KKSE (AM)

KKSE
City Parker, Colorado
Broadcast area Denver-Boulder-Longmont, Northern Colorado and Colorado Springs.[1]
Branding Altitude Sports 950
Slogan Denver's Original Sports Station
Frequency 950 kHz (also on HD Radio)
First air date 1923 (as KFEL)
Format Sports (KKSE-FM simulcast)
Power 5,000 watts unlimited
Class B
Facility ID 30839
Transmitter coordinates 39°52′30″N 104°56′0″W / 39.87500°N 104.93333°W / 39.87500; -104.93333
Callsign meaning K Kroenke Sports & Entertainment
Former callsigns KFEL (1923-1954)
KIMN (1954-1988)
KYGO (1988-1994)
KKFN (1994-2008)
KRWZ (2008-2016)
Affiliations Denver Nuggets
Colorado Avalanche
Colorado Mammoth
Colorado Rapids
SB Nation Radio
Altitude
Owner Kroenke Sports & Entertainment
(KSE Radio Ventures, LLC)
Sister stations KIMN, KKSE-FM, KXKL
Webcast Listen Live
Website altitudesports950.com

KKSE (950 AM) is a radio station licensed to Parker, Colorado, United States, the station serves the Denver area. It is currently airing a sports format. As of March 14, 2016, the station is currently owned by Stan Kroenke.[2][3] Its studios are located on Colorado Boulevard in Glendale, and the transmitter is in Thornton.

History

The station first signed on in 1923 as KFEL, owned by Gene O'Fallon and broadcasting from the Albany Hotel. It is Denver's second-oldest radio station. After several frequency moves, it eventually settled on its current location of 950 AM. O'Fallon sold the station to Standard Examiner Publishing of Ogden, Utah in 1954, and the new owners changed the calls to KIMN.[4]

For most of the next three decades, KIMN was Denver's top-rated top-40 outlet. It was KIMN that presented the Beatles at Red Rocks in August 1964.[5] The station was inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame for its contribution to the Colorado music scene in the 1950s and 1960s.[6] By the mid-1980s, KIMN evolved from top 40 to oldies.

At Noon on April 26, 1988, after airing a 12-hour retrospective of KIMN's history, the station flipped to Country and adopted the KYGO calls. The programming was separate from its then-FM sister.[7] On October 12, 1994, the station changed its call sign to KKFN, and on May 8, 1995, adopted a sports format with the moniker "AM 950 The Fan" (the KYGO-AM calls and country format would move to 1600 AM later in 1994), becoming the first all-sports station in the Denver market.[8] The sports format would begin simulcasting on 104.3 FM (formerly KJCD) on March 6, 2008, as part of a format transfer.[9] Finally, on September 2, 2008, the AM station became KRWZ with an oldies format as "Cruisin' Oldies 950".[10][11]

On December 8, 2014, Entercom announced it would purchase Lincoln Financial Group's entire 15-station lineup in a $106.5 million deal, and would operate the outlets under a LMA deal. On December 22, 2014, Entercom announced that it will retain KRWZ and its current format.[12] The FCC approved the deal on June 26, 2015.[13]

However, on December 17, 2015, Entercom announced it will sell KRWZ to KSE Radio Ventures (owned by Stan Kroenke), who would add the station to its three recently acquired FM properties in the Denver market. KSE also announced that KRWZ would flip to a new format when the sale closes, as Entercom moved the Oldies format to KEZW on December 27.[14] On the same day, KRWZ began stunting with mostly adult standards music, as well as redirecting listeners to KEZW.

Upon the change of ownership, KRWZ would adopt the new KKSE call letters. Furthermore, KSE announced that the station will return to sports talk and become "Altitude Sports 950" (named after KSE's Altitude cable channel). The new format's programming will include the Rich Eisen Show, along with a slew of live and local programming.[15][16] The station will continue to broadcast the Colorado Avalanche, the Denver Nuggets and the Colorado Rapids, as well as the Colorado Mammoth (all of which are owned by Kroenke).[17]

The sale to KSE closed on March 14, 2016 (with the calls officially changing to KKSE), and the station flipped to a simulcast of KWOF that day at Noon. "Altitude Sports 950" officially launched at 7 a.m. on April 8.[18][19] KKSE enters a crowded sports talk field in the Denver market, with competitors including KDSP, former sister stations KKFN and KEPN, and KDCO.

References

  1. ↑ KKSE Coverage.
  2. ↑ "KKSE Facility Record". United States Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
  3. ↑ "KKSE Station Information Profile". Arbitron.
  4. ↑ http://www.ad-mkt-review.com/public_html/docs/fs046.html
  5. ↑ "Remembering Boulder's fab time with The Beatles - Second Story Garage". Second Story Garage. 15 August 2014. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  6. ↑ "KIMN Radio - Colorado Music Hall of Fame". cmhof.org. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  7. ↑ https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-RandR/1980s/1988/RR-1988-04-15.pdf
  8. ↑ "New station gets Moe for its money", The Denver Post, May 5, 1995.
  9. ↑ https://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/515/the-fan-denver-moves-to-fm/
  10. ↑ "KRWZall Sign History". United States Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
  11. ↑ http://www.westword.com/news/oldies-radio-set-to-make-comeback-in-denver-with-krwz-5880985
  12. ↑ "Entercom Acquires Lincoln Financial Media" from Radio Insight (December 8, 2014)
  13. ↑ "FCC OKs Lincoln Financial-Entercom Deal" from All Access (June 26, 2015)
  14. ↑ "KSE Media Ventures Acquires KRWZ Denver From Entercom" from Radio Insight (December 17, 2015)
  15. ↑ https://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/105422/kse-sets-launch-date-for-altitude-950-denver/
  16. ↑ http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_29725285/altitude-enters-denvers-sports-talk-radio-market
  17. ↑ Rich Eisen [@richeisen] (12 March 2016). "Starting April 11 on KKSE-AM 950, home of @nuggets @Avalanche and @ColoradoRapids Quite pumped" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  18. ↑ http://www.altitude.tv/news/950am-altitude-sports-radio/
  19. ↑ http://www.altitude.tv/media/2307/altitude-sports-radio-press-release-040816.pdf
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