WKNW is a sports radio station broadcasting at 1400 kHz on the AM dial serving Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. The station is currently the ESPN Radio affiliate for the Sault Ste. Marie market, and is the market's only dedicated sports radio station. According to past editions of the Broadcasting Yearbook, the station went on the air as WKNW in August 1990, after briefly holding the callsigns WBPW and WDHP before launch. The station was popularly known as KNOW AM in the 1990s, which alluded to its then news/talk format, and also served as an antonym to sister station WYSS' Yes FM branding. Originally owned by Algoma Broadcasting, WNKW operated as a news/talk station with live Fox Sports Radio coverage from its inception throughout later ownership changes to Marathon Media in 1998, and Northern Star Broadcasting in 2002. The station is currently owned by Sovereign Communications, who acquired the station in 2010.. As of 2010, the station was the Sault Ste. Marie/Newberry market's affiliate for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, and aired such talk programming as First Light and iHeartMediaconservative political shows like The Glenn Beck Program, The Rush Limbaugh Show, and The Sean Hannity Show. Following the ownership change, WKNW became a full ESPN Radio affiliate, with prior ESPN programming that aired on existing Sovereign AM stationWSOO moving to WKNW, and some WKNW talk programs going the other way, notably including Coast to Coast AM and The Handyman Show with Glenn Haege, while Pickford FM affiliate WMKD eventually took over NASCAR rights. With Sovereign not retaining them, WKNW remains the most recent Sault Ste. Marie-area radio station to broadcast syndicated conservative talk shows as part of their regular daily schedule. Though current programming is largely syndicated from ESPN, WKNW does broadcast Detroit Pistons and Lake Superior State Lakers basketball games, as well as Soo Eagles hockey games, and the localsports talk programs The Hockey North Show & The Laker Hockey Show, hosted by Randy Russon & Bill Crawford respectively.
