KSDO

Early years

The station began broadcasting January 24, 1947, and held the call sign KYOR.^[1][2] It was owned by Silver Gate Broadcasting, and ran 250 watts during daytime hours only.^[1][2]

In 1949, the station was sold to San Diego Broadcasting for $75,000, and its call sign was changed to KSDO.^[2][4] The new owners were required to divest themselves of one station, so KSDO suspended operations.^[5] The station had a permit to increase daytime power and add nighttime operations, and San Diego Broadcasting intended to surrender the license of AM 1510 KUSN once construction of KSDO's new facilities was complete.^[5] In 1950, the station resumed operations, with its daytime power increased to 5,000 watts and nighttime operations added, running 1,000 watts.^[2]

In 1959, the station was sold to Gordon Broadcasting for $500,000.^[6][2] The station aired a beautiful music format in the 1960s.^[7][8]

News talk era

By the early 1970s, KSDO had adopted news-talk format.^[9] In 1972, the station was sold to Generation II Radio San Diego, a subsidiary of Firestone Communications, for $2.5 million.^[9][10] In 1976, the station was sold to Pacific and Southern, a subsidiary of Combined Communications, for $1,576,000.^[11] Gannett purchased Combined Communications in 1979.^[12] Its power was increased to 10,000 watts the same year.^[2]

Laurence Gross hosted a midday talk show on KSDO from 1975 to 1983.^[13] From 1986 to 1997, former San Diego mayor Roger Hedgecock hosted a program on the station.^[14][15] Danuta Soderman hosted Danuta Time in the late 1980s. Michael Reagan hosted a show from 1989 to 1992.^[16][17] It was an affiliate of NBC Talknet in the 1980s.^[18] Syndicated hosts on KSDO over the years included Rush Limbaugh, G. Gordon Liddy, Larry King, and Tom Leykis.^[17][19][20] It was also the flagship station of the San Diego Chargers during its "Air Coryell" years.^[21] As a talk station, KSDO's ratings were consistently among the top ten stations in San Diego, through 1996.^[22][23]

In 1996, Gannett traded KSDO and five other stations to Jacor Communications for WTSP CBS 10 in Tampa.^[24] In 1997, Roger Hedgecock and Rush Limbaugh were moved to KOGO, and the station switched to a financial news-talk format, with programming from Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal.^[15][25][26] Ray Lucia hosted middays, later moving to mornings.^[26][27] Syndicated talk shows aired at night.^[26] In 2000, syndicated talk programs replaced most financial programming.^[28][27] Hosts included Michael Savage, Phil Hendrie, Lionel, and Larry King.^[27] That year, the station was sold to Chase Radio Properties.^[29] In late 2001, financial talk programming began to again make up the bulk of the station's daytime schedule.^[30]

Spanish Christian era

In 2003, the station was sold to Hi-Favor Broadcasting for $10 million.^{[31][32][33][34]} The station adopted a Spanish language Christian format as an affiliate of Radio Nueva Vida.^[33][35] By 2019, the station disaffiliated from Radio Nueva Vida, but continued to air a Spanish-language Christian format as Radio Inspiración.^[36]

In 2016, Hi-Favor Broadcasting obtained a Special Temporary Authority (STA) from the FCC to broadcast with 2,500 watts from a single non-directional wire dropped from a cable hung from the tower of KLSD radio, while a search is conducted for an alternate site.^[37] The STA has been extended twice each year since it was originally granted.^[38]