| KFBX | |
| Frequency: | 970 kHz |
| City: | Fairbanks, Alaska |
| Format: | Talk radio |
| Licensee: | iHM Licenses, LLC |
| Sister Stations: | KAKQ-FM, KIAK-FM, KKED |
| Power: | 10,000 watts |
| Facility Id: | 12518 |
| Network: | ABC News Radio |
| Affiliations: | Premiere Networks Compass Media Networks |
| Branding: | NewsRadio 970 KFBX |
| Callsign Meaning: | A common abbreviation for Fairbanks |
| Former Callsigns: | KIAK (1972–2004) |
| Class: | B |
| Webcast: | Listen Live |
| Website: | 970kfbx.iheart.com |
| Licensing Authority: | FCC |
KFBX (970 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Fairbanks, Alaska. It airs a talk radio format and is owned and operated by iHeartMedia, Inc. The studios and offices are on 9th Avenue.
KFBX is powered at 10,000 watts using a non-directional antenna. The transmitter is off Farmer's Loop Road in Fairbanks.[1]
Most programs on KFBX are nationally syndicated. Weekdays start with This Morning, America's First News with Gordon Deal. That's followed by The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, Armstrong & Getty, The Jesse Kelly Show, The Joe Pags Show and Coast to Coast AM with George Noory. Some shows are time-shifted due to time zone differences.
Weekends feature The Kim Komando Show, The Weekend with Michael Brown, Bill Handel on the Law, At Home with Gary Sullivan, Science Fantastic with Michio Kaku and Somewhere in Time with Art Bell as well as replays of weekday shows. Most hours begin with an update from ABC News Radio. KFBX airs a half hour of local and national news each weekday at noon.
On July 24, 1970, Big Country Radio, Inc., owner of KYAK in Anchorage, applied for a construction permit to build a new radio station on 970 kHz in Fairbanks. It was approved on January 13, 1971. The station began broadcasting as KIAK on September 18, 1972. It aired a country music format.[2]
In 1978, Big Country Radio decided to sell its three Alaska radio properties, KIAK, KYAK and KGOT, an FM station in Anchorage. The new owner was Prime Time of Alaska, a company owned by business people in Washington state. The price tag was more than $3 million.[3] Prime Time owned a country music station in Everett, Washington, KWYZ.[4]
1983 was an eventful year for KIAK. Prime Time sold the station to Bingham Broadcasting, controlled by a minority owner of a Seattle station. The sales price was $4.5 million.[5] The sale included KIAK's FM construction permit, KQRZ (102.5 FM), which launched that July and originally played Top 40 hits.[6]
At the end of that month, a 28-year-old man threatened to blow up the station if he did not get air time. He was startled to find that the station was actually an automated operation. The man ultimately surrendered.[7] In fact, KIAK had been automated since 1975, using a syndicated format from Drake-Chenault. The automation equipment was dubbed by the station as the "Big Country Machine".[8]
Bingham sold all four of its stations in Anchorage and Fairbanks to Olympia Broadcasting at the end of 1985. The price was about $12 million.[9] In January 1990, the country music format on KIAK moved to the former KQRZ, which became KIAK-FM. KIAK 970 AM began to focus more on classic country hits and added several new talk programs.[10]
Olympia filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June 1990.[11] That set off a lengthy process that included three different abortive sale attempts of the company's four Alaska properties. A deal with Harbor Broadcasting was doomed by a license challenge by the NAACP. While a settlement was reached, the FCC conditioned the sale on the license renewals, and Olympia was anxious to sell the stations to satisfy its creditors.[12]
The next sale attempt, to Alpha & Beta Broadcasting, was canceled by the company's receiver in early 1992 due to a conflict between creditor Barclays and lender Greyhound Financial. Greyhound felt that the stations had sold for too little money.[13] In January 1993, the receiver proposed to sell the stations to Community Pacific Broadcasting for $1.2 million.[14] But this was superseded by a $1.45 million offer from Craig McCaw's COMCO Broadcasting.[15] By this time, KIAK had largely become a sports talk outlet.[16]
In 1997, Comco sold its entire station portfolio, including KIAK-AM-FM and KAKQ-FM in Fairbanks, to Capstar Broadcasting Partners. Capstar was a forerunner to present owner iHeartMedia.[17] The call letters were changed from KIAK to KFBX in October 2004.[18] KFBX began to concentrate on airing syndicated talk shows from Premiere Networks, also owned by iHeartMedia.