Branding ESPN 1400 First air date August 1990 | Frequency 1400 kHz AM Format Sports | |
City Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan Broadcast area [1] (Daytime)
[2] (Nighttime) | ||
WKNW is a sports radio station broadcasting at 1400 kHz on the AM dial serving Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. The station is currently the ESPN Radio affiliate for the Sault Ste. Marie market, and is the market's only dedicated sports radio station. According to past editions of the Broadcasting Yearbook, the station went on the air as WKNW in August 1990, after briefly holding the callsigns WBPW and WDHP before launch.
Originally owned by Algoma Broadcasting (who also owned top-40 FM station WYSS at the same time), WNKW operated as a news/talk station with live sports coverage from its inception throughout later ownership changes to Marathon Media in 1998, and Northern Star Broadcasting in 2002. The station is currently owned by Sovereign Communications, who acquired the station in 2010.[4] Following the ownership change, WKNW became a full ESPN Radio affiliate, with prior ESPN programming that aired on existing Sovereign AM station WSOO moving to WKNW, and some WKNW talk programs going the other way, notably including Coast to Coast AM. WKNW remains the most recent Sault Ste. Marie-area radio station to broadcast syndicated right wing political talk shows as part of their regular daily schedule.
Though current programming is largely syndicated from ESPN, WKNW does broadcast Soo Eagles hockey games and Lake Superior State University mens & women's basketball games, as well as the local sports talk programs The Hockey North Show & The Laker Hockey Show, hosted by Randy Russon & Bill Crawford respectively.