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| Broadcast area | Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex |
| Frequency | 1080kHz (HD Radio) |
| Branding | NewsRadio 1080 KRLD |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Format | News/talk |
| Network | |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | October 1926 (1926-10) |
Call sign meaning | Radio Laboratories of Dallas (original owner) |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 59820 |
| Class | A |
| Power | 50,000 watts |
Transmitter coordinates | 32°53′25.5″N96°38′45″W / 32.890417°N 96.64583°W /32.890417; -96.64583 |
| Repeaters |
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| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live (via Audacy) |
| Website | www |
KRLD (1080kHzNewsRadio 1080 KRLD) is acommercialAM radio station inDallas, Texas. Owned and operated byAudacy, Inc., the station runsnews blocks during morning and afternoondrive time, with talk shows the rest of the day.Syndicated shows includeThe Chad Benson Show,The Dave Ramsey Show,Our American Stories withLee Habeeb andAmerica in the Morning with John Trout. Audio simulcasts of theCBS Evening News were also presented on weekday evenings. Some weekend hours carry paidbrokered programming. Some-to-most hours begin withCBS News Radio. The studios and offices are inUptown Dallas.
KRLD is aClass A,50,000 watts,clear channel station. Thetransmitter is inGarland, off Saturn Road. The daytime signal isnon-directional from a single tower, with at least secondary coverage to most ofNorth Texas and part ofOklahoma, as far north asOklahoma City. KRLD sharesAM 1080 with Class AWTICHartford, so at night, KRLD feeds power to both towers in adirectional signalarray.[2] Even with this restriction, it still reaches most of the Central and Western United States with a good radio.
KRLD also broadcasts inHD Radio. It issimulcast over co-owned 105.3KRLD-FM's secondary HD subchannel.[3] KRLD is also available online viaAudacy.
KRLD firstsigned on the air in October1926.[4] It was originally owned by Radio Laboratories of Dallas, hence thecall sign. At first it was on the air for six hours each day, except on Wednesdays when the station closed down to make repairs and recharge thebatteries. TheDallas Times Herald, then published by Edwin J. Kiest, purchased KRLD within a year of its debut, in 1927. Since 1939, KRLD has broadcast at a power of 50,000 watts, the highest allowed by theFederal Communications Commission (FCC). In the summer of 1941, KRLD moved to 1080 on the AM dial as a result of theNorth American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA). During theGolden Age of Radio, KRLD carriedCBS network programming, including dramas, comedies, news, sports, game shows, soap operas andbig band broadcasts.
KRLD expanded into FM radio in 1948 with the original KRLD-FM 92.5 (nowKZPS). The following year, it added a TV station, KRLD-TV Channel 4 (nowKDFW).
For most of the 1960s and 1970s, KRLD ran blocks of different local programming, includingmiddle of the road andcountry music, with some news and talk. In April1978, KRLD switched from a music-based format to become, at the time, the third news and information station in Dallas/Fort Worth.
KRLD originally broadcast from theAdolphus Hotel in Dallas and for a time had its main studios inArlington within the centerfield office complex at what is nowChoctaw Stadium, when it served as the home of theTexas Rangers. In the summer of 2005, the station moved operations to a 5th floor office at the southwest corner of North Fitzhugh Avenue and Central Expressway in Dallas.
KRLD achieved several firsts in the field of radio broadcasting:
History books dispute whether KRLD,KDKA inPittsburgh, orWEAF in New York City (todayWFAN) was the first station to broadcastcommercial announcements on radio.
Branch Davidian leaderDavid Koresh used KRLD to broadcast his messages in1993 during his standoff with the government and theFederal Bureau of Investigation, nearWaco, Texas.
During the 1970s and 1980s, KRLD was theflagship station for theNFL'sDallas Cowboys, withBrad Sham providing color analysis and later play-by-play. (Sham continues as the Cowboys' lead voice, though the team's games now air onsister station KRLD-FM.) Beginning in 1995, KRLD served as the radio flagship of theMLB'sTexas Rangers, when its operations were based at Ameriquest Field's centerfield office complex. In 2009, weekday games moved from KRLD to KRLD-FM. KRLD relinquished the Rangers' English language radio rights in2011 tosports radio station 103.3KESN.[5] Rangers broadcasts returned to KRLD-FM in 2015 with broadcasts moving over to KRLD (AM) when conflicting with other programming, such as Cowboy games, on the FM channel.[6]
Over the last several decades, KRLD has gone between being an all-news station and a talk station. On September 27, 2010, KRLD began broadcasting continuous news from 5am-8pm on weekdays, as well as weekend mornings, with talk programming at night and during most of the weekend.[7] The weekday non-stop all-news format came to an end on June 17, 2024, when KRLD started carrying syndicated conservative talk host Chad Benson weekdays from noon to 3:00, breaking up the all-news block.[8]
On February 2, 2017, CBS Radio announced it would merge with Entercom (now known as Audacy).[9] The merger was approved on November 9, 2017, and was consummated on the 17th.[10][11] Despite this, KRLD and former sister TV stationKTVT (aCBSowned-and-operated affiliate) maintained a strong partnership up until April 26, 2018, when Entercom struck a new content deal withNBC owned-and-operatedKXAS-TV.[12]
TheRadio Television Digital News Association announced on June 12, 2013, that the KRLD Afternoon News had been chosen as the recipient of the prestigious 2013 National Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Newscast in the Large Market Radio category.[13]
KRLD has long served as the flagship station for theTexas State Network, which provides KRLD and other stations around the state with news, sports and weather info. Some reporters are based at the KRLD studios, with others at the state capital in Austin and other parts of Texas.