...The radios we'll always remember

Superpower KUSW, Salt Lake City



"From the West to the World"

Posted By: Robert Nickels (W9RAN)



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Superpower KUSW officially launched on December 26, 1987 during the peak years of the American commercial shortwave broadcasting boom triggered by the founding of WRNO Worldwide.    Carlson Communications International, which also owned a network of AM and FM stations in Utah, Nevada, and Arizona,   broadcast a combination of news and rock music over 100,000 watt KUSW.  The station also carried selected Utah Jazz games and had a mail-order catalog of products made in the Rocky Mountains.

For those who miss the great sound of KUSW Shortwave, here's an aircheck that was recorded on December 26, 1987 received at 2040 UTC on 17715 kHz.   Included are rock music, national commercials, newscast, frequency schedule and announcements by John Florence.    Music and commercials are scoped.

Trinity Broadcasting Network purchased KUSW in 1990 for approximately $2 million and staged a mock demolition of the stations library of rock music albums.   The station returned to the air with religious programming under the callsigg KTBN.    In 2004 it announced that the station was considering ceasing operations due to “a lack of listener response”.    It continued to limp along and finally went dark on March 30, 2008 (14 years to the day before this posting).   After its final sign-off, the station equipment, including the transmitter and antenna array, was dismantled and shipped to Anguilla to be incorporated into the Caribbean radio station

Maybe  if it had continued to broadcast rock music “from the West to the World” listeners would have responded differently.

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Final Call for K9QET

presented by Harry N9CQX on MCRN 3/18/23