KPIK went on the air in June 1957.[1] It was owned by the Western Broadcasting Company, controlled by David Pinkston and Leroy Elmore. It broadcast during the daytime only with 5,000 watts and broadcast a country music format from its first day of operation.[3] The station expanded to FM when it acquired the then-KLST 94.3 in 1966 and converted it to a simulcast as KPIK-FM (now KILO).[4] KPIK-FM was just the second all-country music station on FM in the United States.[5] The AM and FM stations remained a simulcast through 1977, when the FM moved toward a more contemporary country sound as "Super K-94" while the AM station focused on more traditional country.[6] That same year, station manager George James was elected to the Colorado Springs city council.[7]
Pinkston, with various partners, owned the station until selling it to the Area Broadcasting Company, headed by James, in 1978; this separated it from the FM station.[8][3] It was sold again in 1980 to KPIK Broadcasting, Inc.[8]
In 1987, the station became KWYD under the ownership of Edward J. Patrick who at the time owned KWYD-FM. While Patrick sold off KWYD-FM in 1989, Patrick continued to own KWYD (AM) until he sold it in 1998. The call letters changed to KKKK in 2005 and KREL in 2010. As KREL, the station aired a sports radio format, first from ESPN Radio and then changing to ESPN Radio affiliate in January 2013 and was a Fox Sports Radio affiliate from October 2014 to April 2015.
On Monday, April 13, 2015, the station switched to cannabis-centric talk as 'K-High 1580' with the call sign KHIG. [9] The talk format moved online after one month, with KHIG temporarily switching to a simulcast of 'Easy 101.3' KFEZ. [10]
In 2016, Jacob Barker acquired the station through licensee Gabrielle Broadcasting Licensee II, LLC. Under Barker, the station programmed a Christian talk format as "1580 The Trumpet" and gained a translator signal on 103.1 FM in the immediate Colorado Springs area. The format and name were also used on Barker's Phoenix station, KXEG.
In 2019, Gabrielle went into bankruptcy and a receiver, Jim Mross Engineering, was appointed for the station. Operations were taken over by the Greeley Broadcasting Corporation, which owns Regional Mexican KRYE 94.7; in September 2019, Mross filed to sell the station outright to Greeley for $85,000.[11] The acquisition gives El Tigre's southern Colorado station, which had previously only covered Pueblo by way of KRYE-FM, a local signal in Colorado Springs. The sale to Greeley Broadcasting was consummated on December 20, 2019.
