KMVP (AM)
| City | Phoenix, Arizona |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Phoenix metropolitan area |
| Branding | Gospel 860 |
| Slogan | "Playing The Best in Gospel Music" |
| Frequency | 860 kHz (also on HD Radio) |
| First air date | 1949 (as KIFN) |
| Format | Gospel Music |
| Power | 940 watts day 1,000 watts night |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 1326 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 33°25′14″N 112°7′37″W / 33.42056°N 112.12694°W |
| Callsign meaning | K Most Valuable Player (nod to former sports format) |
| Former callsigns | KIFN (1949-1982) KVVA (1982-1996) |
| Owner | Bonneville International Corporation |
| Sister stations | 98.7 KMVP-FM, 620 KTAR (AM), 92.3 KTAR-FM |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | gospel860.com |
KMVP (860 AM) is a Gospel music radio station in Phoenix, Arizona aimed at the African American community in the Phoenix metropolitan area. KMVP is owned by the Bonneville International Corporation. Its studios are located in Phoenix near Piestewa Peak and its transmitter is in South Phoenix near Broadway and 27th Avenue.
KMVP operates by day with 940 watts non-directional and at 1,000 watts at night with a directional antenna. The call letters refer to Most Valuable Player, a sports term. They remain from when KMVP was a Sports radio station. KMVP's parent company, Bonneville International, a subsidiary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, moved the sports format to sister station 620 KTAR (AM) in 2007. And it also owns another Sports station in the Phoenix media market with the "MVP" call letters, 98.7 KMVP-FM.
The 860 kHz frequency was occupied by several radio stations in Phoenix. The first station signed on the air as early as 1949 with the call letters KIFN, Phoenix's first full-time Spanish-language radio station. [1] From the time it signed on until the early 1980s, KIFN operated as a daytime-only station. (860 is a Canadian clear channel frequency, limiting the coverage of American stations operating at 860.) For many years, KIFN was owned by the Tichenor family, which owned a group of Spanish-language stations that ultimately became the Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation. After being sold in 1982, the call letters became KVVA ("Viva"), and the new owners retained its Spanish-language format. Among the programs aired in this era was a simulcast of Channel 10 KTSP's 10 p.m. news.
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