1060 AM came to life in Tempe in 1959 with the callsign KUPD. It was owned by the Tri-State Broadcasting Co. and by the 1960s featured Phoenix veteran Bill Heywood in the morning and a full-service middle of the road format competing with KOY, which then broadcast at 550. It went to a mainstream Top 40 format in the early '70s. Around 1971, they added a simulcast on 97.9/KUPD-FM, which remained Top 40 until about 1978 when the FM station switched to rock and became a dominant presence in the Phoenix radio market. At that time, the station became KKKQ "The New KQ" under Program Director Steve Casey. The station played oldies with a less talk more music approach. Staff included Joe Bailey - mornings; Don Richards - Middays; Steve Casey - Afternoons. Don Richards would later take over as PD when Steve Casey left for MTV. In the 1980s and early 1990s, AM 1060 cycled through various musical formats such as R&B 'KQ' from 1981 to 1987, country from 1987 to 1989, and alternative from 1989 to 1993. During this time, KUKQ's original license was not renewed as the result of a 1988 comparative renewal hearing for KUKQ and KUPD-FM, in which the stations lost their original licenses for lying to the Federal Communications Commission about an alleged secret owner. An additional owner was ruled unfit to hold a license due to a 1982 criminal conviction in Arizona. The stations were instead awarded to former owner Jack Grimm, his wife Jackie, Ruth Clifford, and radio executive Robert Fish, doing business as G&C Broadcasting. In 1992, G&C took over KUKQ and KUPD-FM on new licenses, retaining the call letters, facilities and formats of the stations. The new owners switched to a talk radio format in 1993 but returned to alternative again the next year after the station was sold to Sandusky Newspapers. The alternative revival did not last long before it became "KUPD2" for a brief period in 1996, before flipping to sports talk later that year. After the switch to sports, the station played off this handle and started referring to itself as "The Deuce," and the call letters officially shifted to KDUS in 1997. Once its identity as a sports talk station become established, KDUS stopped using "Deuce" in its slogans, and adopted "The Fan AM 1060" as its identifier and "The Voice of the Fan" as its slogan. On April 1, 2013, The Fan AM 1060 changed its affiliation from Yahoo! Sports Radio to the brand new NBC Sports Radio and its branding to "NBC Sports Radio AM 1060". This lasted until August 30, 2019 when the station removed all associations with NBC Sports Radio, rebranding as simply "KDUS AM 1060" and affiliating with SB Nation Radio.
Programming
KDUS airs five hours worth of local programming between 9am and 7pm Monday through Friday. They also air The Dan Patrick Show and The Rich Eisen Show from Premiere Networks and AT&T Sports Networks. Afternoon, overnight, and most weekend programming is provided by SB Nation Radio. Brokered specialty programs air in random time slots at night and on the weekend. The station also has a history of carrying play-by-play for various Valley sports teams.
