Broadcast area Spokane area Power 5,000 watts Facility ID 60421 City of license Spokane Owner iHeartMedia Inc Branding Newsradio 590 KQNT | Audience share 3.4, #12 (Fa'07, R&R) Class B Frequency 590 kHz Format Talk radio Area Spokane area Slogan Spokane's News Source | |
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First air date February 28, 1922 (in Seattle; moved to Spokane on October 30, 1925) | ||
KQNT is a news-talk radio station in Spokane, Washington, United States, that offers a mix of news and syndicated talk fare. The station is currently owned by iHeartMedia and features programming from Fox News Radio and Premiere Radio Networks.
Contents
Programs
590 KQNT offers a variety of talk radio programs, including Rush Limbaugh, Dave Ramsey, Glenn Beck, America Now with Andy Dean, and Coast to Coast AM, all shows distributed by Clear Channel's Premiere Radio Networks. KQNT also airs a live local morning show from 5-9 a.m. KQNT receives its hourly news updates from Fox News and local news, traffic, and weather updates from KHQ, Spokane's NBC TV affiliate.
History
The station began on February 28, 1922 as KHQ, broadcasting from Seattle and owned by Louis Wasmer. After broadcasting in Seattle for two years, Wasmer then moved the station to Spokane in the summer of 1925. After the necessary preparations, KHQ went on the air with great fanfare in Spokane from the Davenport Hotel on October 30, 1925. KHQ was Spokane's fourth radio station. According to the original Federal Radio Commission broadcast license records, radio stations KFZ, KOE, and KFIO (antecedent of the current KSBN) were on the air in Spokane before KHQ signed on in Spokane on October 30, 1925.
Wasmer moved the station's studios and office across Post Street from the Davenport Hotel to the seventh floor of Spokane Stock Exchange Building (also called the Eilers Building) in 1928 because the fledgling station had outgrown its quarters in the hotel. KGA later joined KHQ in the building and the building was subsequently renamed the Radio Central Building.
After the Second World War, Cowles Publishing Company, publisher of The Spokesman-Review newspaper, bought KHQ and used it to launch an FM station (now KISC) and a television station (which still bears the KHQ-TV calls). KHQ stayed in the Radio Central Building until 1960, when it moved to a modern facility next to its transmitter site on South Regal on the Moran Prairie.
Cowles sold off its radio interests in 1984; on New Year's Day 1985, AM 590 changed its calls to KLSN. On December 12, 1986; the station changed its call sign to KAQQ, and on New Year's Day 2002 to the current KQNT.