KJEL (103.7 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

Lebanon, Missouri Lebanon is a city in and the county seat of Laclede County, Missouri, Laclede County in Missouri. The population was estimated at 15,013 at the time of the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Laclede County. The Lebanon Micropolitan Statistical ...

, United States, that broadcasts a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

format. Established in 1973, the station is 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. KJEL is a full service country station serving Lebanon and the surrounding area. It provides

Fox News Radio Fox News Radio is an American radio network owned by Fox News. It is syndicated to over 500 AM and FM radio stations across the United States. It also supplies programming for three channels on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. History In 2003, ...

at the beginning of the hour, then regional news around the Lebanon area. The station also carries the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Centra ...

History

KJEL-FM signed on October 20, 1973, under the ownership of Risner Broadcasting. At the outset, 60 percent of the station's programming was simulcast with KJEL (1080 AM, now KBNN on 750), which signed on the same day with middle of the road music and news programming. In 1980, the KJEL stations were sold to a group of businesspeople under the name KJEL, Inc. for $375,000. By 1981, KJEL-FM was only simulcasting 10 percent of its programming with the AM station, which had affiliated with the ABC Entertainment Network and changed to a country music format while retaining its news programming; the following year, the two stations began simulcasting full-time. Ozark Broadcasting purchased the KJEL stations for $450,000 in 1983; this made the stations part of the Shepherd Group. Shepherd changed KJEL-FM's call letters to KIRK on October 3, 1983. By 1985, KIRK was programming a country music format separate from KJEL; in 1988, the station changed to an

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

format. KIRK returned to country music in 1994, simulcasting 25 percent of its programming with KJEL; on December 1, 1996, the KJEL call letters (without the "-FM" suffix) returned to the station, after the AM station changed to

talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, Interview (jo ...

station KBNN. In March 2007, GoodRadio.TV LLC agreed to buy the Shepherd Group's stations, including KJEL, for $30.6 million. In 2013, GoodRadio.TV was merged into Digity, LLC (both companies were controlled by Dean Goodman) as part of Digity's acquisition of

NextMedia Nextmedia Pty Limited (styled as nextmedia) is an Australian media company which publishes special interest magazines in the sport, humor, and hobby (among others). The company is headquartered in Sydney and owned by The Forum Media Group, a Ge ...

. Effective February 25, 2016, Digity was acquired by

for $264 million.

References

External links

* {{Country Radio Stations in Missouri JEL Laclede County, Missouri Radio stations established in 1973 1973 establishments in Missouri Alpha Media radio stations