breaking news! radio and tv for mesa.

. . BREAKING NEWS! RADIO AND TV FOR MESA. .
RADIO BROADCASTING
By 1947, Mesa, then a community
of 13,000, had passed the Federal
Communication minimum
population requirement of the
5,000 people needed to operate
a radio station. This was just the
beginning for Mesa’s first two
radio stations.
K
A
R
V
In the first two weeks of 1947, two radio stations
were started in the city.
On January 6, 1947 station KARV began operating
in the basement of the Little Theater on Pepper
Street. It was a station that would operate daily
from 5 a.m. to midnight, presenting local talent
programs, transcriptions and shows provided by
one of the major networks.
KARV, Mesa’s first radio station.
K
T
Y
L
One week later station KTYL, the nation’s first
drive-in station, began operating two miles
South on Country Club Drive. Both stations were
small 250 watt un-affiliated stations owned by
long time Mesa residents.
K
D
K
B
KALF became KDKB.
It was owned and
operated by Maricopa
County Broadcasters
in 1962. It was located
on West Southern
Avenue.
MESA RADIO HIGHLIGHTS
Mesa was home to Arizona’s first FM station, KTYL-FM (104.7, now
KZZP), which debuted in 1950.
Mesa was also the first to broadcast in FM multiplex, a technology
that allowed for stereo channels.
The last radio station to be awarded a Mesa license was KALF, a
10,000-watt daytime station which went on the air
in November 1962.
Only five FCC licenses were awarded to stations in Mesa.
KVIT, is one of the only stations still located in Mesa today. The
FM station is operated by students at the East Valley Institute of Technology in Mesa
CASTING
TELEVISION BROAD
K
T
Y
L
T
V
Mesa’s first and only television station KTYL-TV,
started broadcasting on May 2, 1953 on Channel
12. It’s studios were located on the Phoenix-Mesa
Highway west of Mesa.
KTYL station on south Country Club drive.
For its first six years KTYL (channel 12),
which became KVAR in 1955, broadcast
from its Mesa studios on a three-acre site at
Country Club and Baseline, until 1959 when
it moved its facilities to Phoenix.
Mesa Historical Museum
Mesa Historical Museum
http://www.valleyhistoryinc.com