KGHL (AM)

KGHL (790 kHz) is an AM radio station broadcasting a classic country format licensed to Billings, Montana, United States.

KGHL's studios and offices are located in the Northern Broadcasting building on First Avenue North in downtown Billings; the transmitter is in Lockwood.

The Northwestern Auto Supply Company opened KGHL, broadcasting initially on 1350 kHz, on the evening of June 8, 1928;[3] the first announcer heard over the station was Eric Thornton, who served as program director and was hired from KOIL in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

[5] Original studios for the station were located on the third floor of the auto supply company's building in downtown Billings;[6]: 74  with limited room, some bands played on the roof.

In 1929 KGHL brought the first network radio programming to Montana when it aired the NBC broadcast of Herbert Hoover's inauguration.

[23] By this time, KGHL had become a country music outlet,[24] which dominated the ratings in Billings and earned national honors for stations in its market size.

[33] ("The Dawg" moved to 98.5 FM later in the year as part of a frequency swap between it and KIDX's long-running Magic adult contemporary format.

[34]) As The Dawg established itself on FM, KGHL became a news/talk outlet by 1995, when Brennan placed his Montana radio holdings under the control of the One on One Sports network, which he headed.

[36] Brennan sold his AM-FM pairs in Billings and Helena to American Cities Broadcasting in 1997 for $3 million, by which time KGHL had moved back to a classic country format.

[38] New Northwest continued to own KGHL until 2009, when its entire five-station Billings cluster was spun off to company president and CEO Pete Benedetti.