KUPL (98.7 FM) is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

. The station is owned by

Alpha Media Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἄλφα, ''álpha'', or ell, άλφα, álfa) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter aleph , whic ...

and airs a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when radio was compelle ...

, known as "98.7 The Bull." KUPL's studios and offices are located in

Downtown Portland Downtown Portland is the city center of Portland, Oregon, United States. It is on the west bank of the Willamette River in the northeastern corner of the southwest section of the city and where most of the city's high-rise buildings are found ...

on SW 5th Avenue. The

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is in Portland's West Hills, on SW Barnes Road.

History

KPOJ-FM/KPOK-FM

On June 6, 1948, the station signed on as KPOJ-FM at 98.7 MHz. It was owned and operated by '' The Oregon Journal''. It was powered at 44,000 watts and mostly

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simulta ...

co-owned

AM 1330 The following radio broadcasting, radio stations broadcast on AM broadcasting, AM frequency 1330 kHz: 1330 AM is a Regional broadcast frequency. In Argentina * LRI237 in Rosario, Santa Fe In Canada In Mexico * XECSEZ-AM in Jalpa, Zacatecas ...

KPOJ KPOJ (620 AM) is a radio station serving the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon and neighboring Washington. It airs a sports format, and is affiliated with Fox Sports Radio. Its transmitter is located in Sunnyside, Or ...

, a

network affiliate In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or a ...

of the

Mutual Broadcasting System The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Old-time radio, golden ...

and the

Don Lee Network The Don Lee Network, sometimes called the Don Lee Broadcasting System was an American regional network of radio stations in the old-time radio era. Origin Don Lee made a fortune as the exclusive West Coast distributor of Cadillac automobiles. He ...

. It moved one spot lower on the FM dial, to 98.5 MHz, on March 27, 1964. On August 15, 1968, KPOJ-FM changed its

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assign ...

to KPOK-FM. It played

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as ...

and called itself "The Golden Sound." On June 18, 1973, KPOK-FM changed its format from oldies to

beautiful music Beautiful music (sometimes abbreviated as BM, B/EZ or BM/EZ for "beautiful music/easy listening") is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in North American radio from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Easy listening, elevator mu ...

as "98-FM." On July 11, 1973, the call letters switched to KUPL-FM while AM 1330 aired

, also using the KUPL call sign. The beautiful music on 98.5 lasted more than a decade.

Switch to Country

In 1982, KUPL-AM-FM were acquired by the Scripps Howard Broadcasting. On March 16, 1984, after 10 years as an

easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, n ...

station, KUPL-FM dropped the format and joined its AM counterpart as a country music station. KUPL-AM had also previously broadcast easy-listening, continuing with the format as a "

Music of Your Life Music of Your Life is an American syndicated music radio format featuring adult standards music. First created by recording executive Al Ham in 1978, the format achieved popularity in the 1980s among AM radio stations in the United States and C ...

" affiliate since 1981. The moniker was "K98, Continuous Hit Country." Later the station would be known as "Couple 98" by pronouncing the call letters KUPL. In 1996, the stations changed hands again, now owned by American Radio Systems. On September 4, 1997, KUPL-FM moved back from 98.5 MHz to 98.7 MHz, its original frequency. Over the course of the next decade the station would rebrand various times including ''98.7 KUPL'' and ''New Country 98-7 KUPL''. In 1995, the AM station was sold for $2 million to

Crawford Broadcasting Crawford Broadcasting is a family-owned media company based in Denver, Colorado.Contact information
crawfordbro ...

, who switched it to a Christian radio format as KKPZ. In 1998, KUPL-FM was acquired by CBS Radio.

Sale to Alpha Media

In August 2009, CBS sold its Portland cluster to newly formed

. Radio vet Scott Mahalick was hired to program KUPL-FM. On September 16, 2010, the "-FM" suffix was removed from the station's callsign. In March 2011, the station began using the slogan "98-7 KUPL, #1 For The Most New Country." On January 10, 2013 at midnight, the station dropped the "98-7 KUPL" branding for "98-7 The Bull." It only uses the actual callsign during legal

station identification Station identification (ident, network ID or channel ID or bumper) is the practice of radio and television stations and networks identifying themselves on-air, typically by means of a call sign or brand name (sometimes known, particularly in th ...

References

External links