KCMO (AM)

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KCMO (AM)
Broadcast area	Kansas City, Missouri, extending into most of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska
Branding	710 KCMO
Slogan	Fox News & Talk Radio
First air date	1948
Frequency	710 kHz
Format	Talk radio
ERP	10,000 watts daytime 5,000 nighttime
Class	B
Callsign meaning	Kansas City, Missouri
Owner	Cumulus Media
Website	www.710kcmo.com

KCMO 710 AM is a Kansas City area talk radio station that airs almost all syndicated shows, with little local content, such as those hosted by Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Dave Ramsey, Michael Savage, and Rusty Humphries. It is affiliated with Fox News Radio. KCMO was originally on 810 AM, but switched frequencies with WHB in October 1998.

The station started in 1925 by Wilson Duncan Broadcasting on 1370 AM as KWKC. In 1936 it changed its called letters to KCMO (Kansas City Missouri). In 1939 it moved to 1450 AM and then 1480 AM. In September 1947 it moved to 810 AM. ^[1]

Walter Cronkite was a sports announcer at the station in the 1936 with the on air name of "Walter Wilcox"^[2]. He met his wife Mary Elizabeth Maxwell there and left to become a reporter for United Press International.

In 1953 the television station in KCMO-TV launched. Meredith Corporation acquired both the radio and television stations in October 1953, less than a month after the television station went on the air. Meredith later acquired what became KCMO-FM, 94.9 FM. The radio stations were spun off from the television station in 1983 when the TV station moved its studios to Fairway, Kansas and changed its call letters to KCTV. (Meredith continues to own KCTV to this day.) That year, Richard Fairbanks (a one-time owner of what is today WXIA-TV in Atlanta, Georgia) bought both of the KCMO radio stations. The stations were then sold to the Summit Communications Group in 1985, then to the Gannett Company in 1986. Bonneville International (the then-owner of KMBZ) acquired both KCMO stations in 1993. Four years later, Bonneville sold the KCMO stations, KMBZ and three radio stations in Seattle, Washington to Entercom Communications. On October 3, 1998, shortly after Entercom assumed control of the KCMO stations, KCMO-AM swapped frequencies with WHB, with KCMO assuming its present-day 710 AM position. In 2000, Entercom was forced to sell both KCMO stations to Susquehanna Radio after its purchase of Sinclair Broadcasting's Kansas City properties (KQRC-FM, KXTR-FM and KCIY) left Entercom two stations over the FCC's ownership limit within a single market. Cumulus Media acquired the stations in 2006 with its acquisition of Susquehanna.

When Cumulus assumed control of the station in mid-2006, local morning host Van Patrick quit on air, apparently upset over the firing of his producer as well as many others in the building. On September 12th, the station began a new morning show, hosted by Chris Stigall. It can be heard from 5am-9am Monday through Friday.

Van Patrick was alarmed - as are many others - of the growing control over radio by corporate interests. KCMO's owners had gutted staffs at other stations they owned in places such as Dallas. Indeed, the corporate radio industry in 2006 and 2007 appeared to be purging itself of many of its workers.

KCMO-AM, like other former "heritage" talk radio stations, has been programmed on the cheap. Where it used to have a successful lineup of locally-produced shows, along with a strong news department, the station now relies primarily on cheap (i.e. free) syndicated programming such as Sean Hannity.

Some former popular KCMO personalities include Mike Murphy, Dave Dawson, psychologist Marshall Saper, George Woods and Chris Baker.

[edit] References

1. ^ http://www.fybush.com/sites/2005/site-051202.html Kansas City's KCMO, WHB and KCXL
2. ^ The Duh Awards: In This Stupid World, We Take the Prize By Bob Fenster p. 176 Andrews McMeel Publishing (April 1, 2005) ISBN 0-7407-5021-6

[edit] External links

• KCMO-AM's Web site
• Query the FCC's AM station database for KCMO