KYYA (730 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

Billings, Montana Billings is the most populous Lists of populated places in the United States, city in the U.S. state of Montana, with a population of 117,116 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located in the south-central portion of the state, i ...

, United States. The station serves the Billings area. The station is currently owned by Desert Mountain Broadcasting. These call letters previously belonged to 93.3 FM which formerly aired a Top 40/CHR format for many years. The 93.3 FM station last aired an Adult AC format until it went silent and was later sold to another radio broadcaster in the Billings radio market.

730 AM 730 AM is a Mexican and Canada, Canadian clear-channel frequency. XEX-AM, XEX Mexico City and CKAC Montreal are the list of broadcast station classes, Class A stations on 730 kHz. The following radio broadcasting, radio stations broadcast on ...

is a Canadian and Mexican

clear-channel A clear-channel station is a North American AM broadcasting, AM radio station that has the highest level of protection from Interference (communication), interference from other stations, particularly from nighttime skywave signals. This classifi ...

frequency.

History

KYYA signed on as KURL on October 15, 1959. At the time, the transmitting power was only 500 watts. The transmitter was located north of Garden Avenue between Sugar and Riverside Road in Billings. The station was owned by Yellowstone Broadcasting Corporation. In early 1962, the station was assigned to Christian Enterprises Incorporation, and the station began a long history carrying a

religious Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...

format. KURL applied to increase power to 5,000 watts on February 10, 1981. The station was one of several purchased by Harold Erickson in the 1960s to "cover the entire state of Montana with Christian radio". The network included

KGLE KGLE (590 AM) is a radio station licensed to serve Glendive, Montana. The station is owned by Hi-Line Radio Fellowship, Inc. It airs a religious radio format including programming from Moody Broadcasting Network. The station was assigned the K ...

in Glendive, KGVW in Belgrade (since deleted), as well as others in surrounding states. KURL-FM was brought on the air in 1972, then on 97.1, initially airing

elevator music Elevator music (also known as Muzak, piped music, or lift music) is a type of background music played in elevators, in rooms where many people come together for reasons other than listening to music, and during telephone calls when placed on ho ...

. That station was sold in 1981 and became known as K-Bear. KURL aired national programming in the 1970s. Programs such as

Focus on the Family Focus on the Family (FOTF or FotF) is an American Christian fundamentalism, Evangelical Protestant organization founded in 1977 in Southern California by James Dobson, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The group is one of a number of Evangel ...

, and

Insight for Living Charles Rozell Swindoll (born October 18, 1934) is an evangelical Christian pastor, author, educator, and radio preacher. He founded Insight for Living, headquartered in Frisco, Texas, which airs a radio program of the same name on more than 2 ...

, were added to the lineup. In 2010, Connoisseur Media purchased the station, taking the religious programming over to KURL-FM where it continues today. KURL-AM began broadcasting a news/talk format. In 2013, the station celebrated its 50th year of broadcasting. On May 7, 2019,

Connoisseur Media Connoisseur Media LLC is an American media company. It is based in Westport, Connecticut and led by Jeff Warshaw. As of May 2024, Connoisseur operates 13 radio stations and digital assets in four U.S. markets: Frederick, MD, Nassau-Suffolk, NY, Ne ...

announced that it would sell its Billings cluster to Desert Mountain Broadcasting, an entity formed by Connoisseur Billings general manager Cam Maxwell. The sale closed on July 31, 2019. On November 27, 2019, KYYA dropped its news/talk format and began stunting with Christmas music as "Billings' Christmas Station" (simulcasting on FM translator K251CI 98.1 FM Billings). On December 26, 2019, KYYA ended its Christmas music stunt and launched an oldies format, branded as "98.1 K-Bear".K-Bear Returns to Billings
Radioinsight - December 26, 2019

Previous logo

File:KYYA NewsTalk730AM logo.png

References

External links

KYYA Website
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FCC History Cards for KYYA
YYA Radio stations established in 1959 1995 establishments in Montana Oldies radio stations in the United States {{Montana-radio-station-stub