KTKN

The current KTKN license, which dates to 1942, is the successor of the first station to operate in Ketchikan.

KGBU was granted its first license to operate on July 29, 1926. It was owned by Roy Thornton,{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36794451/|date=July 29, 1926|title=Ketchikan Granted New Radio Station|page=10|work=Spokane Chronicle|agency=Associated Press}} with the licensee soon changed to the Alaska Radio Service Company.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36794511/|first=Carl|last=Butman|date=November 7, 1926|title=595 Station Licenses Marks New Record|page=6|work=Baltimore Sun|accessdate=October 5, 2019}} As part of General Order 40 in 1928, it relocated from 610 to 900 kilohertz.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36794609/|title=Changes Made in Radio Allocation|work=Birmingham News|date=October 17, 1928|agency=Associated Press|page=30|accessdate=October 5, 2019}}

A fire on December 26, 1931, destroyed the station and its two transmitters.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36793950/|work=Tulare Daily Times|agency=United Press|title=Fire Razes Radio KGBU|date=December 27, 1931|page=3|accessdate=October 5, 2019}}

KGBU affiliated with the Mutual Broadcasting System in November 1940 and was its first affiliate in the territory, receiving Mutual programs from the network's affiliates in Seattle and Tacoma.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36793905/|work=Rock Island Argus|date=November 7, 1940|title=Along Radio Lanes|page=13|accessdate=October 5, 2019}} Alongside Mutual came the Don Lee Network hookup, giving the West Coast regional network its 33rd outlet.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36794335/|first=Tom E.|last=Danson|title=Don Lee Net Adds Alaska|date=November 5, 1940|work=Wilmington Daily Press Journal|page=4}} It was the first time any Alaska radio station had been affiliated with one of the major networks.{{cite news|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1940/1940-11-15-BC.pdf|work=Broadcasting|date=November 15, 1940|page=46|title=KGBU Signed by MBS As Outlet for Alaska|accessdate=October 6, 2019}}

In early 1942, KGBU went off the air permanently. Its owners, Mr. and Mrs. Jim Britton, turned over the property to a local bank, saying that wartime conditions had caused the withdrawal of national advertising accounts and made it impossible to continue.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36793791/|work=Fairbanks Daily News-Miner|date=April 6, 1942|page=6|title=KGBU Folds Up|accessdate=October 5, 2019}}

On July 17, 1942, Edwin A. Kraft applied to the Federal Communications Commission for a new radio station to be located in Ketchikan and using the facilities, including studio, of KGBU,{{Cite web|url= https://cdbs.recnet.com/corres/?doc=44616 |title= History Cards for KTKN|publisher=Federal Communications Commission}} (Guide to reading History Cards) which the station's creditors were to sell to him.{{cite news|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1942/1942-07-27-BC.pdf|work=Broadcasting|date=July 27, 1942|title=Edwin A. Kraft Applies For Facilities of KGBU|accessdate=October 5, 2019|page=54}} Kraft owned radio station KINY in Juneau and the Seattle-based Northwest Radio Advertising Company. The FCC granted the application on August 18.{{cite news|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1942/1942-08-24-BC.pdf|work=Broadcasting|date=August 24, 1948|page=20|accessdate=October 5, 2019|title=Kraft Gets Ketchikan}}

Ketchikan's new radio station debuted in a time of turmoil. In July 1942, the Board of War Communications by order took control of all civilian communications facilities in Alaska, including the three remaining radio stations in the territory.{{cite news|page=49|title=Army to Control Alaska Stations|accessdate=October 5, 2019|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1942/1942-07-20-BC.pdf|date=July 20, 1942|work=Broadcasting}} Additionally, a wartime freeze order meant that the FCC only authorized six new radio stations all year, just one of them requiring new equipment.{{cite news|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1943/1943-01-04-BC.pdf|title=Six New Stations Authorized In '42|work=Broadcasting|volume=24|issue=1|page=11|date=January 4, 1943|accessdate=October 5, 2019}} Regular programs over KTKN began on November 14, 1942.{{cite news|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1942/1942-11-23-BC.pdf|date=November 23, 1942|accessdate=October 5, 2019|work=Broadcasting|title=New Alaska Outlet Goes On the Air|page=26}} Through the Office of War Information, KTKN aired transcriptions of network programs flown to Alaska by military planes for the benefit of soldiers stationed there.{{r|outlet}} The OWI purchased eight hours of air time a day on the territory's four stations in this endeavor.{{cite news|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1942/1942-09-28-BC.pdf|date=September 28, 1942|work=Broadcasting|page=14|title=OWI Buys Alaska Time For Soldiers|accessdate=October 5, 2019}} Later in the war, KTKN and KINY presented programs produced by Army, Navy and Coast Guard combat forces.{{cite news|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1944/1944-08-14-BC.pdf|work=Broadcasting|date=August 14, 1944|accessdate=October 5, 2019|title=Hogue's Second Post|page=42}}

