Alpha Broadcasting/Portland moving and flipping

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Sportsradio 95.5 The Game KXTG-FM will move to the AM dial at 750 and Newsradio KXL will become the exclusive FM outlet for News/Talk as of Wednesday 5/25, 5pm PT. Alpha’s Director of Marketing and Promotions Susan Reynolds tells RBR-TVBR 95.5 will be getting a brand new format and new calls on the same day and details will be released then. After the move to AM, KXTG will take those call letters with it. 


The move follows KXL’s 750 AM addition of 101.1 FM last March, shuttering heritage Rocker KUFO-FM. This latest news marks the end of the KXL-FM + AM simulcast, making KXL the exclusive outlet for news/talk on the FM band.

In making the announcement to the staff, Alpha Broadcasting President/COO Bob Proffitt said, “Both our local and national research has shown us that News/Talk stations with strong brands and talent like KXL have performed very well on FM across the country. Since March 15th, we have been broadcasting NewsRadio on both 101.1 FM and 750 AM. We have been extremely happy with the response of our listeners on the migration from 750 to FM.  In fact, we remain the #1 News/Talk radio station in Portland because of the great talent we have with our news team, Lars Larson, our partnership with KGW-TV and much, much more.” 

He continued, “Concurrently, that same research has shown that sports programming across America does better on AM. People grew up listening to their favorite sports team on AM, and with our superior 50,000 watt AM signal on 750, coupled with incredible talent in Chad Doing, John Lund, John Canzano, John Strong, and Jay Allen, and the play-by-play of our partners the Trail Blazers, University of Oregon Ducks, Seattle Seahawks and the Portland Timbers, we look forward to much sports success on AM 750.   Additionally, we plan to run many of our play-by-play on both 750 AM the Game, and NewsRadio 101.1.”

RBR-TVBR observation: Let’s face it–Hubbard/Bonneville’s WTOP-FM in DC has proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that a news-talk station only needs a strong FM in the market to keep ratings and revenues high. This move will allow Alpha to launch a new station on 95.5 FM and maximize ROI on all of the sticks it has in that market. Perhaps it will bring back KUFO.