History
The station signed on in 1946 as KTYL on 1490 kHz, owned by the Harkins Theater group. It was the second station in Mesa, signing on 3 days after KARV (1400 AM). Both stations ran 250 watts full-time with non-directional antennas — the maximum power allowed for Class IV (now Class C) stations at the time. Two years later, KTYL bought and shut down KARV; its frequency was reactivated in Phoenix in 1950 as KONI (now KSUN).
Harkins also put Arizona's first FM station (KTYL-FM 104.7, now KZZP) on the air in 1950; this was followed by Phoenix's second TV station (KTYL-TV channel 12, now KPNX) on the air. As with the AM station, both stations were originally located in (and are still licensed to) Mesa.
KTYL moved to 1310 in the early '50s, and eventually increased its power to 5000 watts days and 500 watts nights. It became KBUZ, a beautiful music station, in 1956, with the slogan 'Drive with care, and KBUZ, everywhere'. At that time, it moved to Thomas Mall on the east side of Phoenix. The format was simulcast on 104.7 FM, by now KBUZ-FM.
On January 1, 1977, the station became KQXE, first as a top 40 station and then, within a year, a very soft rock format within a year. After the owners went bankrupt KQXE and what had become KIOG were sold. On February 19, 1980 the two stations changed call letters to KZZP and began simulcasting a top 40 format.
After a precisely 10-year-long simulcast, 1310 AM split from the simulcast of KZZP-FM on February 19, 1990 and became KXAM. Initially an adult standards station, KXAM later became an independent talk station, airing syndicated shows including Laura Ingraham, Dave Ramsey and Matt Gerson. Gerson was part of the family that controlled KXAM's owner, Embree Broadcasting, and hosted a political talk show until March 2009. Soon afterward, Embree announced that KXAM would cease operations. Two of the station's local programs, Culinary Confessions (a food show) and The Bandwagon (a sports show) moved to KAZG soon after the announcement. Although KXAM employees had offered to buy the station the Gerson family turned their offers down, insisting at that time on returning the license to the Federal Communications Commission. The station went silent April 16, 2009.
On June 1, 2009 the Gerson family backed off from its plans to surrender the KXAM license and sold it to IHR Educational Broadcasting for $1 million. It returned to the air as KIHP, with its current format on December 17.
Read more about this topic: KIHP (AM)
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