KVOD (630 AM) was the “Voice of Denver,” the call sign this frequency carried for roughly a quarter century before it became KHOW. If your parents or grandparents tuned their living-room radio to 630 in the 1930s, 40s or 50s, this is the name they would have known it by.
History
This is the middle chapter of a lineage that started as KFXF, put on the air by William Duncan Pyle’s Pikes Peak Broadcasting Co. in Colorado Springs in 1925 and moved to Denver in 1927. In July 1934 the calls changed to KVOD, a nod to the “Voice of Denver” identity. The call sign stuck until July 27, 1958, when the facility became KHOW.
Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado tells it a little differently, saying Pyle’s new station’s letters “were soon changed to KVOD” without giving a date, and it also notes that KVOD and KFEL shared frequencies in the 1930s. Pioneers also remembers Gene Price starting out at “KVOD-AM (Voice of Denver)” in 1953 as a disc jockey, newscaster and board operator.
The sale that led to the KHOW era came in 1958, when the FCC approved the purchase of KVOD from Colorado Radio Corp. by Western Broadcasting Enterprises Inc. for $300,000, along with an employment arrangement.
Don’t confuse this station with the classical-music KVOD that later lived on 99.5 FM, 92.5 FM, 1280 AM and eventually 90.1 and 88.1. Those are separate facilities that picked up the call letters after this one let them go.
The signal
- Frequency: 630 kHz AM, licensed to Denver
- Same facility today: KHOW, 5,000 watts, FCC facility ID 48962
- Power and hours during the KVOD years: not documented here yet
Call sign timeline
- KFXF: September 2, 1925 to July 1934
- KVOD: July 1934 to July 27, 1958
- KHOW: July 27, 1958 to today
Ownership history
- 1925 to 1927: Pikes Peak Broadcasting Co. (William Duncan Pyle), Colorado Springs, as KFXF
- Through 1958: Colorado Radio Corp. is named as the seller in the 1958 deal; owners before it haven’t been identified here yet
- 1958: Western Broadcasting Enterprises Inc., approved by the FCC for $300,000
- 1964: Trigg-Vaughn of Dallas bought the station, by then KHOW
For the later owners (Doubleday, Metromedia, Noble, Jacor, Clear Channel and iHeartMedia), see the KHOW page.
Where the studios have been
We haven’t found KVOD’s studio addresses yet. If you know them, we’d love to hear from you.
Sources
- Wikipedia: KHOW
- Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado: Denver Radio, 80 Years of Change (Tom Mulvey)
- Wikipedia: KVOD
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