The year in Utah radio is almost complete. Probably no other industry has so many changes - in staff, format, etc., or so many pranks and gags. Here's a look at some of the highlights of 1993:
January:
KRCL names Sarah Behrens as its new development director . . . KRSP revises its lineup and names Frank and Stone as its new morning team . . . Jon and Dan of KLZX get themselves "fired" for one day in a publicity stunt after becoming upset over a newspaper article in the Salt Lake Tribune . . . KISN helps sponsor a tennis game between Jimmy Connors and Bjorn Borg in a one-set challenge match, Fisher and Connors play against Todd and Borg . . . KISN also gives away a 1993 Ford Escort at the International Auto Show in the Salt Palace, and Fisher and Todd are busy with another project, the "Great Balls of Foil" contest to help elementary and junior high students learn about aluminum foil recycling . . . KSFI is ranked No. 1 in the fall Arbitron ratings, ending KKAT's 2 1/2-year reign . . . KCPX changes its call letters to KVRI . . . KSRR simulcasts on KMGR-AM's signal, reaching the S.L. market with LDS contemporary music . . . KCPW, FM-88.3, works out its transmission problems and reaches the Salt Lake area with NPR programming . . . KSL Radio/TV trims six more positions in another consolidation and cost-cutting move . . . KKAT moves into KALL radio's building on South Temple.
February:
KUER celebrates Black History Month with a variety of specials . . . In the adult Arbitron ratings for morning shows, the rankings come up with Cano and Simmons of KKAT on top, followed by KSFI's Scott MacNeil and Peggy Ijams, Jon and Dan of KLZX, KALL's Tom Barberi and Fisher and Todd of KISN-FM . . . KTKK lays off Mills Crenshaw and makes other reductions because of a decline in advertising sales . . . KALL-FM goes to satellite programming and Tom Barberi loses his FM simulcast, but goes all-talk on KALL-AM . . . KALL-AM continues its move to all-talk programming with the addition of Larry King in the afternoon . . . Fisher and Todd begin their eighth year at KISN . . . KUTV offers an eight-part TV series on Wasatch Front radio . . . Cano and Simmons sign a new, four-year contract at KKAT . . . Scott Christopher of KUTQ's McCormick and Scotty co-stars in the new "Rockwell" movie . . . KUTQ wins a celebrity bowling fund-raising tournament . . . Dan Jessop, program director of KMXB, is named operations manager for KUMT, KMXB and KBBX . . . KUTE, the U.'s closed-circuit student station, returns after a two-year hiatus.
March:
KUER leaves Kingsbury Hall and moves into a new studio in the Eccles Broadcast Center . . . KISN-FM hosts its second star party with Debbie Gibson and Kenny G . . . KRCL has a radiothon . . . Lottery talk dominates conversations on FM radio in the first week of March . . . Rumors abound over changes for KSL's morning team, and morning co-anchor Tim Hughes is let go, with Rod Arquette temporarily taking his place . . . Barry Moll, KRSP afternoon DJ, dies . . . KBZN moves to new studios at 257 E. 200 South in Salt Lake City . . . KMXB personalities participate in the annual benefit walk for MS . . . St. Patrick's Day is declared "Radio Day" by the governor and a special luncheon is held . . . KSL moves "Sportscentral" to evenings; Bob Lee to late evenings and puts Amanda Dixon and Chuck Seeger in the afternoon drive. Doug Wright has a new show, "News You Can Use" . . . KRCL holds its sixth annual "Women Aloud" weekend . . . KSFI helps compile a substance abuse pamphlet for Utah's schools . . . KKAT begins a $60,000 giveaway campaign.
April:
KKAT has the best April Fool's Joke with a prank on Wasatch sewer backup and cleaning and KVRI has the most entertaining joke with its bogus April Fool's Day parade from Scipio . . . Mike Runge leaves Tom Barberi's show after 18 years as KALL does not renew his contract after Barberi's show is converted to all-talk . . . KISN-FM helps sponsor a food drive . . . Radio stations gear with up with various gimmicks as the April 15 tax deadline approaches . . . KSOP collects the most sponsors in a media bowling tournament to benefit Big Brothers/Big Sisters . . . Cano and Simmons have a new jingle with the "Gilligan's Island" theme song . . . KFMY returns to the air with "Sentimental Radio" and with "Sounds of Sunday" . . . KSL's Blue Chip Card returns . . . New radio billboards spring up all over the valley . . . KLZX continues its "Z-Car" promotion . . . KSGI of St. George is sold to Bear River Communications by Color Country Media . . . KSFI co-sponsors the Great Salt Lake Beach Fest . . . The FCC calls for a license renewal hearing for KBER because of the legal questions regarding the 1990 sale of its former FM-106.5 frequency to KQOL . . . Jon Van Wagoner is named interim general manager of KMXB to replace David Ferraro.
