KTUC

KTUC (1400

On Sunday mornings, KTUC plays six hours of Christian music. Most hours begin with an update from co-owned ABC News Radio. KTUC carries live play-by-play of the University of Arizona women's basketball games. KTUC's sister station KCUB 1290 AM is the flagship station for other Arizona Wildcats sports teams.

History

Early years

KTUC is the oldest station in Tucson,

In the late 1970s, the station segued to a news/talk format, airing news all day and syndicated talk shows at night. It was an affiliate of the Arizona Broadcasting System and picked up newscasts from KTAR in Phoenix on a phone line. By 1977, it was airing a 20-minute newsreel format, with CBS, ABC and Mutual radio newscasts all heard each hour on 20 minute intervals. ABC and Mutual were both tape-delayed. Larry King's Mutual Network talk show aired overnight, although those broadcasts were replaced by the short-lived Enterprise Radio Network in 1981.

Tucson Toros baseball games were carried live, although the studio recreated road games in 1980.

It was named the AP Broadcast News Station of The Year in 1980. That year, its news staff broke the story about chemical contamination in the underground aquifers of southern Tucson, news items that prompted a major political controversy and subsequent cleanup. It also won investigative awards for breaking and following up on the story of a factory that painted glow-in-the-dark watch dials and instrument panels using tritium, a radioactive isotope that was found in school lunches prepared in a commissary across the street.

Throughout the entire period from the 1970s until the

In the late 1980s, the station was the Tucson affiliate of the Arizona State University Sun Devils radio network. In the 1990s, the station reversed affiliations and became the flagship of the Arizona Wildcats. KTUC also was the Tucson affiliate of the Phoenix Suns radio network.

Switch from Talk to Standards

On January 21, 1998, Sloane Broadcasting bought KTUC and its FM sister station 97.5 KOAZ (now KSZR) for $6.5 million.^[4] Sloane switched KTUC's format from talk to adult standards.

In 2001, KTUC was acquired by Citadel Broadcasting, a forerunner to today's Cumulus Media. Citadel and Cumulus continued the adult standards format, aimed at older listeners and retirees who have settled in the Tucson metropolitan area.

Switch From Standards to Conservative Talk

On August 21, 2023, KTUC changed its format from adult standards to conservative talk, branded as "Freedom 1400".^[5] Vice President Ken Kowalcek said in a statement, "Freedom 1400 will be the ultimate destination for engaging discussions, insightful analysis, and a platform for diverse perspectives."^[6]

Previous logo

References

• 1992 Broadcasting Yearbook, page A-21

External links

• KTUC official website

• KTUC in the FCC AM station database
• KTUC in Nielsen Audio's AM station database

32°15′11″N 110°57′44″W / 32.25306°N 110.96222°W / 32.25306; -110.96222