KFBX

On July 24, 1970, Big Country Radio, Inc., owner of KYAK in Anchorage, applied for a construction permit to build a new radio station on 970 kHz in Fairbanks, which was approved on January 13, 1971.[1] The station began broadcasting as KIAK on September 18, 1972, airing a country music format.[2]

Big Country Radio sold its three Alaska radio properties—KIAK, KYAK and Anchorage FM outlet KGOT—to Prime Time of Alaska, a company owned by interests from Washington state, in 1978 for more than $3 million.[3] Prime Time owned a country music station in Everett, Washington, KWYZ.[4]

1983 was an eventful year for KIAK. Prime Time sold the station to Bingham Broadcasting, controlled by a minority owner of a Seattle station, for $4.5 million.[5] The sale included KIAK's FM construction permit, KQRZ (102.5 FM), which launched that July and originally played a Top 40 format.[6] At the end of that month, a 28-year-old man threatened to blow up the station if he did not get air time; he was startled to find that the station was actually an automated operation and ultimately surrendered.[7] In fact, KIAK had been automated since 1975, using a syndicated format from Drake-Chenault; the automation equipment was dubbed by the station as the "Big Country Machine".[8]

Bingham sold all four of his stations—AM-FM pairs in Anchorage and Fairbanks—to Olympia Broadcasting for about $12 million at the very end of 1985.[9] In January 1990, the contemporary country format of KIAK moved to the former KQRZ, which became KIAK-FM; KIAK began to focus more on a classic country format and added several new talk programs.[10] Olympia would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June 1990,[11] setting off a lengthy process that included three different abortive sale attempts of the company's four Alaska properties. A deal with Harbor Broadcasting was doomed by a license challenge by the NAACP; while a settlement was reached, the FCC conditioned the sale on the license renewals, and Olympia was anxious to sell the stations to satisfy its creditors.[12] The next sale attempt, to Alpha & Beta Broadcasting, was canceled by the company's receiver in early 1992 due to a conflict between creditor Barclays and lender Greyhound Financial; the latter felt that the stations had sold for too little money.[13] In January 1993, the receiver proposed to sell the stations to Community Pacific Broadcasting for $1.2 million,[14] but this was superseded by a $1.45 million offer from Craig McCaw's COMCO Broadcasting.[15] By this time, KIAK had largely become a sports talk outlet.[16]

Comco sold its entire station portfolio, including KIAK-AM-FM and KAKQ-FM in Fairbanks, to Capstar Broadcasting Partners, a forerunner to present owner iHeartMedia, in 1997.[17] The call letters were changed from KIAK to KFBX in October 2004.[18]

• KFBX website
• KFBX in the FCC AM station database
• KFBX on Radio-Locator
• KFBX in Nielsen Audio's AM station database