May:
KSFI co-sponsors the "Swing True for Life" baseball seminar in South Jordan . . . Joe Redburn leaves KTKK and is replaced by John Harrington . . . KRSP has the "Rock 103 Million Dollar Giveaway" . . . KSFI and KKAT lead the winter Arbitron ratings . . . Charles Osgood of the CBS Radio Network visits Salt Lake City . . . Michael G. Kavanaugh joins KUMT . . . KKBE switches to the Super Gospel Network and country gospel music from a contemporary hit music format. Sister station KJQN changes call letters to KJOE . . . Tracy Van Wagoner leaves KUTQ as promotions director and joins KFSI and its two sister stations . . . KSL hires Grant Nielsen and Amanda Dixon to be the new morning co-hosts. Rod Arquette, temporary morning co-host, moves to afternoon drive with Maria Shilaos . . . KCNR names Tim Lewis its new director of news and programming and also hires Rebecca Marshall as a news reporter . . . Amy Bombard, KLZX sports reporter, leaves the station . . . KSOS gives away a 1959 Continental Car and counts down the top 500 songs from the '50s to the '70s over the Memorial Day weekend . . . A new "Sports Illustrated for Kids" show premieres on KKDS . . . KLO gets a multi-year contract to broadcast Weber State University sporting events . . . Ron Harrison of KBER gets punched on the air by an irate fan and both he and co-host Allen Handy are taken off their billboard perch and off the air. By the next week, they're broadcasting their morning show in the nude . . . Clyde Lewis returns to KLZX . . . KDYL starts up a new transmitter for Utah County . . .
June:
KUER begins airing a special NPR "Star Wars" radio series each Sunday . . . KSRR ("K-Star"), LDS music station in Utah County, begins a simulcast on KMGR-AM, reaching into Salt Lake, Davis and Weber counties with a good substitute for the old KUTR format . . . KKAT holds its annual summer music festival . . . Holly Derum and Dick Kastle move from weekends to mornings on KTKK radio to create the station's first ever male-female morning team, but it only lasts a few weeks . . . KLO's Len Allen is master of ceremonies at West Point's Junior Miss Pageant . . . KBER's Ron Harrison temporarily quits over a salary dispute, but returns to the air later in the month . . . Tricia Griffith is named the KLZX program director . . . Tom Bock, KMXB afternoon personality, switches to mornings with Robin Morales.
July:
KVRI is once again a sponsor of the annual Sky Concert on July Fourth weekend and a host of other stations also sponsor holiday weekend activities . . . KLZX stages its annual "Livestock" music festival . . . KSL joins the Road Gang Coast to Coast trucker's network and airs its special programming overnight, dropping "When Radio Was" . . . "Creative Utah" is a new morning show segment on KCPW . . . KRSP presents its "Summer of Rock" promotion . . . Danny Jessop leaves KMXB and becomes the production director at KSFI/KDYL/KRSP . . . Four radio stations participate in Ogden's Street Festival . . . KALL drops the Larry King Show in favor of "The G. Gordon Liddy Show" . . . The "Outdoor Utah" show moves to KISN-AM . . . Fisher and Todd on KISN-FM survey listeners for answers regarding when you know you're in love and how do you know when the honeymoon's over? . . . Tom Connelly is named the program director for both KMXB and KUMT . . . Tom Bock and Robin Morales, KMXB morning hosts, broadcast live from the new "Back to the Future" ride at Universal Studios . . . KKAT and KSFI top the newest Arbitron radio ratings. KSOP also improves . . . KVEX-FM in Cache County is purchased by E. Morgan Skinner Jr. and Lavon Randall with new studios and USU sports play-by-play broadcasts planned . . . Roger Stone leaves KRSP and Frank Belco becomes a solo host . . . KSFI is nominated for five different Billboard magazine radio awards . . . Radio legend Rex Wallgren, 74, dies.
August:
KCPW broadcasts the Sunstone Symposium live . . . KBZN hires Corey Lane as a new midday announcer, replacing Victoria Ames . . . KBER's Ron and Allen get listeners to find a missing boy's wheelchair, as well as raise $300 to the cause, while Jon and Dan of KLZX raise $2,800 toward repairing and upgrading the wheelchair . . . KBZN co-sponsors the Park City Arts Festival . . . A'me Kelly of KVRI pushes a lawnmower down State Street in a stunt to see how far a mower can go on a tank of gas . . . Tim Hughes, former KSL morning anchor, is hired by KSOP to do promotions and programming . . . Chris Tunis leaves KSL radio . . . KFMY changes its call letters to KOVO . . . KDYL hosts an age 50-plus fair for its listeners . . . KUMT lays off all two of its on-air staff and is revamped . . . KBBX changes its call letters to KCPX . . . Bill Struck is named as the new general manager for KMXB/KUMT/KCPX . . . Radio sports wars heat up as KISN-AM announces it will go all-sports with Chris Tunis. Hans Petersen is let go by KISN-AM . . . KUER hires three new staffers, Wynne Smith, Amber Rowland and Michael Harvey . . . Jon and Dan head to Hollywood for bit parts in the "Pat" movie . . . KSOP hosts Garth Brooks in concert . . . Trina Eyring leaves KALL-AM and is replaced by Gaylen Palmer . . . C. Richard Evans, Utah radio pioneer, dies . . . Martin Davies leaves KTKK.
