KFQD is Alaska's primary entry point for the Emergency Alert System (EAS). It is also heard on 250 watt FM translator 103.7 K279BG in Anchorage and its adjacent suburbs.[4]
KFQD was first licensed on May 20, 1924, to the Chovin Supply Company.[6] The call letters were randomly assigned from an alphabetical roster of available call signs. The station was deleted in early 1925,[7] but relicensed, again to Chovin Supply Company as KFQD, later that year.[8]
In 1926, ownership was transferred to the Anchorage Radio Club.[9] In 1929, the station was deleted a second time,[10] but revived by the Anchorage Radio Club later that year.[11] By the 1930s, KFQD was transmitting at 780 kHz, with a power of 250 watts, and studios at 411 Fourth Avenue.
With the 1941 implementation of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA), KFQD moved to 790 kHz, a regional frequency, still powered at 250 watts, but able to broadcast around the clock.[12] By this time, there were four radio stations in the Territory of Alaska. KFQD was the oldest, followed by stations in Ketchikan (KGBU, July 29, 1926), Juneau (KINY, June 25, 1935), and Fairbanks (KFAR, October 30, 1939).
In the late 1940s, KFQD got a power boost to 5,000 watts. In the 1960s, it moved to the clear channel frequency 750 kHz, shared with WSBAtlanta but far enough away to avoid causing nighttime interference. At first, KFQD was powered at 10,000 watts. By the 1970s, it had raised its daytime power to 50,000 watts, but still 10,000 watts at night.
Then in the 1990s, as the Federal Communications Commission relaxed protections for the original clear channel stations, KFQD was permitted to broadcast at 50,000 watts around the clock, joining WSB as a Class A station on 750 AM.
In 1998, KFQD was acquired by Morris Communications.[13]
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