From Country Classics to Sports Talk — The Evolution of 1550 AM

KRGO Radio – Country Music on the West Side

KRGO first went on the air in April 1968, broadcasting at 1550 AM from a powerful 10,000-watt transmitter located at 5065 West 2100 South in the Granger area. The station sat on 8.9 acres of open ground, complete with its own radio tower and a small broadcast office building. From the beginning, KRGO brought a new sound to the west side—Country and Modern Country, connecting listeners across the Salt Lake Valley with twang, storytelling, and good old-fashioned local charm.

Listeners fondly remember calling the request and contest line, 299-3449, to hear their favorite songs or take part in giveaways. The station became a west side favorite, its warm AM signal filling homes, shops, and pickup trucks from Granger to Magna and beyond.

By 1982, the property owners began marketing the Granger broadcast site for office and warehouse development, planning to relocate the tower and station operations. The original transmitter site eventually went quiet, but the KRGO name and sound lived on. By the 1990s, Utah country fans could again tune in to KRGO on the FM dial at 103.1, carrying on the familiar blend of country hits under the same well-loved call letters.

Although the AM station’s call sign later changed to KMRI, the owning company retained the name KRGO LLC, preserving a link to its Granger roots. Through the decades, the station remained part of Utah’s broadcast fabric, even as formats and frequencies changed.

Then came March 18, 2020, when a 5.7-magnitude earthquake centered near Magna struck the valley. The tremor toppled KMRI’s tall broadcast tower—the same one that had carried KRGO’s country music across the valley decades earlier. The station was forced off the air. After several years of silence, the signal returned on October 2, 2024, broadcasting a sports-talk format, but still operated by KRGO LLC—a small reminder of the enduring legacy of those early country music days.

Now, the once-rural location at 5065 West 2100 South sits along the busy 201 Freeway frontage road, developed with modern businesses and industry. Yet for many longtime residents, the airwaves still carry a trace of the past—echoes of steel guitars, late-night dedications, and the unmistakable voice of KRGO, Country Cargo, the station that once put Granger on the country map.