KCMO (AM)

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KCMO 710 AM is a Kansas City area conservative talk radio station. It airs mostly syndicated talk shows as those hosted by Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Dave Ramsey, Michael Savage, and Rusty Humphries. It was formerly affiliated with CBS NEWS but then switched to Fox News Radio. As a result, KCMO suffered. The news credibility dropped after the switch. 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 KCMO-TV was 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 it two stations over the FCC's single-market ownership limit. 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 and during a national purge of Cumulus employees. On September 12th, the station began a new morning show, hosted by Chris Stigall. It can be heard from 5am-9am Monday through Friday.

[edit] Local Shows

The station aired a successful mornings program, hosted by George Woods, and an afternoon drive news program, hosted by Dan Roberts and Scott Mayman. The Afternoon show proved popular and in its final survey, beat the opposition KMBZ Drive show. Despite the popularity of the show, management canceled the program, and brought in the syndicated conservative Sean Hannity, thus handing the audience back to the competitor KMBZ.

Now, KCMO has only one local weekday talk program, the standard morning news and talk show. All other programs during the remaining 20 hours are rebroadcast from satellite. Ratings since the station dropped most local talk and news programming have suffered. The station, which used to be Kansas City's only talk radio station, usually appears near the lower end of the city's most listened to stations.

[edit] Former Hosts

Some former popular KCMO personalities include Joe Kramer (deceased), Mike Murphy (retired), Dave Dawson (deceased), psychologist Marshall Saper (deceased), Don Harrison (to CNN, deceased), Rusty Humphries (nationally syndicated), Rick Roberts (to San Diego), Freddy Mertz, Wes Minter, George Woods, Dan Taylor Chris Baker (to Houston), John Boss, Claudia Lamb, Bill Waris (deceased), Mike Shanin, Jerry Fogel, Ed Bieler Scott Mayman (Australia) Dan Roberts, Mike Throop, Fred Rocks, Jamie McFerran, Dan Hurst, Wayne Larrivee, Kevin Wall, Kevin Harlan, Dick Wolf and Brian Wilson.

Sports: Conrad Dobler, Don Fortune.

[edit] Controversy

In light of Michael Savage's controversial remarks concerning Islam, a group of 70 representatives from various religious groups such Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism and Islam gathered in a May 2008 interfaith meeting against alleged bigotry and urged KCMO to drop Savage's program.^[3]

[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
3. ^ Religious group wants KCMO 710-AM to drop Michael Savage’s program

[edit] External links

• KCMO-AM's Web site
• Query the FCC's AM station database for KCMO
• Radio Locator Information on KCMO

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