of the day. In the 1970s, many AM stations were leaving music formats to FM, and switching over to talk programming. From 1978-1985, KDWN also was hosting sports talk at night, with 'The Stardust Line' on Sunday nights. 'The Stardust Line', broadcasting from The Stardust Resort and Casino, was hosted by Lem Banker and NFL football great Jim Brown. For West Coast sports fans, KDWN was the first early source for betting lines and sports information from Nevada. KDWN's transition from music to talk began slowly. In the late 1970s, KDWN aired a mix of music and some talk during the day. In January 1980, KDWN began broadcasting talk around the clock. KDWN was the top news/talk outlet in the Las Vegas radio market and won an award for its coverage of the 1980 MGM Grand Fire. Unlike most Las Vegas-area stations, KDWN remained locally owned,, even as most of its competitors were bought out by large radio corporations such as Clear Channel Communications and Infinity Broadcasting. The continuity of ownership kept a consistent style of station sound. The station continued to rely on experienced, yet older, hosts who may have had been with the station since it began broadcasting in the talk radio format. The station did well in the ratings as one of the first generation of talk radio stations. Call screening was not used until recently. Art Bell and Rush Limbaugh Noted radio talk host Art Bell, after minor jobs at several California radio and TV stations, began hosting an all-night show on KDWN in 1983. KDWN had just been granted permission from the Federal Communications Commission to increase its nighttime power from 10,000 watts to 50,000 watts. KDWN was now audible with a good radio between nighttime and dawn in Los Angeles, San Francisco and around the West Coast. So Bell called the show "West Coast AM" because it aired between 1 and 6 a.m. Pacific Time. Bell began by discussing mostly politics. But he increasingly added discussions of the paranormal and conspiracy theories to the program, resulting in increased ratings and national attention. The show got nationwide syndication in 1993, when it was renamed "Coast to Coast AM." Bell did the show from the Plaza Hotel, where KDWN had studios. Later it moved to a studio in his home in nearby Pahrump, Nevada, in Nye County. Eventually KDWN, no longer in control of the program,