After the war, Kraft became a key player in Alaska radio, and KTKN along with him. The Kraft stations were two of the three charter members of Alaska's first state network, the Alaska Broadcasting System, which was announced in September 1946; they were joined by KFQD in Anchorage, owned by William J. Wagner.{{cite news|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1946/1946-09-16-BC.pdf|date=September 16, 1946|accessdate=October 5, 2019|page=36|title=Network In Alaska Being Established}} The next year, Wagner bought KTKN and KINY for $140,000 as Kraft left the territory to look after his interests in Seattle; the acquisition brought Wagner's station total to five,{{cite news|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1947/1947-12-22-BC.pdf|work=Broadcasting|date=December 22, 1947|title=Sales of 4 Outlets Approved; Hearing Ordered on WWOK|accessdate=October 5, 2019|page=32}} as he held construction permits for outlets in Fairbanks and Seward that took to the air in 1948.{{cite news|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1948/1948-01-05-BC.pdf|work=Broadcasting|date=January 5, 1948|title=Two New Alaska Outlets About Ready to Take Air|page=22|accessdate=October 5, 2019}} The entire network was now aligned with CBS;{{r|about}} they added NBC in 1950, broadcasting the network's shows from tape recordings made in Seattle and by ACS shortwave pickup.{{cite news|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1950/BC-1950-02-27.pdf|date=February 27, 1950|accessdate=October 5, 2019|work=Broadcasting|title=NBC Additions: 8 Alaska Outlets Affiliate}}

In 1953, KTKN sought a power increase from 1,000 to 5,000 watts. The application was contested by the second station to set up in Ketchikan, KABI, which said soil conductivity in Alaska meant that the operation would not meet FCC standards.{{cite news|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1953/BC-1953-03-30.pdf|date=March 30, 1953|title=For the Record|page=120|work=Broadcasting|accessdate=October 5, 2019}} KTKN later withdrew the application.{{r|hc}}

In 1956, station manager Robert C. Mehan bought KTKN from Wagner for $40,000.{{cite news|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1956/1956-08-27-BC.pdf|work=Broadcasting|date=August 27, 1956|page=117|title=Ownership Changes|accessdate=October 5, 2019}} Two years later, Mehan sold the station to the Midnight Sun Broadcasting Company, which divested itself of KABI, for $50,000.{{cite news|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1956/1956-08-27-BC.pdf|page=76|date=April 7, 1958|accessdate=October 5, 2019|title=Changing Hands|work=Broadcasting}} The entire Midnight Sun group, including AM-TV combos in Anchorage and Fairbanks, was sold for $1.2 million in 1960 to All-Alaska Broadcasters,{{cite news|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1960/BC-1960-03-26.pdf|page=144|work=Broadcasting|title=Ownership Changes|date=March 26, 1960|accessdate=October 5, 2019}} which became the new Midnight Sun Broadcasters in 1962.{{r|hc}} The station was finally approved in 1965 for the daytime power increase to 5,000 watts that had first been pursued 12 years earlier,{{r|hc}} though it would have to replace its tower after it was toppled in a Thanksgiving Day wind storm in 1968.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36594837/southeastern_wind_storm_damage_surveyed/|work=Fairbanks Daily News-Miner|page=1|title=Southeastern Wind Storm: Damage Surveyed|accessdate=October 5, 2019|date=November 29, 1968}} During that time, Midnight Sun expanded into Ketchikan cable with the first-ever television service in Alaska, KATV.

File:Don Young on Alaska media tour - 2020 01.jpg in 2020.]]

Midnight Sun attempted to sell itself in 1977, but years of petitions with a citizen group known as Alaskans for Better Media scuppered the sale.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36595000/broadcast_chain_changes_mind_on_sale_of/|title=Broadcast Chain Changes Mind On Sale of 7 Alaska Stations|agency=Associated Press|work=Daily Sitka Sentinel|date=July 19, 1978|accessdate=October 5, 2019|page=6}}{{cite news|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1980/1980-08-25-BC.pdf|work=Broadcasting|date=October 25, 1980|accessdate=October 5, 2019|title=Changing Hands|page=112}} In addition, it was not until a 1980 settlement agreement with ABM that the company's broadcast licenses were renewed.{{cite news|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1980/1980-06-30-BC.pdf|work=Broadcasting|date=June 30, 1980|title=Alaskan protestors settle a second deal|accessdate=October 5, 2019|page=67}} In 1980, the group finally began to sell off its holdings piecemeal, beginning with the Anchorage and Fairbanks television stations and concluding with KTKN being sold to Gateway Broadcasting for $350,000 in 1981.{{cite news|url=https://americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1981/1981-08-17-BC.pdf|work=Broadcasting|date=August 17, 1981|page=102|title=Changing Hands|accessdate=October 5, 2019}}

KTKN, its sister station KGTW, and other broadcast holdings of E. Roy Paschal were sold to Richard and Sharon Burns, Australian citizens, in 2017, in exchange for the assumption of Paschal's liabilities; the Burns already owned 20 percent of the stations.{{Cite web|url= https://cdbs.recnet.com/corres/?doc=72518 |title= KTKN 2017 sale MO&O/declaratory ruling on citizenship|publisher=Federal Communications Commission}} The Burns had been running Alaska Broadcast Communications for the previous decade, including the Ketchikan Radio Center with sister stations KGTW and KFMJ (which is commonly operated but separately owned).{{Cite news|url=http://www.insideradio.com/free/fcc-may-look-at-foreign-ownership-test-case/article_afe1ee70-4410-11e6-a02d-9b9261d31e65.html|work=InsideRadio|date=July 7, 2016|title=FCC May Look at Foreign Ownership Test Case.|accessdate=October 5, 2019}}

{{reflist}}

{{Portal|Alaska|Radio}}

{{AM station data|788|KTKN}}

• {{FCC-LMS-Facility|790|K248AI}}
• {{FCC-LMS-Facility|202240|K227DQ}}

{{Alaska Panhandle Radio}}

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TKN

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