KIRO (AM)

KIRO (710 AM) is a radio station based in Seattle, Washington on the shores of Lake Union with 2 towers on Maury Island, broadcasting on 710 kHz in the AM radio spectrum. The station's format is sports radio and it is affiliated with the ESPN Radio Network. The station's studios are located on Eastlake Avenue in Seattle's Eastlake district.

History

The early years as KPCB 650 (1927-1937)

KIRO began broadcasting on April 27, 1927, as the 100-watt station KPCB 650. Its founder was Moritz Thomsen of the Pacific Coast Biscuit Company. Among its announcers was Chet Huntley, later of television's Huntley-Brinkley Report. In 1935 Saul Haas's Queen City Broadcasting Company took over the station. He changed the call letters to KIRO and increased its power to 500 Watts. Haas, who was well connected in liberal politics and the business community, wanted a simple, pronounceable, and recognizable word for his new station. KING, after King County, Washington, was not available at that time.

1937 to 1960 (now 710 KIRO)

Kiro

Kiro was a colonial post in what is now the Central Equatoria province of South Sudan on the west side of the Bahr al Jebel or White Nile river. It was in part of the Lado enclave.

In 1900 there were said to be 1,500 troops from the Congo Free State divided among the three Lado enclave Nile stations of Kiro, Lado and Redjaf. After the final defeat of the Khalifa by the British under General Herbert Kitchener in 1898, the Nile up to the Uganda border became part of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. An expedition upriver from Ondurman arrived in December 1900. A post was established at Kiro, but later was transferred to Mongalla in April 1901 since Kiro was claimed to be in Belgian territory.

Edward Fothergill visited the Sudan around this time, basing himself at Mongalla, which lay between Lado to the south and Kiro to the north, but on the east shore of the river. By his account "Kiro, the most northern station of the Congo on the Nile, is very pretty and clean. Lado, the second station, is prettier still". However, although he said the buildings were well made, they were too closely crowded together.

KIRO

KIRO may refer to:

KIRO-TV

KIRO-TV Channel 7 is a CBS-affiliated television station located in Seattle, Washington, United States. The station is owned by the Cox Media Group subsidiary of Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises. The station's offices and studios are located on Third Avenue in the city's Belltown neighborhood and its transmitter is located on Queen Anne Hill an adjacent to the station's original studios.

KIRO-TV is one of five local Seattle television stations seen in Canada via Shaw Broadcast Services for the purposes of time-shifting and can be viewed from many eastern Canadian cities including Toronto and Montreal and on satellite providers Bell TV and Shaw Direct. It can also been seen on local cable systems in British Columbia as the "local" CBS affiliate.

Digital television

Digital channels

Analog-to-digital conversion

KIRO-TV shut down its analog signal over VHF channel 7 on June 12, 2009 as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 39, using PSIP to display KIRO-TV's virtual channel as 7 on digital television receivers.