KLZ
KLZ (560 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Denver, Colorado and owned by Crawford Broadcasting. KLZ received its first broadcasting license on March 10, 1922. It is the oldest broadcasting station in the state of Colorado, and one of the oldest in the United States.[2]
KLZ Radio
March 10, 1922 (also amateur station licenses as 9JE 1920-1921 and 9ZAF 1921-1922)
None (random reissue)[1]
B
5,000 watts unlimited
100.7 K264BO (Denver)
The station's 5,000-watt signal covers much of the population center of Colorado, from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs and Pueblo.[3] The station also transmits an HD digital sub-channel.[4][5] In addition, listeners in Denver can hear KLZ programming on the FM dial, on translator K264BO 100.7 MHz.[6]
KLZ airs a talk radio format, branded as "KLZ Radio", featuring several nationally syndicated talk hosts as well as local shows, much of it paid brokered programming. Topics include money and investing, real estate and health.
Station history[edit]
Experimental years[edit]
KLZ was first licensed as a broadcasting station on March 10, 1922, to the Reynolds Radio Company in Denver, Colorado. However, the company's president, Dr. William D. "Doc" Reynolds Jr., had been making earlier experimental broadcasts, and the station has traditionally traced its founding to 1919[7][8] or 1920.[9]
In September 1915, Reynolds, then living in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was issued his first license, for an amateur radio station with the call sign 9WH.[10] This initial station employed a spark transmitter that could only transmit the dots-and-dashes of Morse code. With the entrance of the United States into World War I in April 1917, all civilian radio stations were ordered to cease operations for the duration of the conflict.
In late 1919 the amateur radio ban was ended and Reynolds, who had subsequently moved to Colorado Springs, relicensed his amateur station, which was now issued the call sign of 9JE.[11] During the war, vacuum tube radio transmitters had been developed that made audio transmissions practical. Reynolds began work with the U.S. Forestry Service to evaluate the practicality of using radiotelephones to aid department communication.[12] He also took advantage of the equipment provided by the Forestry service to experiment with entertainment broadcasts, and one of his first radiotelephone tests, in May 1920, provided musical selections for a dance held by students at a local high school.[13]