KFDI-FM (101.3 MHz) is a 100 kW

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 ...

operating in

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had a population of 647,610 in 2020. It is located in ...

. Identifying as "Today's KFDI-FM 101.3, Wichita's Country Favorites," the station runs a contemporary

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, o ...

format. KFDI has a strong emphasis on news, weather, and traffic with the largest news radio team in Kansas and the only one staffed 24/7/366. The station is owned by SummitMedia. Its studios are located just north of Wichita and the transmitter is located outside Colwich, Kansas. KFDI also serves as a Radio partner of CBS affiliate

KWCH-DT KWCH-DT (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Hutchinson, Kansas, United States, serving the Wichita area as an affiliate of CBS. It is owned by Gray Television alongside CW affiliate KSCW-DT (channel 33), and maintains studios on ...

News team

The news team includes News Producer George Lawson, morning drive anchor and reporter Jacob Weston, and reporters and anchors Ryan Arnold, Lance Ferguson, and Chris Maslen.

History

KFDI-FM has been playing country music since about 1972. Until 2002, the KFDI calls were also on sister station 1070 AM (now

KFTI KFTI (1070 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a classic country music format. Licensed to Wichita, Kansas, United States, the station serves the Wichita area. The station is owned by SummitMedia. KFTI is one of oldest stations in Kansas, dati ...

; the AM station first went on the air in 1962). Numerous influential disc jockeys and programmers have worked at the stations through the years, including Pat James (Now Operations Manager at

KHUT KHUT (102.9 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station broadcasting a country music radio format. Licensed to Hutchinson, Kansas, the station serves the Wichita metropolitan area and is owned by Eagle Communications, Inc. KHUT goes by the slog ...

Hutchinson, Kansas Hutchinson is the largest city and county seat in Reno County, Kansas, United States, and located on the Arkansas River. It has been home to salt mines since 1887, thus its nickname of "Salt City", but locals call it "Hutch". As of the 2020 ce ...

), Beverlee Brannigan, CMA award winners Brian Pierce and Kellie Michaels, Rick Regan, Mike Oatman, Gary Hightower (formerly on

XM Satellite Radio XM Satellite Radio (XM) was one of the three satellite radio (SDARS) and online radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM, Sirius XM Holdings. It provided pay-for-service radio, analogous to subscription cable televisi ...

's Willie's Place as "Catfish"), Terry Burford, Dugg Collins, Johnny Western, Buddy Nichols, Orin Friesen, Scott Piper, Jerry "Attaboy" Adams, Andy "O" (Mike Oatman's son), "Willie Wheelchair", Larry Scott, Dave Donahue, "Lovable" Larry Stonecipher (now on air part time at KHUT), "Gentle" Ben Ingram (now at KWLS in

Winfield, Kansas Winfield is a city and county seat of Cowley County, Kansas, United States. It is situated along the Walnut River in South Central Kansas. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 11,777. It is home to Southwestern College. Hi ...

), and many more. Oatman, Burford, Collins, Western, Scott and Donahue are members of the Country Music Disc Jockey's Hall of Fame. Friesen was named the International Bluegrass Music Association's very first Bluegrass Broadcaster of the Year in 1990. He also produced the IBMA awards show from 1990 to 2000. The stations were purchased by Journal Broadcast Group in 1999. Prior to that, they were owned by Great Empire Broadcasting, headquartered in Wichita. Great Empire was owned by Mike Oatman and Mike Lynch. (Lynch is also in the Country Music Disc Jockey's Hall of Fame in the Broadcasting Executives section.) At its peak, Great Empire was the largest chain of country music stations in the United States. Other country stations in the group were KVOO/ KVOO-FM in

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

, WOW/ WOW-FM in Omaha, and KTTS/

KTTS-FM KTTS-FM (94.7 FM) is a country music formatted radio station, licensed to Springfield, Missouri and the greater Springfield area (market #140). It began broadcasting in 1948, and is one of the oldest FM stations in the United States. Programming ...

Springfield, Missouri Springfield is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. The city's population was 169,176 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Springfield metropolitan area, which had an estima ...

. At one time, they had also owned stations in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United ...

(

KRBQ KRBQ (102.1 FM) is a classic hip hop radio station in San Francisco, California and owned by Audacy, Inc. The station transmits its signal from Mount Beacon atop the Marin Headlands above Sausalito, California, while studios are located in t ...

AM/ FM) and

Shreveport Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population of 393,406 in 2020, is t ...

(

KWKH KWKH (1130 AM) is a sports radio station serving Shreveport, Louisiana. The 50-kilowatt station broadcasts at 1130 kHz. Formerly owned by Clear Channel Communications and Gap Central Broadcasting, it is now owned by Townsquare Media. Its st ...

, home of the "

Louisiana Hayride ''Louisiana Hayride'' was a radio and later television country music show broadcast from the Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana, that during its heyday from 1948 to 1960 helped to launch the careers of some of the ...

") All of the stations went by the "Radio Ranch" moniker and were full service country music stations. Local news, weather and traffic were emphasized. Lost pet reports were also aired on the stations. On July 30, 2014, it was announced that the

E. W. Scripps Company The E. W. Scripps Company is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglomerate. The company is he ...

would acquire Journal Communications in an all-stock transaction. The combined firm retained their broadcast properties and spun off their print assets as Journal Media Group. Ahead of the merger, Journal was required by the FCC to divest KFTI-FM, which was sold to Envision in December 2014. KFDI and its four sister stations (

KICT-FM KICT-FM (95.1 MHz) is a radio station in Wichita, Kansas broadcasting an active rock format. The station is owned by SummitMedia. Its studios are in Wichita and the transmitter is located outside Colwich, Kansas. History The station began as ...

, KFXJ,

KYQQ KYQQ (106.5 FM) is a radio station operating in Wichita, Kansas, in the United States, and licensed to Arkansas City, Kansas. Calling itself "Radio Lobo 106.5," the station airs a Regional Mexican format and is owned by SummitMedia. Its studios ...

, KFTI) merged with the E.W. Scripps Company on April 1, 2015. Scripps exited radio in 2018; the Wichita stations went to SummitMedia in a four-market, $47 million deal completed on November 1, 2018.

References

External links

* {{Authority control FDI-FM Country radio stations in the United States HD Radio stations Radio stations established in 1972 1972 establishments in Kansas