KJR (AM)
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| City | Seattle, Washington |
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| Broadcast area | Seattle metropolitan area |
| Branding | Sports Radio 950 KJR |
| Frequency | 950 kHz |
| First air date | 1922 |
| Format | Sports |
| Power | 50,000 watts |
| Class | B (regional) |
| Facility ID | 48386 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 47°26′00″N 122°28′02″W / 47.43333°N 122.46722°WCoordinates: 47°26′00″N 122°28′02″W / 47.43333°N 122.46722°W |
| Affiliations | Fox Sports Radio, NBC Sports Radio, Westwood One |
| Owner |
iHeartMedia, Inc. (Citicasters Licenses, Inc.) |
| Sister stations | KBKS-FM, KFOO, KHHO, KJR-FM, KPWK, KUBE |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | sportsradiokjr.com |
KJR (950 AM, "Sports Radio 950") is an all-sports radio station based in Seattle, Washington, owned by iHeartMedia, Inc..
Since the 2006-2007 season, ISP Sports was the media rights holder for Husky athletics until IMG College took over. KJR was the Washington IMG College Network's flagship station from 2002-2014. (KJR has since lost the broadcast rights back to KOMO.)
KJR carried some play-by-play from ESPN Radio, and some of the regular talk shows at night and during weekends. KJR is now the Puget Sound region's home of Fox Sports Radio and NBC Sports Radio.
It was Seattle's only all-sports talk radio station until 710 KIRO affiliated itself with ESPN.
The station's transmitter site is on Vashon Island, and operates from its studios in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood northwest of downtown.
Although not Seattle's first broadcasting station, KJR is the oldest station in Seattle to be recognized by the Department of Commerce as a broadcasting station according to available records, and its call letters, assigned on March 14, 1922, replaced its previous amateur radio designation, 7XC. The station's founder, Vincent Kraft, initially operated 7XC out of his home. At the time he received the KJR call letters, the station was operating in the Times Square Building in downtown Seattle. In 1925, Kraft moved the station to the Terminal Sales Building, where he had erected a 50-foot mast to serve as the station's transmitter, which was soon superseded by a new, T-wire transmitter built in North City near Lake Forest Park completed in 1927 (later the site of Saint Mark's Catholic Church), at which point the studios were moved to the Home Savings Building at 1520 Westlake Ave. Kraft sold the station to businessman Adolph Linden in 1928. Linden, and a subsequent owner, Ahira Pierce, were jailed for illegally financing the station with money from financial institutions which went bankrupt, and KJR was then acquired by NBC. In 1933, NBC leased the station to the Fisher family, which owned KOMO radio, who moved the studios to the Skinner Building. The Fisher family eventually purchased KJR in 1941. In 1936, KJR became an affiliate of the NBC Blue Network, and continued this affiliation after the Blue Network became ABC in the 1940s. In 1937, a new transmitter was erected on Seattle's West Waterway, which operated until 1996. By 1945, the Fisher family was forced to sell KJR to comply with an order from the FCC, and KJR was acquired by Birt Fisher, who was unrelated to the KOMO owners. In 1946, KJR was purchased by Marshall Field and continued its affiliation with ABC until 1953, when ABC switched to KING-AM. In July, 1952, Marshall Field sold the station to a group headed by Chicago businessman Ralph E. Stolkin, which sold it seven months later following Stolkin's departure to two Portland businessmen, Theodore Gamble and Howard Lane. Following the purchase of the station by Lester Smith in 1954, KJR became a pioneer Top 40 radio station, continuing with this format until 1982. Smith moved the studios to the transmitter site on West Waterway in 1955. In 1957, the station was sold to entertainers Danny Kaye and Frank Sinatra, and Smith stayed on as general manager. Sinatra sold his interest in the station to Smith in 1964, and the resulting partnership became known as "Kaye-Smith Enterprises." In the 1960s, under the programming guidance of Pat O'Day, the station was top rated in Seattle and well known for introducing the Pacific Northwest to many recording stars such as Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, Merrilee Rush & The Turnabouts and the Ventures. Today, the call letters are used by KJR-FM, which broadcasts a format that includes many of the songs and shows (including original American Top 40 shows from the 1970s) from that era.
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Wikipedia