KRMG (AM)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

KRMG (740
kHz 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 uni ...
) is a
commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...
AM
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 ...
in
Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa ( ) is the List of municipalities in Oklahoma, second-most-populous city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the List of United States cities by population, 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The po ...
. The station is owned by
Cox Media Group CMG Media Corporation (doing business as Cox Media Group) is an American media conglomerate principally owned by Apollo Global Management in conjunction with Cox Enterprises, which maintains a 29% minority stake in the company. The company p ...
and airs a
news/talk 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, interviews ...
radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...
,
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 co-owned 102.3
KRMG-FM KRMG-FM (102.3 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Sand Springs, Oklahoma, and serving the Tulsa metropolitan area. The station is owned by Cox Media Group, and airs a news/talk radio format, simulcast with co-owned AM 740 KRMG. W ...
. The studios and offices are located on South Memorial Drive near
Interstate 44 Interstate 44 (I-44) is an Interstate Highway in the central United States. Although it is nominally an east–west road as it is even-numbered, it follows a more southwest–northeast alignment. Its western terminus is in Wichita Falls, T ...
in Tulsa. KRMG's
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 ...
is located at a six-
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 ...
on Tower Road in
Sand Springs, Oklahoma Sand Springs is a city in Osage, Creek and Tulsa counties in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. A western suburb of Tulsa, it is located predominantly in Tulsa County. The population was 19,874 in the 2020 U. S. Census, an increase of 5.1 percent ...
. KRMG broadcasts at 50,000
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 by day, the maximum power permitted for American AM stations. But it drops its power to 25,000 watts at night and 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 ...
at all times to protect other stations on AM 740. Three towers are used during the day, providing at least secondary coverage to almost all of Oklahoma, as well as portions of
Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...
,
Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...
,
Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...
and
Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
. At night, power is fed to all six towers to protect Class A
CFZM CFZM (740 kHz) is an commercial Canadian AM radio station in Toronto, Ontario. It is owned by ZoomerMedia, headed by Canadian broadcaster Moses Znaimer. It airs an adult standards and oldies format, branded as ''Zoomer Radio'', with the slog ...
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
, concentrating the signal in the Tulsa and
Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...
areas. KRMG-AM-FM are also heard on Channel 1980 through Cox's digital cable service. The AM station is the Oklahoma primary entry point for the
Emergency Alert System The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a Emergency population warning, national warning system in the United States designed to allow authorized officials to broadcast emergency alerts and warning messages to the public via Cable television, cable ...
.


Programming

Weekdays begin with ''The KRMG Morning News'' anchored by Dan Potter. ''The KRMG Evening News'' is anchored by Skyler Cooper in PM
drive time Drive time is the daypart in which radio broadcasters can reach the most people who listen to car radios while driving, usually to and from work, or on public transportation. Drive-time periods are when the number of radio listeners in this c ...
. The rest of the weekday schedule is made up of nationally syndicated talk shows hosted by
Sean Hannity Sean Patrick Hannity (born December 30, 1961) is an American conservative television presenter, broadcaster and writer. He hosts ''The Sean Hannity Show'', a radio syndication, nationally syndicated talk radio show, has hosted a Hannity, sel ...
,
Erick Erickson Erick Woods Erickson (born June 3, 1975) is an American conservative talk radio host, blogger, and former politician. He hosts a three-hour weekday talk show on WSB 95.5 FM and 750 AM in Atlanta, which is syndicated to other radio stations aro ...
, Brian Kilmeade,
Dana Loesch Dana Lynn Loesch ( ; ; born September 28, 1978) is an American radio and television host, TV host. She is a former spokesperson for the National Rifle Association and a former writer and editor for ''Breitbart News''. Loesch was the television ho ...
, Jimmy Failla, Mark Kaye and Markley, Van Camp & Robbins. Weekends feature shows on money, health, real estate, cars, gardening, home repair, law and technology, some of which are paid
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 ...
. Weekend hosts include
Kim Komando Kimberly Ann Komando (born July 1, 1967) is an American radio personality and the host of two daily radio shows and one weekend radio show about consumer technology. On her weekly call-in show, she provides advice about technology gadgets, websi ...
, Bill Handel and Chad Benson. KRMG-AM-FM have a local news and weather sharing arrangement with former sister station
Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...
network affiliate In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or a ...
KOKI-TV KOKI-TV (channel 23) is a television station in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network. It is owned by Imagicomm Communications alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate KMYT-TV (channel 41). The two sta ...
(channel 23), with world and national news supplied by
ABC News Radio ABC News Radio is the news radio service of ABC Audio, a division of ABC News (United States), ABC News in the United States. Formerly known as ABC Radio News, ABC News Radio feeds, through Skyview Networks, five-minute newscasts on the hour ...
.


