KOA (850 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Denver, Colorado. Owned by iHeartMedia, it serves the Denver-Boulder media market. KOA broadcasts a news/talk radio format, and is also the flagship station of the Denver Broncos, Colorado Rockies and Colorado Buffaloes. KOA has its radio studios in Southeast Denver, while the transmitter site is off South Parker Road in Parker. KOA is a Class A, clear-channel station, broadcasting at 50,000 watts non-directional, the maximum power permitted by the Federal Communications Commission for AM stations. By day, the station is easily heard around Eastern Colorado, including cities such as Colorado Springs, Pueblo and Fort Collins. With a good radio at night, the signal can be heard over the Central and Western United States, and parts of Canada and Mexico. KOA is nicknamed "the Blowtorch of the West". It is Colorado's primary entry point station for the Emergency Alert System. As of November 1, 2015, KOA is also heard on 94.1 MHz K231BQ, which is licensed to Golden, Colorado, as an FM translator of KBCO-HD3. In addition, KOA also simulcasts on translator K231AA (also on 94.1 MHz), licensed to Boulder. History KOA was first owned by General Electric and began broadcasting on December 15, 1924. The station started with 5,000 watts, and in 1927, increased to 12,500 watts. KOA became an NBC affiliate in 1929, and the network took over operation of the station from GE shortly thereafter. On July 7, 1934, power was raised to the current level of 50,000 watts. In 1941, NBC, which had been operating KOA and KGO in San Francisco for GE since October 1, 1929, also took over ownership of the stations. NBC continued to own KOA until June 1953 when it sold the station to Metropolitan Television Company, whose principal stockholder was Bob Hope; that same year on Christmas Eve, KOA started a sister TV station, KOA-TV on channel 4; like its radio cousin, it was affiliated with the NBC Television Network; it is now CBS-owned KCNC-TV. GE repurchased the station in 1968 and continued to own it until 1983 (keeping the aforementioned channel 4, which was subsequently rechristened as KCNC-TV), when it sold KOA to Belo Corporation. In 1987 Jacor Communications purchased the station; Jacor was purchased by Clear Channel Communications in 1999. The company rebranded to iHeartMedia in 2014. Former Rocky Mountain News columnist Mike Rosen, who retired at the end