KEPN

KEPN
City Lakewood, Colorado
Broadcast area Denver-Lakewood-Boulder
Branding 1600 ESPN Denver
Slogan Denver's Sports Radio
Frequency 1600 kHz (also on HD Radio)
Repeater(s) 104.3-2 KKFN-HD2
First air date January 8, 1955 (as 1580 KLAK)
Format Sports
Power 5,000 watts
Class B
Facility ID 30823
Transmitter coordinates Coordinates: 39°39′20″N 105°4′28″W / 39.65556°N 105.07444°W / 39.65556; -105.07444
Callsign meaning K ESPN Radio (affiliation)
Former callsigns KLAK (1955-1987)
KRXY (1987-1993)
KWMX (1993-1994)
KYGO (1994-1999)
KCKK (1999-2006)
Affiliations ESPN Radio
Owner Bonneville International Corporation
Sister stations KKFN, KOSI, KYGO

KEPN (1600 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Lakewood, Colorado, and serving the Denver metropolitan area. It is owned by Bonneville International Corporation with studios and located in Greenwood Village, and the transmitter is in Lakewood.

Bonneville owns two sports stations in the Denver radio market. KKFN 104.3 FM airs mostly local sports shows with some ESPN programming nights and weekends, while AM 1600 KEPN carries ESPN Radio programming around the clock. The station is known as "ESPN Denver 1600 AM." The call sign uses most of the letters in "ESPN."

KEPN is Denver's home for the University of Wyoming Cowboys football and men's basketball.

History

former logo

Early Years

On January 8, 1955, the station signed on as KLAK.[1] It was originally on AM 1580 and was a daytimer powered at 250 watts, required to be off the air at night. WLAK was owned by the Lakewood Broadcasting Service Company and played country music. In a few years, the station moved to AM 1600 and was powered at 1,000 watts, allowed to broadcast around the clock.

In 1966, KLAK signed on a new transmitter, powered at 5,000 watts. It also put an FM radio station on the air at 107.7 MHz. (The FM station is now 107.5 KQKS owned by Entercom.) WLAK-AM-FM simulcast their country music sound.

According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), other call signs for this station have been KRXY and KWMX, both simulcasts of their FM counterparts on 107.5.

Country Music

In 1994, the station later became KYGO. It was a mainstream country station, although separately programmed from more current-based 98.5 KYGO-FM.

In 1999, 1600 KYGO flipped to classic country as "16 Kicks" KCKK. The station's programming was a simulcast of 104.3 KCKK-FM (now KKFN). When the FM station switched to smooth jazz in 2000, the classic country format was heard exclusively on AM 1600. The format would later be moved to another station in the market, 1510 KYOL, which took the KCKK call letters (now an adult hits station branded as "The Rock").

Switch to Sports

The Lincoln Financial Group acquired the station in 2006.[2] On January 1, 2007, 1600 AM became the Denver network affiliate of ESPN Radio, with a call letter change to KEPN. In September 2012, the ESPN affiliation moved to 105.5 KJAC, with KEPN switching its programming to Fox Sports Radio.

On December 8, 2014, Entercom announced it would purchase Lincoln Financial Group's entire 15-station lineup in a $106.5 million deal. Entercom would operate the outlets under a Local Marketing Agreement (LMA) until the purchase was finalized. On December 22, 2014, Entercom announced that it would retain KEPN's sports format.[3] The FCC approved the deal on June 26, 2015.[4] But on July 14, 2015, the Department of Justice forced Entercom to spin off KEPN, KOSI, KKFN and KYGO-FM to Bonneville International in exchange for Bonneville's KSWD in Los Angeles to meet ownership limits. Both Bonneville and Entercom began operating their new clusters via Time Brokerage Agreements on July 17, 2015, until the transaction was consummated on November 24, 2015.[5]

On January 4, 2016, KEPN reaffiliated with ESPN Radio after a three-year absence, carrying the network full-time, with 104.3 KKFN simulcasting during overnights and some weekend hours. The move falls in line with Bonneville's practice of having an AM/FM Sports radio combination airing ESPN Radio on AM and local programming on FM.[6]


References

  1. ↑ Broadcasting Yearbook 1956 page 80
  2. ↑ Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 2010 D-120
  3. ↑ "Entercom Acquires Lincoln Financial Media" from Radio Insight (December 8, 2014)
  4. ↑ "FCC OKs Lincoln Financial-Entercom Deal" from All Access (June 26, 2015)
  5. ↑ "Entercom Settles DOJ Investigation; Swaps For 100.3 The Sound Los Angeles - RadioInsight". 16 July 2015.
  6. ↑ "ESPN to affiliate with 104.3 The Fan on 1600 AM; KUNC buys 105.5 FM" from The Denver Post (December 7, 2015)
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