KIHU is a radio station

Radio station

Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...

 licensed to Tooele, Utah

Tooele, Utah

Tooele is a city in Tooele County in the U.S. state of Utah. It is part of the Salt Lake City, Utah, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 22,502 at the 2000 census, and 30,708 as of the 2009 estimates. It is the county seat of Tooele County...

, USA. The station is currently owned by IHR Educational Broadcasting. The station has a construction permit from the FCC for a power increase to 50,000 watts Daytime, 35,000 watts Critical Hours (within two hours after sunrise or before sunset) and 194 watts night. The facilities authorized by the Construction Permit were built in 2004 and the station is operating under "Program Test Authority" with those facilities. Not only does the station have a construction permit to change its power, it also has an application to move its city of license to Magna, near where its current transmitter lies. The change in city of license will make possible the upgrading of the station from Class "D" to Class "B."

History

The station was originally built to operate on 990 kHz with a 1000 watt transmitter in the town of Tooele. The original call letters were KTUT, and were changed to KDYL in the early 1960s when that call was released from the 1320 station in Salt Lake City when that station was renamed "KCPX." Simmons paid the then owner, Thomas W. Mathis, to release the "KDYL" call so that they could use those call letters on the 1280 Salt Lake City Station, whereupon the station was assigned the call letters KTLE, beginning on 1982-05-19. KTLE stood for Tooele, the station's city of license and former location of its transmitter. In 1982, Mr. Mathis applied to change the frequency 1010 from 990 kHz and increase the power to 50,000 watts Daytime and 2500 watts Critical Hours at the original transmitter site in Tooele. The change in frequency and power increase was finally built by the subsequent owner in 1992. In 1994, the station applied to move the transmitter to the Salt Lake Valley, at a site that was too close to the Salt Lake International Airport to allow a reasonable tower height (tower was only 142 feet). On 1992-10-30, the station changed its call sign to KTUR by the then owner, Robert Turley, and on 1998-09-18 to KIQN by the subsequent owner, Intelliquest Media. Intelliquest went bankrupt in 2003, and Community Wireless purchased the License from the Bankruptcy Trustee. Community Wireless then rebuilt the station at its current transmitter site. In January 2004, the station applied to change its city of license to Magna, of which the application is still pending before the FCC. On 2004-08-01, the station became to KCPW, and on 2009-03-20 the station became KPCW.

In August 2009, the station was assigned the call KIHU, reflecting an ownership change, as it had been sold to IHR Educational Foundation. The station now broadcasts Catholic religious programming. Should the application to change the city of license to Magna ever be granted, the new owner may change the city of license.