KPUR (1440 AM) is a silent radio station serving the

Amarillo, Texas Amarillo ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "yellow") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Potter County, Texas, Potter County, though most of the southern half of the city extends into Randall County, Texas, Randall County ...

, area. This station is under ownership of

Cumulus Media Cumulus Media, Inc. is a broadcasting company of the United States and is the second largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States ahead of Audacy and behind iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdi ...

. Its studios are located at the Amarillo Building downtown on Polk Street, and its transmitter tower is based southeast of Amarillo in unincorporated Randall County along

Loop 335 Loop or LOOP may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Loop (mobile), a Bulgarian virtual network operator and co-founder of Loop Live * Loop, clothing, a company founded by Carlos Vasquez in the 1990s and worn by Digable Planets * Loop Mobile, an ...

(Hollywood Road).

History

KPUR was once KFDA on 1230 kHz. It hit the air in 1939. After World War II, Amarillo station KGNC moved from 1440 kHz to 710 kHz with greater power. KFDA filed to move to the vacated 1440 raising power from 250 watts on 1230 to 5,000 watts days and 1,000 watts nights. Night used a three tower directional antenna system. The call letters changed to KPUR in 1966. The station was sold by former television partner

KFDA-TV KFDA-TV (channel 10) is a television station in Amarillo, Texas, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Gray Media alongside Borger-licensed Telemundo affiliate KEYU (channel 31). The two stations share studios on Broadway Drive ( ...

(and Texas State Network interests) to Charlie Jordan, the manager at the time. The towers were located east of Amarillo just south of the former

Route 66 U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) is one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The high ...

(now

I-40 Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west transcontinental Interstate Highway in the southeastern and southwestern portions of the United States. At a length of , it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the country, after I-90 and ...

) which shared land with the studios. In the mid seventies the land was largely sold off to shopping center developers. Towers were relocated to the present site. That site was subject to a late 1970s fire when a Harris MW-5 transmitter melted down. The MW-5 used a step up transformer to raise the three phase input power (at 240 volts) to 17,000 volts. The primary wiring had been bundled closely to the secondary wiring and tightly lashed together. When an insulation breakdown allowed the input wiring to arc, the high temperatures allowed the secondary wires to short to the inputs. This caused extremely high circulating currents and a meltdown of the transformer frame (made of metal castings and laminations). The station is an affiliate of the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. T ...

radio network and the West Texas Friday Night Scoreboard Show. On March 30, 2012, KPUR changed their format from

sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...

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 ...

, branded as "True Oldies". On October 22, 2012, KPUR changed its format back to sports, branded as "ESPN 1440" with programming from

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternatively branded platform-agnostically as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the banner "SportsRadio ESPN". The netw ...

. On January 2, 2013, KPUR switched affiliations from ESPN Radio to CBS Sports Radio, branded as "Sportsradio 1440". In August 2022, KPUR was discovered to have switched from its sports format to an "All Ag All Day" format. It is unclear as to when exactly this switch happened. By 2025, KPUR had returned to "Sportsradio 1440", with the

Infinity Sports Network Infinity Sports Network is an American sports radio network. It debuted as CBS Sports Radio with hourly sports news updates on September 4, 2012, and with 24/7 programming on January 2, 2013. Infinity Sports Network is programmed by Audacy, In ...

(the former CBS Sports Radio) supplemented by a local late morning program, ''806 Sports Radio''. KPUR went silent in March 2025; it is one of 11 Cumulus stations to close the weekend of March 14, as part of a larger shutdown of underperforming Cumulus stations. Following the closure, ''806 Sports Radio'' will move to sister station KARX on March 24.

References

External links

PUR Cumulus Media radio stations Sports radio stations in the United States Infinity Sports Network stations Radio stations established in 1939 1939 establishments in Texas Sports in Abilene, Texas Silent radio stations {{Texas-radio-station-stub