KFCS
Radio station in Colorado Springs, Colorado
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
KFCS (1580 AM) is a radio station licensed to Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States. It is owned by Lindsey Salazar's Greeley Broadcasting Corp., and simulcasts the regional Mexican format of KRYE in Beulah.
| Simulcasts KRYE Beulah | |
|---|---|
| |
Broadcast area | Southern Colorado |
| Frequency | 1580 kHz |
| Branding | El Tigre |
| Programming | |
| Format | Regional Mexican |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| History | |
First air date | June 1957[1] |
Former call signs |
|
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| 51816 | |
| Class | D |
| Power |
|
Transmitter coordinates | 38°43′11″N 104°43′16″W |
| Translator | 101.5 K268DV (Colorado Springs) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live |
| Website | tigrecolorado |
History
KPIK went on the air in June 1957.[1] It was owned by the Western Broadcasting Company, controlled by David Pinkston and Leroy Elmore. KPIK broadcast during the daytime only with 5,000 watts and broadcast a country music format from its first day of operation.[3] The station expanded to FM when it acquired KLST (94.3 FM) in 1966 and converted it to a simulcast as KPIK-FM (now KILO).[4] KPIK-FM was just the second all-country music station on FM in the United States.[5] The AM and FM stations remained a simulcast through 1977, when the FM moved toward a more contemporary country sound as "Super K-94" while the AM station focused on more traditional country.[6] That same year, station manager George James was elected to the Colorado Springs city council.[7]
Pinkston, with various partners, owned the station until selling it to the Area Broadcasting Company, headed by James, in 1978; this separated it from the FM station.[8][3] It was sold again in 1980 to KPIK Broadcasting, Inc.[8]
In 1987, the station became KWYD under the ownership of Edward J. Patrick who at the time owned KWYD-FM. While Patrick sold off KWYD-FM in 1989, Patrick continued to own KWYD (AM) until he sold it in 1998. The call letters changed to KKKK in 2005 and KREL in 2010. As KREL, the station aired a sports radio format, first from ESPN Radio starting in January 2013 and as a Fox Sports Radio affiliate from October 2014 to April 2015.
On Monday, April 13, 2015, the station switched to cannabis-centric talk as "K-High 1580" with the call sign KHIG.[9] The talk format moved online after one month, with KHIG temporarily switching to a simulcast of KFEZ.[10]
In 2016, Jacob Barker acquired the station through licensee Gabrielle Broadcasting Licensee II, LLC. Under Barker, the station programmed a Christian talk format as "1580 The Trumpet" and gained a translator signal on 103.1 FM in the immediate Colorado Springs area. The format and name were also used on Barker's Phoenix station, KXEG.
In 2019, Gabrielle went into bankruptcy and a receiver, Jim Mross Engineering, was appointed for the station. Operations were taken over by the Greeley Broadcasting Corporation, which owns regional Mexican station KRYE; in September 2019, Mross filed to sell the station outright to Greeley for $85,000.[11] The acquisition gave El Tigre's southern Colorado station, which had previously only covered Pueblo by way of KRYE-FM, a local signal in Colorado Springs. The sale to Greeley Broadcasting was consummated on December 20, 2019.