A new all-sports radio station — KOVO (AM-960) — is headed for Utah County and should be on the air next month.
KOVO, formerly a Spanish station, has been off the air since November. During this time, the new owner, Mill Creek Broadcasting of Salt Lake City (also owner of KFVR, "Fever 107.9"; KWKD, "The Blaze"; and KUUU, "U-92") has been preparing for the new format.
According to Bob Clements, new station manager, KOVO will be anchored by the Fox Sports Radio Network. At 5,000 watts during the day, the station will reach most of Salt Lake County. However, at night, when it must reduce power to 1,000 watts, KOVO will become a Utah County-only station. It is unlikely KOVO will be able to reach north of Salt Lake City.
"If all goes well, we could be on the air Friday, April 6, in the afternoon," said Clements, explaining that the engineering is the tricky part.
KOVO is housed at 26 W. Center St. in Provo and will have "Sports 960 KOVO" as it slogan.
Besides Fox Sports, the station will air play-by-play coverage of every Provo Angels baseball game, including the season opener on June 16. Clements also said Utah high school football and basketball games are another possibility.
"It doesn't make a lot of sense to go up against 'KFAN,' " he said, explaining that the station will make Utah County its niche and have a different focus than KFNZ (AM-1320).
KOVO will certainly discuss the Utah Jazz, Clements said, but it won't have NBA basketball as its bread and butter. Brigham Young University sports will be highlighted, though.
Clements said "Lewis and Clark, The Sports Explorers" will be the main live, local sports talk show on the station. Tim Lewis, formerly of KSL and KCNR locally, will join with Joe Clark, who used to work for Utah's "Score," for an afternoon program. The pair has also been featured nationally on the One on One Sports Network.
Tony Bruno's show will air from the Fox Sports Network, but Clements said the rest of the Fox lineup is undetermined. At least one more local sports talk show could eventually be added.
KOVO was the first radio station in Utah County and the ninth in Utah; it started in 1939. "It has a heritage," Clements said.
Any sports fans wanting an advance taste of the Fox Sports Radio Network can access the programming or listen live on the Web at www.foxsports.com/radio.
KFVR (FM-107.9), a sister station of KOVO, is also changing its format. An endless, loop tape of "Get Ready for This" by 2 Unlimited is playing on FM-107.9 now, signaling the format change from "Fever 107.9" to something else.
Station manager Randy Rodgers declined to say what the new format will be, just that the change will happen in the next few days and that the old format is history. Stay tuned.
KBYU (FM-89.1) will air "Searching for Lucy Gray," a lecture by BYU humanities professor of creative writing Leslie Norris on Thursday, March 22, at 9 p.m. The lecture was taped on Feb. 15 and focuses on the mysterious identity of Gray, a Welsh poet.
RADIO HAPPENINGS — KKAT and KISN are both Clear Channel Broadcasting stations, but recently there's been some unusual cross-promotion between the two. Ads touting sister station KISN have been airing on KKAT. That's a promotion for adult-contemporary music on a country station — something you wouldn't have heard of in the past. . . . "The Freak Show" this week on KURR gave away tickets to an upcoming AC/DC concert . . .
KUBL is sponsoring "Bull Fest" again this year. Mark Chesnutt and Tracy Lawrence will be performing in the Delta Center on April 27. You can't purchase tickets; you have to win them by listening to FM-93.3. . . . "The Z-Morning Zoo" on KZHT continues to be one of the most outrageous radio shows, especially for telephone pranks. One of the latest was Monday when the DJs called a local funeral home and cracked some of the standard mortician jokes to the person who answered.
E-MAIL: lynn@desnews.com