Arizona Sports broadcasts live from Phoenix with local talk, live game coverage, and expert analysis covering the Cardinals, Suns, Diamondbacks, Coyotes, and the wider Arizona sports landscape, backed by ESPN Radio programming overnight and on weekends. You can stream it free anytime on Radio Shuffle.
Six Decades of Signal History Before the Sports Format
The frequency behind Arizona Sports, 98.7 FM, has a longer and stranger history than the current branding suggests. It signed on in July 1960 as KTAR-FM, co-owned with AM sister station KTAR and simulcasting a middle of the road mix of music, news, and sports. In 1973 it broke off into its own identity as KBBC, switching to beautiful music, instrumental covers of popular songs, plus Broadway and Hollywood show tunes aimed at an entirely different, more easy-listening audience.
The format kept shifting from there. The station became KKLT in 1982, running through 2005, then KPKX from 2005 to 2014. Each era represented Phoenix radio chasing whatever format the market wanted at the time, a familiar pattern for FM stations in large, growing Sun Belt cities. The sports format that defines the station today only arrived in January 2014, when KPKX flipped to become KMVP-FM, branded on air as Arizona Sports.
Owned for the Long Haul
Arizona Sports operates under Bonneville International, the Salt Lake City based broadcasting company that has owned the frequency through several of its format changes. That kind of ownership stability matters for a sports station specifically, since building local trust with teams, beat reporters, and a loyal fan base takes years that a station bouncing between owners rarely gets.
Local programming runs weekdays from 6am to 8pm and Saturdays from 7am to 2pm, with ESPN Radio filling nights and the rest of the weekend, giving Phoenix listeners a mix of homegrown Arizona sports talk and national ESPN coverage on the same signal.
What You'll Actually Hear
Expect local talk shows built around the Cardinals, Suns, Diamondbacks, and Coyotes, live game broadcasts when Arizona teams are on, and national ESPN Radio programming filling the overnight and weekend hours. It is sports radio built specifically for a fan base that wants its home teams covered in depth.
Arizona Sports is free to stream on Radio Shuffle alongside thousands of other stations from around the world. Press play for Phoenix sports talk any time of day.