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|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Kansas City metropolitan area |
| Frequency | 980kHz |
| Branding | Talk 980 |
| Programming | |
| Format | Talk radio |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | April 5, 1922; 103 years ago (1922-04-05) |
Former call signs |
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Call sign meaning | Derived from former KMBC call sign (station was formerly owned by Midland Broadcasting Company) |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 6382 |
| Class | B |
| Power |
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Transmitter coordinates | 39°2′25.02″N94°30′30.83″W / 39.0402833°N 94.5085639°W /39.0402833; -94.5085639 |
| Repeater | 98.1 KMBZ-FM HD2 (Kansas City) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live (via Audacy) |
| Website | www |
KMBZ (980kHz) is a commercialAM radio stationlicensed toKansas City, Missouri. KMBZ is owned byAudacy, Inc. and airs atalk radioformat. Its studios andtransmitter site are in suburbanMission, Kansas, at separate locations.
By day, KMBZ operates at 9,000 watts with anon-directional antenna. At night, it reduces power to 5,000 watts and uses adirectional antenna to protect other stations onAM 980 from interference.[2] Its signal covers theKansas City metropolitan area, including parts ofMissouri andKansas.[3]
After a local morningdrive time news and interview show,simulcast withsister station 98.1KMBZ-FM, 980 KMBZ's weekday schedule is made up ofnationally syndicated talk programs includingThe Dana Show with Dana Loesch,The Glenn Beck Program,The Sean Hannity Show,The Lars Larson Show,The Joe Pags Show,Armstrong & Getty andCoast to Coast AM withGeorge Noory. World and national news is supplied at the beginning of each hour byABC News Radio. Weekend programming includes shows on money, health, computers and cooking, as well as paidbrokered programming. While KMBZ carries mostly syndicates programming, KMBZ-FM 98.1 airs mostly local talk shows.
KMBZ is the oldest surviving station in Kansas City, tracing its history to itsdebut as a broadcasting station on April 5, 1922, with thecall sign WPE. It is also the third oldest radio station in Missouri, behind onlyKTRS andWEW. It has been owned by two rival branches of theLatter Day Saint movement, though it currently has no church affiliation.
The station was first licensed, with the randomly issued call letters WPE, on April 5, 1922 to the Central Radio Company in Kansas City, Missouri.[4] It moved to Independence in early 1923.[5] WPE was deleted on June 18, 1923,[6] however, the station was relicensed a few days later, as KFIX in Independence, to theReorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church).[7] The KFIX call letters were randomly assigned from a sequential list of available call signs, and changed to KLDS in early 1925.[8]
In 1926, the station was authorized to also operate as KMJP, "When this station is operating under the auspices of the Kansas City Journal-Post".[9] The KMJP authorization was ended the next year.[10]
In 1927, Midland Broadcasting began an association with the station. The call sign KMBC was added, under the provision that "Call signal KMBC assigned in addition to KLDS, which is to be used when programs are broadcast by the Midland Broadcasting Co."[11] Program director Arthur B. Church reported broadcasting over an amateur station beginning on April 5, 1921, so this date is sometimes reported as the station's start.[12] After being licensed for a time with the dual call sign KLDS-KMBC, in 1929 the KLDS call letters were dropped, and the station became just KMBC.[13]
In 1953, Midland putKMBC-TV on the air as a shared time arrangement with another local radio station owner.Cook Paint and Varnish Company bought the Midland holdings in 1954. KMBC-AM-TV operated out of theLyric Theatre.
In 1961, Cook sold the radio and television stations toMetromedia. In 1962, Metromedia signed on KMBC-FM (later KMBR and KLTH, nowKZPT). In 1967, Metromedia sold both radio stations toBonneville International but kept the television station. Bonneville is owned bythe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) based inSalt Lake City, marking the second time the station was owned by an LDS Church organization. Since Metromedia held the rights to the KMBC call letters, Bonneville changed the AM station's call letters to KMBZ. The choice was deliberate; "Z" rhymes with "C", allowing Bonneville to continue trading on the old call letters. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the station's nickname was "Z-98". During those years, the station aired afull servicemiddle of the road music format.
In 1997, Bonneville sold its entire Kansas City cluster, which by then consisted of KMBZ, KLTH, andKCMO-AM-FM, to Entercom Communications (now Audacy).
Paul Henning, who createdThe Beverly Hillbillies, was a writer, actor, disc jockey and newsreader at the station early in his career.[14]
After having worked as Director of Promotion for theKansas City Royals baseball team,Rush Limbaugh got his start in political commentary on the station in 1983. He continued to be heard on KMBZ, throughhis syndicated talk show, until his death in 2021. For many years KMBZ also repeated Limbaugh's show overnight.
KMBZ was the Royalsflagship station for some time. For a time in the 1980s, it ceded flagship status toWIBW inTopeka, Kansas. Also, flagship status switched toWHB, a Kansas City all-sports station, from 2003 through 2007. In 2008, Royals games switched to co-ownedsports radio stationKCSP. Beginning in 2009, some Royals games returned to KMBZ, when KCSP is committed to another sporting event. KMBZ is also the Kansas Cityaffiliate for theMissouri Tigers radio network, broadcastingfootball, men's and women's basketball and the "Tiger Talk" coach's show.
In 2009, KMBZ begansimulcasting its programming on theHD3 subchannel ofsister station KUDL. On March 24, 2011, Entercom announced that on March 30, KUDL's analog FM broadcasts would become a full-time simulcast of KMBZ asKMBZ-FM. On December 24, 2014, Entercom announced that the KMBZ simulcast would split on January 5, 2015; on that date, KMBZ became "Talk 980", carrying mostly syndicated shows, while KMBZ-FM began airing a mostly locally-oriented programming schedule.[15]
On January 14, 2015, KMBZ was granted anFCCconstruction permit to move to theKCCV transmitter site and increase the daytime power.[16]