KSL is one hip station

There may be a perception that AM radio stations are part of the old broadcast medium, one that's stuck in a rut and not hip enough for modern times. But this is certainly not true of Salt Lake City's KSL (AM-1160).

Not only is the station at the top of the Arbitron ratings — pretty impressive for a market with as many radio stations as ours — but this summer KSL is proving to be cutting edge.

• KSL now has "Reporters' Blogs," an online feature available on the Web at radio.ksl.com. Readers can look for topics of debate and behind-the-scenes perspectives from reporters in the field.

• The station has added a new Internet sports show, "KSL CougarRadio," which airs live Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1 p.m. The show, which began this week, is devoted strictly to BYU sports and is hosted by Greg Wrubell.

Another new BYU sports update show will be available for a free computer download once the grid season kicks off. "KSL Cougar Tracks" will be available each Monday of the upcoming football season.

Wrubell will host another program during the summer-camp season of football that will be a KSL podcast and can be downloaded automatically to your computer or mp3 player each afternoon starting next Tuesday.

• KSL recently added two new weekend programs to its on-air lineup: "Satellite Sisters" each Sunday at 2 p.m. and "Twilight Zone on the Radio," Sundays, from 8-9 p.m.

• The station received two national Edward R. Murrow awards for broadcasting excellence at the first of the summer. This is the second year in a row that KSL has received two Murrow awards from the Radio-Television News Directors Association, in competition with more than 3,000 radio stations.

• KSL switched to ABC Radio News this week, expanding its national news coverage.

"Our whole mentality is that we've got to be more than a radio station," said program director Russ Hill.

KSL has expanded its Web servers to create their "X-Stream" of programming. On the first "KSL Cougar Radio" show Tuesday afternoon, the station received only two telephone calls from listeners but attracted some 100 e-mails.

"It far exceeded our expectations," Hill said. He also stressed it is a cost-effective way to expand programming.

If KSL can make a go of supplementary Net broadcasts, will other Salt Lake stations — particularly the all-sports channels — also try it? Probably.

• Regarding KSL's switch to ABC News, it does end what is probably the state's longest-running network radio affiliation by a single station, dating back to the station's early days. Charles Osgood, Dave Ross and all other CBS shows are now gone.