KFBD-FM (97.9 FM) is a

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting 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 rad ...

licensed to

Waynesville, Missouri Waynesville is a city in and the county seat of Pulaski County, Missouri, United States. Its population was 5,406 at the 2020 census. Located in the Missouri Ozarks, it was once served by Route 66. History Waynesville was platted in 1839. The ...

, United States. The station is currently owned by

Alpha Media Alpha Media LLC is a radio broadcasting company based in Portland, Oregon, and led by Bob Proffitt. The group does business under the Alpha Media name. It was formed from the merger of Alpha Broadcasting, L&L Broadcasting, and Main Line Broadc ...

, through licensee Alpha Media Licensee LLC. KFBD-FM and its AM sister station,

KJPW KJPW (1390 AM broadcasting, AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Talk radio, news talk information format. Licensed to Waynesville, Missouri, United States, the station is currently owned by Alpha Media, through licensee Alpha Media Licensee L ...

, are the dominant news radio providers in the Pulaski County area, which includes

Fort Leonard Wood Fort Leonard Wood is a United States Army, U.S. Army training installation located in the Missouri The Ozarks, Ozarks. The main gate is located on the southern boundary of the city of St. Robert, Missouri, St. Robert. The post was created in De ...

, Waynesville, and St. Robert. The stations compete with the only other station broadcasting from Pulaski County,

KFLW KFLW is a radio station airing a hot adult contemporary format licensed to St. Robert, Missouri, broadcasting on 98.9 MHz FM. The station serves the areas of Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, Rolla, Missouri, and Waynesville, Missouri Waynesvi ...

Radio, owned by the Lebanon Daily Record and working locally from the St. Robert offices of the Pulaski County Mirror weekly newspaper. Gary Knehans was honored by the Waynesville City Council on Sept. 19, 2013, for fifty years of service as a reporter with the radio station. Knehans was hired by the original owners of the radio station about half a year after it went on the air, originally with the call letters KJPW, and now serves as operations manager for KJPW/KFBD as well as two other stations.

History

The station first signed on the air on December 9, 1964. It first aired a MOR format before becoming a Top 40 format in 1981. KFBD-FM is one out of the two Rolla dominant affiliates for

Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 ''Rick Dees Weekly Top 40'' (sometimes known as ''The Weekly Top 40'') is an internationally syndicated radio program created and hosted by American radio personality Rick Dees. It is currently heard on over 200 radio stations worldwide. It is ...

in the 1980s, with the other being KCLU. The Top 40 format continued to last throughout the rest of the 1980s and into the early 1990s. When the early 1990s began rolling along, the station began simulcasting KOZQ-AM which still airs Top 40 at the time. A few years later, it became a news/talk station.

References

External links

* FBD-FM Pulaski County, Missouri Radio stations established in 1975 Alpha Media radio stations {{Missouri-radio-station-stub