First air date June 1, 1960 HAAT 494 meters (1,621 ft) Facility ID 65166 City of license Tempe Owner Hubbard Broadcasting Branding 98 KUPD | ERP 100,000 watts Class C Frequency 97.9 MHz Format Active rock Area Phoenix Slogan Arizona's Real Rock | |
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Broadcast area Phoenix metropolitan area | ||
KUPD (97.9 MHz, "98 KUPD") is a commercial FM radio station broadcasting an active rock radio format. Licensed to Tempe, Arizona, the station serves the Phoenix metropolitan area. The station is owned by Hubbard Radio, a division of Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc. of St. Paul, Minnesota. Its studios are located on North 52nd Street west of Papago Park and its transmitter is in South Mountain Park.
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KUPD has been nominated as the "Major Market Radio Station of the Year" for a RadioContraband Rock Radio Award in 2011 and 2012. KUPD was inducted into the Rock Radio Hall of Fame in 2014.
Shinedown live at the 98 kupd studios
History
On July 1, 1960, KUPD first signed on the air as the FM sister station to 1060 KUPD (now KDUS). KUPD-FM simulcast its AM station's MOR popular music format. In the 1970s, the station moved to a Top 40 format, and later easy listening and Adult Contemporary, before becoming a rock station in the 1980s. In the 1990s it became co-owned with its former competitors, KDKB and KSLX-FM, after being purchased by Sandusky Radio, which also owned stations in Seattle, Washington. In 2013, Sandusky sold its stations in Phoenix and Seattle to Hubbard Broadcasting.
Rock Concert Sponsorship
Along with sponsoring the majority of hard rock concerts in the Phoenix-metro area, the station also holds its own annual concert events "U-fest" and the recent addition "The End of Summer Scorcher," usually around late-September. The station has invited notable hard rock acts to play the show each year. In recent years it has been headlined by acts such as Alice In Chains in 2008, Sevendust in 2009, Three Days Grace in 2010 and Papa Roach in 2011.
HD Radio
KUPD once transmitted an HD Radio signal, but due to technical issues, has since returned to analog only broadcasting. The second channel carried sister station KDUS NBC Sports Radio 1060, which now airs on KSLX-FM's HD2 subchannel.