KMPH (840 AM) 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

Modesto, California Modesto ( ; ) is the county seat and largest city of Stanislaus County, California, United States. With a population of 218,069 according to 2022 United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau estimates, it is the List of cities and towns in Ca ...

. It airs a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

talk and teaching format and is owned by Relevant Radio, Inc. Most programming is provided by the

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

-based

Relevant Radio Relevant Radio (corporate name Relevant Radio, Inc.) is a radio network in the United States, mainly broadcasting talk radio and religious programming involving the Catholic Church. Relevant Radio broadcasts "talk radio for Catholic life" over a ...

Network. KMPH is a Class B AM station. Its power is 5,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s and covers a section of

Central California Central California is generally thought of as the middle third of the U.S. state of California, north of Southern California (which includes Los Angeles and San Diego) and south of Northern California (which includes San Francisco and San Jose, ...

. AM 840 is a clear channel frequency. To protect other stations from interference, it uses a

directional antenna A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna that radiates or receives greater radio wave power in specific directions. Directional antennas can radiate radio waves in beams, when greater concentration of radiation in a certain directio ...

with a five-

tower array A tower array is an arrangement of multiple radio towers which are mast radiators in a phased array. They were originally developed as ground-based tracking radars. Tower arrays can consist of free-standing or guyed towers or a mix of them. Tower ...

. The

towers A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

and

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

are off Claribel Road in Paulsell, California, about east of Modesto. Programming is also heard over 250-watt

FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater ( two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tr ...

K250BR on 97.9

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

History

KMPH signed on in . It had an

adult standards Adult standards (also sometimes known as the nostalgia or Big Band format) is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations. Adult standards started in the 1950s and is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly tho ...

and middle or the road (MOR) format, with some talk programming. It effectively replaced

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

860

KTRB KTRB (860 AM) is a commercial radio station in San Francisco, California. The station has a talk radio format, airing programming from the Salem Radio Network, using the slogan "860 AM The Answer." KTRB is owned by Salem Media Group, through ...

. KTRB had operated from Modesto since 1933, but had just signed off the previous month in preparation for a move to the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

. The station switched to an all-talk format on March 10, 2008. KMPH was on the air for four years but ran into money problems. Its owner, Pappas Telecasting, shut KMPH down on August 31, 2010. It later returned to air with

brokered programming Brokered programming (also known as time-buy and blocktime) is a form of broadcast content in which the show's producer pays a radio or television station for air time, rather than exchanging programming for pay or the opportunity to play spot com ...

provided by

Paulino Bernal Paulino Bernal (June 22, 1939 – September 10, 2022) was an American accordion player and Christians, Christian Evangelism, evangelist. He was a member of the Tejano Tex-Mex group Conjunto Bernal. In 1972, Paulino converted from the apostolic s ...

Evangelism of Texas. It later switched to a talk format in May 2013

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of 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, simultaneously) ...

with KOMY (1340 AM) in

La Selva Beach, California La Selva Beach (''La Selva'', Spanish for "The Forest") is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Cruz County, California. La Selva Beach sits at an elevation of . The 2020 United States census reported La Selva Beach's population was 2,531. ...

. On July 1, 2013, KMPH switched to a 1950s and 1960s "Graffiti Gold"

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as for a radio format playing this music. Since 2 ...

format. It was re-launching as "Modesto's Power House" and drew on Modesto's connection to hometown hero

George Lucas George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker and philanthropist. He created the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' franchises and founded Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairman ...

's classic 1973 motion picture ''

American Graffiti ''American Graffiti'' is a 1973 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by George Lucas, produced by Francis Ford Coppola, written by Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz and Lucas, and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat ...

''. The oldies format lasted a year. On July 30,

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Immaculate Heart Radio IHR Educational Broadcasting dba Immaculate Heart Radio operated a network of radio stations that aired Roman Catholic religious programming. The network provided a 24-hour a day schedule consisting of call-in talk shows, interviews and broad ...

programming began airing on KMPH. IHR's purchase of the station was consummated on October 30, 2014, at a price of $50,000. KMPH flipped to the

network programming when IHR Educational Broadcasting and Starboard Media Foundation consummated their merger on June 30, 2017.Relevant Radio and Immaculate Heart Radio Complete Merger

Translator

References

External links

Relevant Radio website
* * Mass media in Stanislaus County, California Relevant Radio stations Radio stations established in 2006 2006 establishments in California MPH {{California-radio-station-stub