KHAR
KHAR (590 AM) is a commercial sports radio station in Anchorage, Alaska, United States. It features programming from the CBS Sports Radio network. Owned by Alpha Media, its studios are located in Anchorage (two blocks west of Dimond Center), and its transmitter is in the Bayshore neighborhood in South Anchorage. History KHAR went on the air in 1961. The station was founded by Willis "Bill" Harpel, who previously worked at KFQD and owned stations in Washington state. He founded Sourdough Broadcasters, and would launch KHAR-FM (now KBRJ) and KHAR-TV (now KYUR) prior to his accidental death in January 1968. His family, particularly widow Patricia and son Craig, would continue to run Sourdough Broadcasters for many more decades. During its earlier decades, KHAR, like many AM stations, aired a general format, including music and news. Notable aspects of early programming included broadcasting messages to Bush residents, a practice once fairly common among urban broadcasters in Alaska, but found on very few stations today. The station was also noted for carrying the commentaries of Ruben Gaines, a onetime poet laureate of Alaska known for creating the character "Chilkoot Charlie". KHAR programmed an adult standards format, or minor variations thereof, from at least