Radio formats and DJs come and go often. But what about radio studio locations? What station has stayed put the longest?
KSOP likely has the most glued-down radio station studio.
Henry Hilton started the station back in February 1955 on AM. Broadcasting on FM followed in 1964, and it all happened at 1285 W. 2320 South in West Valley City.
Greg Hilton, one of Henry's sons and the current general manager of KSOP, e-mailed me this historical information:
"The radio station has been on the same property for the past 52 years. I have home movies of my dad on a tractor putting in the ground antenna system in 1954. The original building, which was about 50 yards west of our current building, was a single-story block building that was very small. It had the AM studio and four offices.
"The transmitter was also contained in that building. In 1964 when preparing for the arrival of KSOP-FM, my dad purchased a prebuilt cabin and put it next to the original building. It became the business offices, and the new FM transmitter and studio, plus a production studio, filled up the original building. In about 1974, I began to lobby to build a new building. Instead, a double-wide trailer was purchased to house additional offices. In 1979 we moved into our current two-story building."
KSOP is also one of the few family-owned stations left today.
I'm not sure who holds second place, but KSL moved to the Triad Center in 1984, which was also about the same time that John Price opened his radio studio cluster at 434 Bear Cat Drive in South Salt Lake. Today, Citadel radio operates at the same place on Bear Cat Drive with KBEE, KENZ and other radio stations.
In sharp contrast to stability, FM-97.1 as a radio frequency has had many different studio locations in the valley. In 1985, it was located in North Salt Lake, at the northern end of Redwood Road in its KISN days. By the early 1990s, it had moved to about 3900 South and 700 East. Then, it relocated west of Pioneer Park for a time. Today, as KZHT, it is found in West Valley City on Decker Lake Boulevard as part of the Salt Lake Clear Channel cluster.
NEW INDUCTEES — Three new members were inducted into the Utah Broadcasters Hall of Fame this week: Ted Capener, Joe Kjar and Ken Samson.
Capener is longtime broadcaster at KSL Radio and TV and more recently at KUED-TV. Kjar is a retired executive with Bonneville International. Samson is a former KSL radio personality and successful Hollywood actor.
The late Arch Madsen, former head of Bonneville International and member of the UBA Hall of Fame, was also posthumously honored by Utah Broadcasters this week.
RICK SHANE UPDATE — This DJ started at KKAT back in 1987 as the producer of the morning show. Now, almost 20 years and many stations later, a microphone still figures prominently into his varied broadcast career.
Shane is working weekday mornings on the air at Country Legends 107.5 with "Country Joe," doing traffic
reports. He's also a DJ on the weekends and a fill-in on Country Legends.
In addition, Shane is the oval-track announcer at Rocky Mountain Raceways; is a DJ on sister station KBEE, Sunday mornings 7 a.m.-noon.; and "B98.7" has teamed up with the Salt Lake Bees Baseball Team, giving him the opportunity to share the duties of being the MC with Scooter (also from B98.7) for every home game.
"Between RMR and the Bees I am out in front of approximately 6,000 to 9,000 people every weekend," Shane said in an e-mail. "Seems like I always have a microphone in front of my face, and I love it!"
E-mail: lynn@desnews.com