West Broadcasters, in 1967. In 1984, KEX was acquired byTaft Broadcasting. Taft became Citicasters in 1993. In 1996 Citicasters was acquired byJacor Communications which was merged intoClear Channel Communications in 1999. Clear Channel was the forerunner to current owner iHeartMedia, Inc.[9] As music listening switched to FM radio stations, KEX cut back on the songs it played till it became a true talk station by the late 1990s.
On March 30, 2011, KEX began simulcasting on FM once again, usingtranslator stationK272EL at 102.3 MHz. It also could be heard on theHD2 subchannel of co-ownedKKRZ. The addition of K272EL was in response to rival news/talk outletKXL's move from 750 AM to 101.1 FM. On September 9, 2013, KEX's FM simulcast ended, with KKRZ-HD2 and K272EL switching to analternative rock format, branded as "Radio 102.3". In 2021, KEX was once again heard on a local HD subchannel, onKLTH-HD2 at 106.7 MHz.
KEX has not broadcast any local talk programming since April 2023, when midday hostMark Mason departed the station.[10] The station relies on nationally syndicated shows from co-ownedPremiere Networks.
KEX became theflagship station of theOregon State Beavers for the 2012–2013 season.[11]
Until 2013, KEX was the flagship station of theNBAPortland Trail Blazers. In the event of a conflict with the Beavers, Blazers broadcasts were moved to co-ownedKPOJ620 AM. The Blazers moved to KPOJ entirely in 2013.[12]