KRUZ (AM)

The radio tower used by KJQS in Murray, Utah

KRUZ (1230 AM) is a radio station licensed to Murray, Utah, USA. It serves the Salt Lake City area. The station is owned by Cumulus Media.

History

KRUZ began as KMUR, founded 1948 by Oral J. Wilkinson. At that time it was a low-power, 250 watt community station airing contemporary hits. During the 1960s, the power was increased to 1,000 watts daytime, the format switched to country western and the call letters were changed to KMOR. Its studios and transmitter were originally located at 4646 South State Street, a location that also housed Wilkinson's auto dealership, Zion Motors (Chrysler-Plymouth). The studios and transmitter were later relocated to a field west of I-15 near 4900 South but were torn down later to make way for an indoor amusement park.

The station went back on the air as KLAF on June 22, 1983, carrying a comedy format. On April 15, 1986, the station changed its call sign to KOLC, airing contemporary hits again. On April 30, 1986, the station changed again to KMGR, and on July 11, 1997, to KWUN (a talk radio format station) before going dark. (Call sign KWUN had been used for decades in Concord, California by an AM station at 1480 kHz.)

On November 1, 2001, the station returned to air, with the KJQS calls.^[1][2]

Formats

As KMUR, the station aired mostly Top 40 hits. As KMOR, the station played contemporary country western type music. As KLAF, the station became an all-comedy formatted station. When the station became KOLC, it reverted to the previous contemporary hits. As KMGR, the station played LDS music, similar to KSFI. In 1997, the station became KWUN, which carried a talk radio format. In 2001, the station settled at its current sports format, carrying programming from ESPN Radio until 2009 when KALL 700 became the ESPN Radio affiliate and led them to switch to Fox Sports Radio. Later it simulcast the sports talk format of sister station KFNZ 1320 AM. On March 31, 2015, KJQS went silent due to a failure and collapse of the tower. On November 30, 2015, its calls were changed to KRUZ. On March 23, 2016 KRUZ returned to the air with sports.

References

External links

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