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|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Sacramento metropolitan area |
| Frequency | 650kHz |
| Branding | Talk 650 KSTE |
| Programming | |
| Format | Talk |
| Network | CBS News Radio |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | April 1991; 34 years ago (1991-04) |
Former call signs |
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| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 22883 |
| Class | B |
| Power |
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Transmitter coordinates | 38°28′46.7″N121°16′41.8″W / 38.479639°N 121.278278°W /38.479639; -121.278278 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live (viaiHeartRadio) |
| Website | kste |
KSTE (650AM) is acommercial radio station broadcasting atalkradio format.Licensed toRancho Cordova, California, the station serves theSacramento metropolitan area. The station is owned byiHeartMedia.[2] Its lineup features shows fromWestwood One,Radio America,Compass Media Networks, andPremiere Networks, a subsidiary of iHeartMedia. KSTE is also theflagship station for theAthletics baseball team during the team's stint inWest Sacramento. The studios and offices are inNorth Sacramento near theArden Fair Mall.
KSTE transmits with 21,400 watts by day, but because650 AM is aclear channel frequency reserved forClass A stationWSM inNashville, Tennessee, KSTE must reduce power at night to 920 watts to avoid interfering with WSM and other stations on its frequency. It uses adirectional antenna at all times with a two-tower array in the daytime and a three-tower array at night. Thetransmitter is southeast of the city inVineyard, California.[3]
The station went on the air in 1991. Initially a Spanish-language station simulcastingKRCX under the call signs KMCE and KRDX, the talk format and KSTE call sign launched in 1992 afterFuller-Jeffrey Broadcasting, which had already programmed the station, bought full control. A series of ownership changes in 1996 and 1997 put KSTE under the ownership of firstAmerican Radio Systems and then Chancellor Media; additional mergers in the late 1990s led to Clear Channel Communications, the predecessor to iHeartMedia, taking over the station in 2000.
KSTE is programmed as a "second tier" talk station, secondary to its more dominantsister stations, 1530KFBK and 93.1KFBK-FM. While most of the KFBK schedule is hosted by local personalities, KSTE featuresnationally syndicated talk shows. Weekday mornings begin withArmstrong & Getty, a wake-up show that airs nationally but is based at KSTE. They are followed by Chad Benson,Sean Hannity,Erick Erickson,Glenn Beck,Jesse Kelly,Joe Pags andMichael DelGiorno.
Weekends feature shows on money, health and cars, as well as some paidbrokered programming. KSTE carries some syndicated shows on weekends includingBill Handel on the Law,Rich DeMuro on Tech, America at Night with Rich Valdés,The Jesus Christ Show with Neil Saavedra andSunday Nights with Bill Cunningham, as well as repeats of weekday shows.
Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty joined KSTE in 1998 and now have one of the highest rated morning radio shows in Northern California. They can also be heard on radio stations in Los Angeles, San Francisco,Honolulu and other cities in the West.Armstrong & Getty is the only locally based weekday talk show on KSTE.
For a number of years, KSTE aired hourlyCNN Radio newscasts fromWestwood One, and laterDial Global. On March 2, 2012, Dial Global announced it would discontinue distributing newscasts from CNN Radio and instead replace it withNBC News Radio. CNN Radio affiliates would be switched to NBC on April 1, 2012.[4] However, KSTE became anaffiliate of theCBS Radio Network prior to the switchover. The station carried CBS News at the beginning of most hours.
In 2017, KSTE became an affiliate of a new version of NBC News Radio owned byiHeartMedia (unrelated to the Westwood One/Dial Global version); the station has since rejoined CBS News Radio. KSTE also airs some programming and news fromABC News Radio.
KSTE was the former home of theSacramento River Cats baseball team, before it moved toKIFM.
On February 14, 2025, theAthletics (A's) baseball team announced that KSTE would be the team'sflagship station, following their temporary move fromOakland toWest Sacramento as part oftheir long-term relocation to Las Vegas.[5][6][7] In addition to KSTE, games are aired on the "A's Cast" stream oniHeartRadio and on theA's Radio Network.[7] KSTE replacedKHTK as the A's Sacramento radio outlet; the move also resulted inKAHI inAuburn andKESP inModesto being dropped as network affiliates.[7]
The station that today is KSTE was first planned on April 10, 1981, when Minority Communications of California filed an application for a music and talk station on 650 kHz in Rancho Cordova. Minority's principals—Mary Forbes, Paul Neuhoff, and Robert W. O'Leary—also ownedWQIZ andWDWQ inSt. George, South Carolina.[8] Theconstruction permit was given thecall sign KMCE in 1987.[9] The stationsigned on the air in April 1991 as aSpanish-language outlet, simulcastingKRCX (1110 AM).[10] While still owned by Minority Communications of California,[11] KMCE was programmed byFuller-Jeffrey Broadcasting, owner of KRCX andKRXQ (93.7 FM) inRoseville, under atime brokerage agreement.[12] Thecall sign was changed to KRDX that June.[13]
The station was sold to Fuller-Jeffrey Broadcasting in December 1992 for $1 million;[14] the deal was originally reached in 1991.[12] The acquisition required a waiver ofFederal Communications Commission (FCC) ownership rules because of the overlap of the signals of KMCE, KRCX, andKSRO inSanta Rosa, as well as plans to sell KRCX.[12] Ahead of the sale's completion, in November 1992, the call sign was changed to KSTE[15] and the format switched to news/talk, carrying ABC News Radio for hourly newscasts.[16]
In April 1996, Fuller-Jeffrey agreed to sell KSTE toAmerican Radio Systems (ARS) for $7.25 million; ARS was also in the process of acquiringKCTC andKYMX at the time.[17] That June, ARS turned around and swapped KSTE, along with $33 million, to Chancellor Broadcasting—owner ofKFBK,KGBY, andKHYL—in exchange forWEAT,WEAT-FM, andWOLL inWest Palm Beach, Florida.[18] The sale was completed in October 1997,[19] by which time Chancellor Broadcasting had itself merged with Evergreen Media to form Chancellor Media.[20]
Chancellor Media and Capstar Broadcasting announced in August 1998 that they would merge (Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst was a major shareholder in both companies);[21] upon the merger's completion in July 1999, the combined company was named AMFM Inc.[22] AMFM was in turn acquired by Clear Channel Communications (forerunner to iHeartMedia) in a deal announced on October 4, 1999,[23] and completed in August 2000.[24] Through these ownership changes, KSTE's talk format remained in place, making it a rare radio station that, except for its first two years, has remained with the same format for its entire history.