September:
KISN-AM premieres with its new all-sports format . . . Bob Edwards, NPR host of "Morning Edition," visits Salt Lake City as a guest of KUER . . . Bonneville International purchases two more radio stations in Kansas City . . . KCNR gets into the talk-radio business with afternoon hosts Martin Davies and Mills Crenshaw . . . Steve Rhodes, the new afternoon DJ on KUMT, dies of a heart attack after less than a week on the air . . . Gary Zane leaves KVRI. He's replaced with an expanded morning team "Wakeup Club" of Brian Casey, Rebecca Marshall and Mick MacKay . . . Chris Smart takes Martin Davies' place on KTKK . . . KQOL ceases sports programming and KRGO begins simulcasting its signal there . . . KUER adds Scott Carrier as an independent producer . . . Rogers and Flynn start a morning show on KCNR . . . KTUR, a new, 50,000-watt Spanish radio station in Salt Lake, starts up . . . Jon of KLZX gets "lost" and listeners join a contest to find him at a cafe. The station then spends several weeks playing every classic rock song it has from A to Z . . . KSOP moves up to second behind KKAT in the Arbitrend ratings for ages 12 and up and to No. 1 for the 25-54 age group.
October:
KSL makes some big programming changes and, among other things, moves Bob Lee from evenings to mornings and Doug Wright from middays to afternoon. The Gil Gross radio show also returns . . . Dom Casual leaves KXRK and is replaced by Kerry Jackson and the return of the "Radio From Hell" show . . . KZHT replaces Jackson with Mike Stocker in mornings and moves its "Dennis the Menace" DJ to afternoons . . . Jon and Dan go on location to broadcast from the "Pumpkin Patch" . . . KSL and KKAT were the big metro station winners at the UBEE Utah Broadcasters Association honors night. KDXU/KZEZ of St. George was the top non-metro radio station winner . . . KSFI is No. 1 in the Aribtron summer ratings in the adult and age 12-plus categories . . . KUER rebroadcasts the "War of the Worlds" production for Halloween . . . Jon and Dan put out a new billboard on I-15, showing them with 300-pound-plus bodies . . . Michael G. Kavanagh begins a new evening show, "Sleepless in Salt Lake," on KMXB.
November:
KBER's Ron and Allen stage a "Heterosexual Pride Parade" . . . KSL radio announces it is dropping the ABC Information radio service as of Jan. 15, 1994. This means Paul Harvey broadcasts will be discontinued . . . Rumors abound that KUMT, KCPX and KMXB are for sale, but they are untrue . . . Acme Broadcasting purchases KXRK as a permanent home for modern music . . . KBER and its sister station in Chicago are involved in a copyright infringement suit by Broadcast Music Inc. . . . The LDS Church issues two more free community service programs to U.S. radio stations . . . KALL-FM plays "Louie, Louie" music continuously during Thanksgiving week while it asks listeners for input on what type of oldies music they want to hear . . . Country music wars heat up between KSOP and KKAT . . . KSRR begins its annual holiday music by playing all Christmas music from Thanksgiving until Dec. 25 . . . Joe Redburn begins a new talk show on KCNR.
December:
KSOP gives away $10,000 in its holiday cash contest . . . KBZN's "7 O'Clock CD" show moves to 10 p.m. because of listener requests for a later time period . . . The "Backcountry Magazine" show on KOVO airs a special anniversary program . . . KSFI plays its 21st annual version of "100 Hours of Christmas Music" . . . KRSP gives away a Harley Davidson motorcycle . . . KDYL's "Mark and Danny" sponsor a bus trip to Southern California . . . Reporter/anchor Tammy Kikuchi leaves KSL radio for a job in state government . . . KKAT holds a country ball at Saltair . . . Name-calling among morning DJs escalates from a newspaper ad . . . KOVO airs a Frank Sinatra marathon and also co-sponsors a special holiday gift adoption program for abused children . . . KUER sponsors its annual Christmas food drive . . . Kent Rupe is named sports director for KSL radio, replacing Chris Tunis.