Sports radio station in Phoenix
KMVP-FM
(98.7
MHz
) is a commercial
radio station
in
Phoenix, Arizona
, featuring a
sports
format branded as "98.7 FM Arizona's Sports Station". Local programming airs on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., with
ESPN Sports Radio
heard nights and weekends. Owned by
Salt Lake City
?based
Bonneville International
, KMVP-FM's radio studios are on North 16th Street in Phoenix near
Piestewa Peak
, while the transmitter is in
South Mountain Park
.
Arizona Sports is the
flagship station
of the
MLB
's
Arizona Diamondbacks
,
NBA
's
Phoenix Suns
, the
NFL
's
Arizona Cardinals
and the
Arizona State University
Sun Devils football
games.
History
[
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]
KTAR-FM and KBBC
[
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]
In July 1960, the station signed on as KTAR-FM, co-owned with
KTAR
and KTAR-TV (
KPNX
). KTAR-AM-FM mostly
simulcast
a
middle of the road
format of popular music, news and sports. In 1973, the FM station became KBBC, to distinguish it from sister station KTAR.
KBBC aired a
beautiful music
format of instrumental
cover versions
of popular adult songs, along with some
Broadway
and
Hollywood
show tunes. Over time, to stay youthful, KBBC added more soft vocals and reduced the instrumentals.
KKLT (98.7 K-Lite)
[
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]
The station became one of the nation's pioneers of the "Soft Rock" format under the programming direction of J.D. Freeman who moved over from
KNIX-FM
afternoon drive. In 1982, the format evolved into
soft adult contemporary
music branded as "K-Lite."
To go with the K-Lite branding, the
call sign
was changed to KKLT. The staff included program director Marc McCoy and sales manager Ken Hoag. KKLT had to compete with
KESZ
for the Soft AC audience. As it lost ratings to its rival, KKLT gradually stepped up the tempo of its music to a more mainstream
adult contemporary
. Despite the changes, KESZ continued to dominate in audience share.
KPKX (98.7 The Peak)
[
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]
On May 28, 2004, the format was changed to
adult hits
as "The Peak." The call letters were switched to KPKX on May 9, 2005. KPKX became one of the first stations in the U.S. to use the format, and the first not branded as "
Jack FM
" or "
Bob FM
". The first song on "The Peak" was "
A Change Would Do You Good
" by
Sheryl Crow
.
The Peak featured the voice of actor
John O'Hurley
as "Mr. Peakerman", a well meaning but bumbling station owner who more or less allows the staff to play "whatever they want". The station was the brainchild of programmer Joel Grey, with writing and creative imaging produced by John Hugill. Highly successful for Bonneville, it became the de facto flagship of other properties like
95.7 Max FM
in
San Francisco
and
106.5 The Arch
in
St. Louis
.
KMVP-FM (Arizona Sports 98.7)
[
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]
At 10 a.m. on January 6, 2014, after playing
All The Small Things
by
Blink-182
, and a brief goodbye message from program manager Steve Douglas, KPKX flipped to
simulcast
sports radio
-formatted
KTAR
. On January 9, 2014, KPKX changed its call sign to KMVP-FM.
KTAR-FM
was already on air, so 98.7 was unable to simply copy the AM callsign.
[2]
On July 10, 2014, Bonneville announced Arizona Sports would be exclusively heard on 98.7 FM, effective September 15. KTAR then began carrying
ESPN Radio
full time.
[3]
Programming
[
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]
Dan Bickley
and Vince Marotta host the morning
drive time
. Luke Lapinski and
Ron Wolfley
are heard in middays. Dave Burns and John Gambadoro are on in the afternoon. ESPN Radio is carried late nights and weekends.
References
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]
External links
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]
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Radio stations
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Television stations
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