City Phoenix, Arizona First air date 1949 (as KIFN) | Branding Gospel 860 | |
Broadcast area Phoenix metropolitan area Slogan "Playing The Best in Gospel Music" Frequency 860 kHz (also on HD Radio) | ||
KMVP (860 AM) is a Gospel music radio station in Phoenix, Arizona aimed at the African American community in the Phoenix metropolitan area. KMVP is owned by the Bonneville International Corporation. Its studios are located in Phoenix near Piestewa Peak and its transmitter is in South Phoenix near Broadway and 27th Avenue.
KMVP operates by day with 940 watts non-directional and at 1,000 watts at night with a directional antenna. The call letters refer to Most Valuable Player, a sports term. They remain from when KMVP was a Sports radio station. KMVP's parent company, Bonneville International, a subsidiary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, moved the sports format to sister station 620 KTAR (AM) in 2007. And it also owns another Sports station in the Phoenix media market with the "MVP" call letters, 98.7 KMVP-FM.
History
The 860 kHz frequency was occupied by several radio stations in Phoenix. The first station signed on the air as early as 1949 with the call letters KIFN, Phoenix's first full-time Spanish-language radio station. [1] From the time it signed on until the early 1980s, KIFN operated as a daytime-only station. (860 is a Canadian clear channel frequency, limiting the coverage of American stations operating at 860.) For many years, KIFN was owned by the Tichenor family, which owned a group of Spanish-language stations that ultimately became the Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation. After being sold in 1982, the call letters became KVVA ("Viva"), and the new owners retained its Spanish-language format. Among the programs aired in this era was a simulcast of Channel 10 KTSP's 10 p.m. news.
In 1996, Pulitzer Broadcasting Company purchased the station out of bankruptcy with intentions on moving play-by-play sports contracts from 620 KTAR (then a News/Talk outlet) to 860 with the new call letters KMVP. Eventually, fans and team owners found the KMVP nighttime signal too weak to cover the entire Phoenix metropolitan area for play-by-play coverage, and the Suns and Diamondbacks moved back to KTAR with KMVP retaining broadcasts of the Mercury and Rattlers games. Over time, KMVP added more national sports talk (including ESPN Radio) and less local programs.
Since then, ownership passed from Pulitzer to Hearst-Argyle, then Emmis Communications, and now Bonneville.
When 620 KTAR first became a full-time Sports station, it simulcast the programs of 860 KMVP. The simulcast of KTAR and KMVP ended on April 14, 2007. On August 27, KMVP converted to Spanish language religious programming from Radio Vida Abundante. It is now a gospel music station.
KMVP continues to air some sports programs. When Bonneville's two Phoenix Sports stations, 98.7 KMVP-FM and 620 KTAR are already committed to running other sporting events, KMVP airs the "overflow" games, such as Phoenix Coyotes play-by-play and Arizona State Sun Devils basketball.