KPHX

History

The station at 1480 AM signed on the air in the late 1950s as a daytime-only country station called KHAT. This format stayed in place until the early 1970s when it went all-news as KPHX, which only lasted about a year. Around 1974, KPHX became a Spanish language station, and remained one for approximately 30 years. By 1982, KPHX had started operating at night.

Starting in 2004, KPHX aired a syndicated all-comedy format which remained for nearly two years. KPHX flipped to an adult standards format in 2006, with the Music of Your Life network.

Progressive talk format

After KXXT (1010 kHz AM), the Phoenix affiliate of Air America Radio since the fall of 2004, was sold to a station group known as Communicom in January 2006, and as a result changed to a Christian radio format by March 2006, the progressive format disappeared from the Phoenix radio airwaves. In late March 2006, the owners of KPHX entered into a local marketing agreement with Sheldon Drobny's Nova M Radio thus bringing the Air America progressive/liberal talk format to KPHX.

The Lounge Sound

On January 1, 2009, KPHX switched to an Adult standards format as "The Lounge Sound". Brad Chambers, the man behind KPHX's new format, succeeded in getting the format back on the air after being "exiled" from the Fabulous 690 in Los Angeles for more than 2 years. Chambers, who had the morning show, "Martini In The Morning," continued The Lounge Sound format on the internet from his studios in Studio City, California martiniinthemorning.com.

Return to Progressive Talk

On July 6, 2009, KPHX discontinued the Lounge Sound and switched back to the progressive talk format. Mike Newcomb hosted an afternoon drive program; the nationally broadcast programs of Randi Rhodes, Thom Hartmann, Bill Press, Stephanie Miller, Mike Malloy and Ed Schultz also returned to the KPHX lineup.

KPHX also began carrying the Alan Colmes show, and also the independently syndicated news program Democracy Now! (heard mainly on Pacifica Radio stations among others) on a tape delay basis. Several times per day, national news updates from Westwood One are heard at the top of the hour.

Rhodes' and Schultz's radio shows both ceased in the spring of 2014. As of fall 2015, Bill Press, Thom Hartmann, Stephanie Miller and Alan Colmes remain on the schedule from this group of hosts.

In January 2016, a locally-produced progressive call-in talk show made its debut, hosted by progressive commentator Sam Kelley. Kelley's program aired weekday afternoons, replacing the Jim Rome sports talk show on the schedule. This was the first locally-produced afternoon drive program on the station since Mike Newcomb's program ended in 2014.

On June 15, 2016, a new afternoon drive-time show debuted from 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM. "Daily Voice" with long time station personality and former producer for the Mike Newcomb show, Eric Reinert. Eric was also a co-host on "Team America" which also aired on KPHX briefly. Daily Voice is produced by Kathleen Osborn who is also on the show as Eric's cohost.

Addition of CBS Sports Radio

In the fall of 2014, KPHX added selected weekday/weeknight programming from the recently established CBS Sports Radio network. The Jim Rome Show, The Doug Gottlieb Show and the Amy Lawrence overnight show are on the schedule. KPHX dropped Rome's and Gottlieb's shows on December 11, 2015, in favor of political shows, while Lawrence's show remains on the schedule to fill overnight hours. By 2017, all remaining CBS Sports Radio programs have been dropped from the schedule.

Some locally produced sports talk programming has been on the station on weekends since 2012.