City Sacramento Branding ESPN 1320 Format Sports | Broadcast area Northern California Frequency 1320 kHz | |
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First air date April 12, 1945 (as KCRA at 1340, although KIFM's call letters were first assigned in 1968) | ||
KIFM (1320 AM) is a radio station in West Sacramento, California, that has been affiliated with ESPN Radio since February 2007. It has separate transmitter sites for daytime and night operations. Owned by Entercom, its studios are located in North Highlands, with a Sacramento address. Previously, KIFM was known as KCTC, which has had a history in the Sacramento market as both an FM and AM station.
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KCTC as an FM station
KCTC's most successful years were in the 70s, broadcasting a variant of the "Beautiful Music" format which they called "the California Sound" with its occasional vocals in each 15-minute set. The format continued until 1989, when KCTC became KYMX, a soft rock/adult contemporary station. In turn, the KCTC call letters moved to AM 1320, where for years it was an adult standards station as part of the Music Of Your Life network.
KCTC as an AM station
Competition for KCRA on the Sacramento AM dial in the mid-1950s included KROY 1240 (CBS), KGMS 1380 (MBS), KXOA 1470 (MBS), and KFBK 1530 (ABC), which was owned by McClatchy Enterprises, also owner of the Sacramento Bee..
From 1955 to 1978, KCRA was co-owned with TV Channel 3 KCRA-TV and in the '70s was known as KCRA Newsradio 132 while still under ownership of Kelly Broadcasting. Before its sale to Entercom, KCTC was owned by Tribune Broadcasting of Chicago, owners of WGN and the Chicago Tribune, from 1978 to 1996. For a time under the Tribune ownership (1978-1989), 1320 AM was known as KGNR Newsradio 132. In the early 1970s, prior to Tribune, 1320 KCRA was Sacramento's home for the syndicated "American Top 40" program with Casey Kasem; a September 1971 broadcast of the show mentions KCRA as an affiliate, as does a broadcast of the syndicated program from December 1974. In 1989, KCTC moved from its former FM position to its current home at 1320 AM.
On 1 November 2005, KCTC changed formats, dropping the Music Of Your Life format to become an Air America affiliate after crosstown rival KSAC-1240 AM dropped its Air America affiliation. However, KCTC's website announced on 15 February 2007, that AM 1320 would no longer carry Air America programs, and also would not retain Enid Goldstein or The Morning Retort with Scott and Sims. The site announced that as of Monday, 26 February 2007 KCTC would become ESPN 1320, carrying the complete sports programming of the ESPN radio network. This move would make KCTC Sacramento's first full-time sports radio station. Since February 25, 2007, 1320 AM has aired ESPN Radio programming.
KIFM
On 28 April 2016, KCTC changed its callsign to KIFM, former call letters that were used on 98.1 FM in San Diego, as part of a warehousing move by owner Entercom (that station concurrently changed call letters to KXSN as part of a format change).