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| Broadcast area | Kansas City Metropolitan Area |
| Frequency | 710kHz |
| Branding | KCMO Talk Radio |
| Programming | |
| Format | Talk |
| Network | Fox News Radio |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| KCHZ,KCFX,KCJK,KCMO-FM,KMJK | |
| History | |
First air date | 1925; 100 years ago (1925) (as KWKC at 1370) |
Former call signs | KWKC (1925–1936) |
Former frequencies |
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Call sign meaning | Kansas City, Missouri |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 33391 |
| Class | B |
| Power |
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Transmitter coordinates | 39°19′08″N94°29′48″W / 39.31889°N 94.49667°W /39.31889; -94.49667 |
| Repeaters |
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| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | |
| Website | www |
KCMO (710kHz) is acommercialAM radio station licensed toKansas City, Missouri. Owned byCumulus Media, the station airs atalkradio format. The studios and offices are on Indian Creek Parkway inOverland Park, Kansas.[2] KCMO is also heard onKCHZ (95.7 FM) inOttawa, Kansas and on the secondHD Radio channel of co-ownedKCFX (101.1) inHarrisonville, Missouri.
The AMtransmitter is off North Eastern Road, nearInterstate 435, on Kansas City's Northeast side.[3] KCMO broadcasts with 10,000 watts by day and 5,000 watts at night, using adirectional antenna at all times. The station is heard around theKansas City metropolitan area, in sections ofMissouri andKansas. With a good radio, the signal can also be heard in parts ofIowa,Oklahoma,Illinois,Arkansas andNebraska. Due to KCMO's low transmitting frequency, plus Kansas's flat terrain and excellent ground conductivity,[4] the station has an unusually large daytime coverage area, reaching a population area of nearly 12 million people.[5]
Weekdays begin with a local news and information show hosted by Pete Mundo, followed by a local talk show with Kevin Keitzman. Nationallysyndicatedconservative talk shows make up the rest of the weekday schedule. Hosts include Vince Coglianese,Guy Benson,Mark Levin,Will Cain,Bill O'Reilly,Dave Ramsey andRed Eye Radio. Weekends feature shows on money, health, religion, cooking, travel and the outdoors, some of which arebrokered programming. Syndicated weekend hosts include Rich Valdes andChris Plante.
At various times in its history, KCMO has carried hourly newscasts from eitherCBS Radio News orFox News Radio. At the beginning of 2015, KCMO and most Cumulus talk stations switched toWestwood One News, a Cumulus network. When that service ended in 2020, KCMO returned to hourly updates from Fox.
The station started in 1925 by Wilson Duncan Broadcasting as KWKC onAM 1370. In 1936, it changed itscall letters to KCMO (Kansas City, Missouri). In 1939, it moved to 1450 AM and then 1480 AM in 1941. In November 1947, KCMO moved to810 AM, where it stayed for more than half a century.[6] During much of that time, KCMO wasaffiliated with theCBS Radio Network, carrying its line up of dramas, comedies, news, sports, soap operas, game shows andbig band broadcasts during the "Golden Age of Radio".
Walter Cronkite was a sports announcer at the station in 1936 with the on air name of "Walter Wilcox".[7] While at KCMO, Cronkite met his wife, Mary Elizabeth Maxwell, and later left to become a reporter forUnited Press International, before becoming a long-time TV anchor forCBS News.
In 1953, television station KCMO-TV (nowKCTV) was launched. TheMeredith 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 becameKCMO-FM (94.9). In 1955, it switched network affiliations to CBS Radio, swapping network affiliations withKMBC, as part of a group deal that Meredith saw a radio and TV affiliation deal withCBS in three cities for five stations[8]
In 1978 Meredith built a new facility for its broadcasting stations inFairway, Kansas. The radio stations were spun off from the television station in 1983, and the TV station changed its call letters to KCTV. (Meredith continued to own KCTV until 2021, when its television stations were acquired byGray Television.) That year, Richard Fairbanks bought both KCMO and KCMO-FM.
The stations were then sold to the Summit Communications Group in 1985, then to theGannett Company in 1986.Bonneville International, which already owned rival stations KMBZ (the former KMBC) and KLTH (nowKZPT), acquired both KCMO stations in 1993.
In 1997, Bonneville sold its entire Kansas City cluster plus three radio stations inSeattle toEntercom Communications. On October 3, 1997, shortly after Entercom assumed control of the KCMO stations, KCMO swapped frequencies withWHB, with KCMO moving to its present-day dial position of710 AM and WHB relocating to 810 AM. Due to the way the switch was structured, theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) considers KCMO to be legally the same station as the old WHB.[9]
In 2000, Entercom was forced to sell both KCMO stations toSusquehanna Radio after its purchase ofSinclair Broadcasting's Kansas City properties,KQRC-FM,KXTR-FM andKCIY-FM. The acquisition left Entercom two stations over the FCC's single-market ownership limit.Cumulus Media became the owner of both KCMO and its FMsister station 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 others in the building, during a national layoff of Cumulus employees. On September 12, the station began a new morning show, hosted by Chris Stigall. Stigall has since left the station, being replaced by Rob Carson. Carson was later replaced by Gregg Knapp as morning host. Pete Mundo is the latest morningdrive time personality.
On April 30, 2012, KCMO began simulcasting on FMtranslator 103.7K279BI viaKCFX-HD2.
On October 12, 2023, at midnight, KCMO began simulcasting on sister stationKCHZ. This was part of a multi-station move among Cumulus' Kansas City stations, withKMJK's urban format moving toKCJK two weeks prior, followed by the move of KCHZ's Top 40/CHR format to KMJK.[10][11]
On December 11, 2024, the station stopped simulcasting on 103.7 FM, as Cumulus leased the signal to Union Broadcasting, who uses it to simulcastWHB.[12]
In light ofMichael Savage's controversial remarks concerning Islam, a group of 70 representatives from various local religious groups including Christianity,Buddhism, Judaism andIslam, gathered in a May 2008interfaith meeting against allegedbigotry and urged KCMO to drop Savage's program.[13] Savage's show, "The Savage Nation," was syndicated byWestwood One, co-owned with KCMO, and heard afternoons on AM 710.
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