KNST

For the Green Valley, Arizona radio station that held the call sign KNST-FM at 97.1 FM from 2011 to 2013, see KYWD.
KNST
City Tucson, Arizona
Branding NewsTalk 790
Frequency 790 kHz (also on HD Radio)
First air date 1959 (as KCEE)
Format News/Talk
Power 5,000 watts day
500 watts night
Class B
Facility ID 53589
Callsign meaning News Sports Talk[1]
Former callsigns KCEE (1959-1992)
KWFM (1992-1993)
Owner iHeartMedia, Inc.
(Capstar TX LLC)
Sister stations KMIY, KOHT, KRQQ, KYWD, KXEW, KTZR
Webcast Listen Live
Website knst.com

KNST is a news/talk radio station in Tucson, Arizona, broadcasting at 790 kHz. The station serves the greater Tucson area, including the nearby enclaves of Marana, Oro Valley, Green Valley, Sahuarita, Sierra Vista, and Vail. Its studios are located north of downtown Tucson along Oracle Road, while the transmitter site is in West Tucson.

KNST is the tenth-most-listened-to commercial radio station in Tucson.[2] (including noncommercial radio stations, KNST rates 13th). [3]

Programming

KNST's weekday lineup parallels most iHeartMedia, Inc. talk stations. It includes Tucson's Morning Show with News Anchor Paul Birmingham, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Dave Ramsey, Michael Savage, Coast to Coast AM, and The Wall Street Journal This Morning. Because Arizona, unlike the vast majority of the United States, opts out of annual daylight saving time changes, the aforementioned programs (except Tucson's Morning Show) air on a one-hour tape delay from mid-March to early-November.

As well as local news every day, the stations also deliver newscasts from Fox News Radio every half hour.

Weekend programs and hosts include: Ric Edelman, Cigar Dave, Armed American Radio, The Jesus Christ Show, Kim Komando, Bob Brinker, Bill Cunningham, Coast to Coast AM, and The Wall Street Journal This Weekend. Local how-to programming covers auto repair with "Under The Hood with Mark Salem", gardening and home repair with Rosie Romero's "Rosie On The House" (originating from its flagship station KTAR-FM in Phoenix), and money saving, sustainability savvy with "Mrs. Green Goes Mainstream".

790 KNST is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc..[4]

History

former logo

790 AM was home to one other Tucson broadcaster, KCEE, until the change to KWFM and the move of KNST from 940 AM.

KNST actually began in July 1981. It was started when Western Cities Broadcasting changed the format of soft-AC "Magic 94" KMGX which had been on the air for four years before that (the station was country-formatted KHOS before that). The calls stand for 'News Sports Talk'. The station was sold to Nationwide Communications, a subsidiary of Nationwide Insurance, later in the 1980s. KNST broadcast on 940 AM until it was moved to 790 AM in 1993.

Nationwide later sold its Tucson stations to Tucson Radio Partners, which in turn was absorbed by Prism Radio and then Clear Channel Communications in the 1990s.

The station was assigned the call letters "KWFM" on June 8, 1992. On April 4, 1993, the station changed its call sign to the current KNST.[5]

KNST was the radio flagship station for University of Arizona men's basketball and football broadcasts from about 1984 until 2004, when the broadcasts moved to KCUB, the local Fox Sports Radio affiliate, branded as "1290 The Source".

References

  1. ↑ "Call Letter Origins". Radio History on the Web.
  2. ↑ "#60 Tucson - Summer 2010 Arbitron Quarterly Report".
  3. ↑ "2010 noncommercial radio station ratings".
  4. ↑ "KNST Facility Record". United States Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
  5. ↑ "KNST Call Sign History". United States Federal Communications Commission, audio division.

External links

Coordinates: 32°14′54″N 111°00′30″W / 32.24833°N 111.00833°W / 32.24833; -111.00833

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