History

On December 31, 1949, KRMG first
signed on A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio broadcasting, radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonw ...
. It was founded by
Kerr-McGee The Kerr-McGee Corporation, founded in 1929, was an American energy company involved in oil exploration, production of crude oil, natural gas, perchlorate and uranium mining and milling in various countries. On June 23, 2006, Anadarko Petroleu ...
Oil Company partners Robert S. Kerr and Dean McGee. The
call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...
was chosen to take two letters from the names of the founding owners, KerR and McGee. Kerr, at the time a U. S. Senator, wanted a station that would provide a strong signal to Oklahoma City as well as Tulsa. At the same time, KRMG had to conform its signal to protect co-channel stations to the north and south. The station was powered at 50,000 watts in the daytime to achieve the desired footprint. Power was originally reduced to 10,000 watts at night. Six towers were constructed to create a directional pattern at night while hitting Oklahoma City as well as Tulsa. In 1957, KRMG was acquired by the
Meredith Corporation Meredith Corporation was an American media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa, that owned newspapers, magazines, television stations, and websites. Its publications had a readership of more than 120 million and paid circulation of more than ...
, a publishing and broadcasting company. It was a CBS Radio
Network affiliate In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or a ...
. KRMG aired a full service middle of the road format from the 1950s to the early 70s. In 1961, KRMG was acquired by Swanco Broadcasting. That same year, it added an FM
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 ...
, KRMG-FM at 95.5 MHz. At first it
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) ...
AM 740 but later switched to beautiful music as
KWEN KWEN (95.5 FM) is a commercial radio station in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The station is owned by Cox Media Group and airs a country music radio format. The studios and offices are on Memorial Drive in Tulsa. The transmitter is on Route 97 in Sand Sp ...
, and in 1982 it flipped to
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 ...
. KWEN changed ownership over the years but today is again co-owned with KRMG. KRMG is credited with the development of Tulsa's River Parks. The station first hosted the "Great Raft Race" in 1973. It was a floating race down the
Arkansas River The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in Colorado, specifically ...
from Sand Springs to Tulsa, attracting large crowds to the river banks. The River Parks Authority was formed in 1974 to develop the area. In the late 1970s, KRMG moved to a full service
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. In the 1980s, as music listening began to shift from AM to FM, KRMG added talk shows at night from
NBC Talknet NBC Talknet was a nighttime programming block on the NBC Radio Network from the 1980s to the 1990s. It comprised several advice-oriented call-in talk shows, the most notable personalities being Bruce Williams and Sally Jessy Raphael. At a ...
. By the 1990s, the station dropped music altogether and made the transition to the current news/talk format. Cox Media acquired KRMG and KWEN in 1997.Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 2000 page D-363
/ref> In 2009, a new
KRMG-FM KRMG-FM (102.3 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Sand Springs, Oklahoma, and serving the Tulsa metropolitan area. The station is owned by Cox Media Group, and airs a news/talk radio format, simulcast with co-owned AM 740 KRMG. W ...
was created at 102.3 MHz. That station's Christian contemporary music format was dropped to allow it to simulcast KRMG's talk programming, giving Tulsa radio listeners the choice of hearing KRMG on AM or FM. It also improved KRMG's nighttime coverage in portions of Tulsa. On July 7, 2014, KRMG-AM-FM changed their slogan to "Tulsa’s 24-hour News, Weather and Traffic, News 102.3 and AM 740 KRMG."


Former hosts

Former KRMG hosts include John Erling, Ann Williams, Dianna Proffitt, Dick Andert, Jerry Vaughn, Watson Jelks, Johnny Martin, Trey Callaway, Rob Hough, and Wes Minter. In the KRMG newsroom, ABC's Bob Brown and
CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...
's Bob Losure once served as reporters. Frank Powers is now in
Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...
. Rand LaVonn was news director in the late 1980s. He is now in
Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...
where he volunteered as President of PRSA Dallas in 2013 and President of the Press Club of Dallas from 2000 to 2001. LaVonn was a communications manager for electric and gas utilities in the Dallas region. John Durkee served as news director for 18-years prior to joining the City of Tulsa as Communication Director and then moving on to Tulsa's
NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
affiliate KWGS. Union Public Schools Public Relations Director Gretchen Haas was an anchor and reporter. Richard Dowdell was a reporter and anchor for KRMG News for over 30 years.


References


External links

*
Voices of Oklahoma interview with Ken Greenwood.
First person interview conducted on March 5, 2009, with Ken Greenwood, former station manager and founder of Great Raft Race. {{COXMG RMG Cox Media Group News and talk radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1949 1949 establishments in Oklahoma