[3] Haas, who was well connected in liberal politics and the business community, wanted a simple, pronounceable, and recognizable call sign for his new station.

Known as "The Friendly Station," KIRO personalities broke from the formal announcing style that was commonplace during the early days of radio.

KIRO carried CBS's dramas, comedies, news, sports, soap operas, game shows and big band broadcasts during the "Golden Age of Radio".

From the 1930s through the 1950s, KIRO recorded countless hours of CBS programming for time-delayed rebroadcast to its Pacific Time Zone listeners.

These electrical transcriptions are, in many cases, the only recordings made of World War II-era news coverage over the CBS Network.

Preparing for a future television allocation, KIRO moved in 1952 from downtown studios to a larger building on Queen Anne Hill.

Queen City Broadcasting was awarded Seattle's last remaining VHF TV license in 1958, and signed on as CBS affiliate KIRO-TV on February 8.

Haas sold KIRO to The Deseret News Publishing Company, part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in 1963.

Like many network radio affiliates following the demise of full-time block programming, KIRO spent the 1960s playing middle of the road music in addition to long-form news and interview shows.

Morning host Jim French spent several years broadcasting from the rotating restaurant atop the Space Needle and was live on the air from that perch during a 6.7-magnitude earthquake in April 1965.

Bonneville moved its Seattle radio and TV stations to the newly constructed "Broadcast House" at Third and Broad Streets in 1968.

KIRO, Inc. became one of the nation's premier regional broadcast groups, and was led by general manager Joe Abel during this period.

[10][11][12][13] For 25 years, KIRO's morning news, anchored by Bill Yeend, consistently placed at or near the top of the Seattle Arbitron ratings.

In January 2020, KIRO announced it would serve as the flagship station for the Seattle Dragons of the XFL; the wording of the press release made it ambiguous as to whether or not they would carry live games.

In response to complaints from state Republican party officials, Ross claimed that he was contractually bound to continue working for KIRO until he formally filed to become a candidate.

[15] On August 12, 2008, KIRO began simulcasting its programming on sister station KBSG-FM, which dropped its long-running classic hits format.

[18] In addition, 710 ESPN Seattle is the play-by-play home for the Washington State Cougars college football and basketball broadcasts.

Mike Salk was named Program Director of 710 ESPN Seattle on March 13, 2014, returning to the station after a stint in Boston.