KHAR
Template:Short description Script error: No such module "about". Template:DMCA Template:DMCA
Page Module:Infobox/styles.css has no content.Page Template:Infobox radio station/styles.css has no content.
| Page Template:Plainlist/styles.css has no content. | |
Broadcast area | Anchorage metropolitan area |
|---|---|
| [[Frequency|FrequencTemplate:Pluralize from text]] | 590 kHz |
| Branding | Gold Rush Radio |
| Programming | |
| Format | Soft oldies; adult standards |
| Affiliations | Westwood One's America's Best Music |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Page Template:Plainlist/styles.css has no content.
|
| Page Template:Hlist/styles.css has no content. | |
| History | |
First air date | January 7, 1961 |
Call sign meaning | Station founder Willis Harpel |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| 60914 | |
| Class | B |
| Power | 5,000 watts unlimited |
| [[Broadcast relay station|TranslatorTemplate:Pluralize from text]] | Template:Radio Relay |
| Links | |
Public license information | Template:FCC Licensing and Management System facility |
| Webcast | Listen live |
| Website | www |
Script error: No such module "Check for conflicting parameters".
KHAR (590 AM) is a commercial radio station in Anchorage, Alaska. It airs a soft oldies and adult standards radio format, supplied by Westwood One's "America's Best Music" service. It is owned by Connoisseur Media, with studios on Arctic Slope Avenue, two blocks west of the Dimond Center Shopping Mall in Anchorage.
KHAR is a Class B station powered at 5,000 watts non-directional. Its transmitter is off C Street at West Klatt Road in the Bayshore neighborhood of South Anchorage.[2] Programming is also heard on 250-watt FM translator K244EG at 96.7 MHz.[3]
History
KHAR signed on the air on January 7, 1961. It was founded by Willis "Bill" Harpel, who previously worked at KFQD and owned stations in Washington state. He founded Sourdough Broadcasters, and later launched 104.1 KHAR-FM (now KBRJ) and KHAR-TV 13 (now KYUR). The station's call sign included the first three letters of Harpel's last name. Harpel died accidentally in January 1968. His family, particularly widow Patricia and son Craig, continued to run Sourdough Broadcasters for several more decades.
During its earlier decades, KHAR, like many AM stations, aired a general format, including music and news. Notable aspects of early programming included broadcasting messages to Bush residents, a practice once fairly common among broadcasters in Alaska. The station was also noted for carrying the commentaries of Ruben Gaines, a onetime poet laureate of Alaska known for creating the character "Chilkoot Charlie".
KHAR programmed an adult standards format from the 1970s until 2013. The station's branding, Heart Radio 59, was also featured for decades. KHAR was one of only a few commercial stations in Alaska whose format more or less remained intact during the era of broadcasting company consolidation which began in the 1990s. KHAR was one of a number of Anchorage stations acquired by Morris Communications. It shares studios with its sister stations in the Morris Alaska building near the Dimond Center.
On May 1, 2013, KHAR changed its format from adult standards to all-sports. It carried programming from CBS Sports Radio.[4] Morris Communications sold KHAR and 32 other stations to Alpha Media LLC effective September 1, 2015, at a purchase price of $38.25 million.

On April 1, 2024, the station flipped back to soft oldies and adult standards as "Gold Rush Radio". The format is described as carrying four decades of the greatest hits of all time, including a "blend of the best pop, soft AC and easy listening".[5] The format, from Westwood One's "America's Best Music" service, does not have DJs. Alpha Media merged with Connoisseur Media on September 4, 2025.[6]
Translator
KHAR is also broadcast on the following FM translator:
See also
Lua error in mw.title.lua at line 404: bad argument #2 to 'title.new' (unrecognized namespace name 'Portal').
References
Page Template:Reflist/styles.css has no content.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Facility Technical Data for KHAR". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ Radio-Locator.com/KHAR
- ^ Radio-Locator.com/K244EG
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."KHAR Anchorage Flips To Sports". radioinsight.com. May 1, 2013. Retrieved August 27, 2019.
- ^ RadioInsight.com "A Gold Rush for KHAR Anchorage" April 1, 2024. Retrieved April 11, 2024.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Venta, Lance (September 4, 2025). "Introducing The New Connoisseur Media". RadioInsight. Retrieved September 8, 2025.
External links
- Official website
- Template:FCC Licensing and Management System facility
- KHAR in Nielsen Audio's AM station database
- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."History Cards for KHAR".
- FM translator
- Template:FCC-LMS-Facility
- K244EG at FCCdata.org
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Navbox/configuration' not found. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Navbox/configuration' not found. Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.