KXFN

KXFN (1380 AM) is a radio station, currently broadcasting Christmas Music, operating from St. Louis, Missouri. It last aired a simulcast of programming from internet radio station TalkSTL.com, as well as Yahoo! and NBC Sports Radio programming, but also had a long and colorful history of radio formats throughout the years, beginning under their original KWK callsign. It signed back on the air on December 1, 2016 after being silent and off the air since December 2015 after ownership was transferred to Salem Media Group.

KXFN employs separate daytime and nighttime transmitter sites; the daytime transmitter site is located on Chouteau Island near Granite City, while the nighttime site is located further south near Dupo, Illinois.

History

KXFN began broadcasting in 1927 as KWK. KWK was the Mutual Broadcasting System affiliate in St. Louis for most of its existence until August 1969, when the station switched from standards to an R&B format.

KWK's claim to national fame was a film clip where a disc jockey at the station is seen smashing one of Elvis Presley's records and declaring "rock and roll has got to go!"—a clear sign that KWK had veered away from the rock format. This clip can be seen in the 1981 film "This Is Elvis".

On July 31, 1973, the station went off the air until November 1, 1978, when it returned as a Top 40 station, and in March 1979, it began simulcasting with WWWK-FM (106.5). The two stations kept simulcasting until KWK became KGLD (an oldies station) in June 1984. On January 1, 1992, KGLD changed to all-sports KASP. The station went back to simulcasting with 106.5 FM in 1993 (which would swap formats with 104.1 FM in January 1994; the simulcast on 1380 would switch over to 104.1). In December 1994, the station flipped to hot talk as "Straight Talk 1380." Programming on "Straight Talk" included Steve & DC in mornings (simulcasting from WKBQ-FM), The Fabulous Sports Babe, Ken Hamblin, Tom Leykis and Jim Bohannon. On February 22, 1995, the station changed call letters to KRAM (shortly after the Los Angeles Rams re-located to St. Louis). On March 21, 1996, 1380 AM returned to simulcasting WKBQ (and reassumed the WKBQ call letters).^[1] After Emmis bought it in a deal with WKBQ and WKKX that November, they donated the station to a ministry and WKBQ-AM became KKWK, with a short lived urban talk format. This was then followed by a jazz format with new KZJZ call letters adopted on September 1, 1998. KZJZ played mostly classic jazz, had a full-time airstaff, and won a Marconi Award. Having no money, the station switched to a satellite-run Southern Gospel format as KSLG in November 1999. KSLG switched back to sports in 2004, initially carrying Sporting News Radio programming, which later switched to ESPN Radio.

On December 3, 2007, KSLG switched affiliations from ESPN to Fox Sports Radio with the "Team 1380" branding.

On July 1, 2010, "Grand Slam Sports", owner of fellow St. Louis sports station KFNS, announced its intention to purchase KSLG pending FCC approval and that it would begin managing the station immediately under a local marketing agreement. This resulted in the return of The Jim Rome Show to the St. Louis market after an absence of approximately a year.^[2]

On June 20, 2012, KSLG changed their call letters to KXFN.

Citing increased competition and declining ratings, KXFN changed their format in May 2013 to a general talk format almost entirely hosted by female hosts, branded as "1380 The Woman".^[3] Concurrently, KFNS switched to a male-focused hot talk/comedy format as "590 The Man".^[4][5] The dual-format experiment was a failure for both stations; less than ten months later, KXFN dropped the entirety of their talk format to carry Yahoo! Sports Radio,^[6] then assumed much of KFNS's hot talk format and airstaff as "1380 The X, Xtreme Talk Radio" on April 1, 2014. KFNS itself reverted to sports, but retained the "Man" nickname.^[7]

KFNS and KXFN would then be subjected to several months of staffers publicly critical of station management,^[8] on-air sparring between hosts, and even a physical altercation between KFNS's morning host and the station manager (who subsequently resigned).^[9]

On October 1, 2014, KXFN changed to a music/talk station with multiple styles of shows, offering music of different genres and comedy talk content. That lasted until the following March, when TalkSTL.com began leasing the airtime on KXFN, once again restoring the previous sports talk format.^[10] By that December, TalkSTL.com's parent company, Markel Radio Group, bought and began programming KFNS - which had fallen silent the previous November after "Grand Slam Sports" went into bankruptcy - as a new incarnation of "590 The Fan." After a brief simulcast on both stations, KXFN fell silent on December 19, 2015.

Salem Media Group announced the purchase of KXFN on August 1, 2016 through "Grand Slam Sports" bankruptcy receiver Detalus Consulting for $190,000, pairing it with recently-purchased and relaunched WSDZ; both WSDZ and KXFN are slated to be receiving FM translators as part of the FCC's AM Revitalization Translator Waiver Period.^[11]

Previous logo

(Station's logo under previous "Team 1380" branding)

References

External links

• Query the FCC's AM station database for KXFN
• Radio-Locator Information on KXFN
• Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for KXFN