Travel north on I-17 from the greater Phoenix area and you’ll pass through Black Canyon City, Ariz., known for its hiking and equine experiences. For those who visit Deep Canyon Ranch, they’ll undoubtedly see a tower array housing the transmitter for a Class B AM radio station with a signal big enough to reach Flagstaff and Tucson.
Now, just days after its 42nd birthday, the station’s owner — Entravision Communications — is euthanizing the AM.
In a filing submitted Monday by Wiley partner Ari Meltzer, Entravision submitted a Cancellation Application for KBMB-AM 710, which must power down from 22kw from two towers to 3.9kw from six towers at night to protect KIRO-AM in Seattle.
President/COO Jeffery Liberman signed off on the filing, which is a request to cancel the entire facility.
Since August 2020, KBMB has been the Phoenix market’s home for TelevisaUnivision’s Spanish-language Sports network, TUDN Radio. Previously, KBMB carried the ESPN Deportes radio network. KBMB became an Entravision property through its 2000 merger with Z-Spanish Media Group; Z-Spanish acquired KBMB in 1997. However, it was silent until late 2001 when it began using the Black Canyon City antenna array.
In recent years, however, KBMB, like many AM radio stations with multiple tower arrays, had become a forlorn property. In the October 2023 Nielsen Audio ratings for Phoenix, it mustered up a 0.1 share after three non-appearances in the monthly audience estimates for the market.
The decision to conclude broadcasts on KBMB is linked to the August 2023 sale of the 46.4-acre land parcel on which the station’s towers presently sit. The land is some 950 meters northeast of Arizona Metals Corp.’s Kay Mine Deposit, and with surface, mineral and water rights associated with the property, a $2.5 million acquisition was struck, giving the company “another significant de-risking step” in moving the Kay Mine Deposit closer to a production decision for Toronto-based Arizona Metals Corp.
“We believe that our Kay Mine Project has the potential to become one of Arizona’s newest and highest-grade copper-gold-zinc-silver mines, with the main deposit and potential for all
infrastructure to be located on private land,” Arizona Metals CEO Marc Pais said.
In past years, locals protested the presence of the broadcast towers, with vandalism seen in 2006.
