Broadcast area Phoenix, Arizona Former callsigns KASR Frequency 1330 kHz Format Campus radio Area Phoenix | First air date 1982 Sister stations KBAQ Arizona PBS City of license Tempe Owner Arizona State University Branding The Blaze 1330 AM | |
Slogan Arizona's Original Alternative | ||
KASC (1330 AM, "Blaze Radio 1330 AM") is an unlicensed college radio station operated by students at Arizona State University in Phoenix, Arizona, and is a part of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The station broadcasts local and national music, as well as newscasts and sports coverage. The station operates on ASU's Downtown Campus. The Station Manager of Blaze Radio 1330 AM is current Cronkite student Amanda Luberto.
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History
KASC was founded in 1982 on AM 1260, then using the call sign KASR, using carrier current broadcast only. While it remains an unlicensed station, KASC now broadcasts 24 hours a day using a 30-watt transmitter (operating at seven watts) as well as via a streaming audio feed at their website. The station can be heard in most of the East Valley area of Phoenix. However, the station has been broadcasting online, in addition to its AM signal, since 1999.
In the late 2000s, KASC expanded with a second studio to coincide with the opening of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication building in Downtown Phoenix. On October 16, 2008, KASC began using these studios exclusively for the News Department's daily news program, The Press Pass Podcast. For the rest of the academic year, Press Pass was heard exclusively as a pre-taped podcast on the station's website. Before the fall of 2009, The downtown studio was synced via fiber optics to the station in Tempe, thus allowing flagship political affairs program Firestorm and the freshmen perspective Cronkite Chronicles to be broadcast from the Journalism School. This move also meant Press Pass would once again be presented live.
In 2009, Blaze Radio was informed that their station frequency (1260) had been allocated to KBSZ AM 1250 out of Wickenburg, Arizona. Along with the frequency change, KBSZ moved their transmitter and studio to Apache Junction, Arizona. Throughout the Spring and Summer of 2009, Blaze Radio worked out a new agreement to switch over to AM 1330, continuing their on-air feed as well as their online broadcasts. Today, KBSZ is known on-air as NBC 1260 and broadcasts a Talk radio format.
Blaze Radio is home to COTMA, the Congregation of Taste-Making Aficionados, a group within the station that reviews new music for KASC and the general public. Recently, COTMA members have been traveling to New York City for the CMJ festival.
The Phoenix New Times named KASR The Best Radio Station in Phoenix for 1990. Blaze Radio made a back-to-back comeback in 2008 and 2009, winning the weekly paper's Best of Phoenix: Best Radio Station for Local Music. That category was eliminated in 2010, and did not return in 2011.
As of Fall 2015, KASC is no longer actively broadcasting over the AM band. Since the station completed its move to the ASU Downtown Phoenix Campus in summer 2014, they have had numerous technical failures. It still can be heard broadcasting outside on Taylor Mall between the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication building and University Center (UCent) building on the campus.
Staff
For the Fall 2015 and Spring 2016 semesters, KASC is once again being overseen by student directors attending Arizona State University.