WATCH: ‘KSL Radio 100 Years’

Beginning on May 6, 1922, Utah became the broadcast home of the first clear channel radio station in the western United States.

Heber J. Grant, then President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, delivered the state’s first radio message. At the time the call letters were KZN, and broadcasts were done from a shack on top of the Deseret News Building. Being the first radio station in the area, the majority of the population didn’t have radios. KSL sent out mobile “sound trucks” to public areas where people would congregate to get their daily news.

In 1923 the first general conference broadcast was aired, a semi-annual tradition that still happens today. Mormon Tabernacle Choir broadcasts began in July 1929 and still continue today. Now known as the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, their Music and The Spoken Word program is the longest-running nationwide network radio program in history.