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KFYR (AM)
Encyclopedia
KFYR is a radio station
located in Bismarck, North Dakota
, owned by Clear Channel Communications
. It transmits on a 5,000 Watt
signal that can be heard in seven U.S. state
s and three Canadian provinces. KFYR also broadcasts on translator K259AF (99.7 FM) in Bismarck. 99.7 FM was previously a simulcast
of KQDY
94.5 FM before 2011.
Because of its location near the beginning of the AM band, as well as its transmitter power and North Dakota's flat land, KFYR has the largest land coverage area in the United States of any AM radio station during daytime hours. It can be heard across almost all of North Dakota during the day, as well as parts of Minnesota
, South Dakota
, Montana
, Manitoba
and Saskatchewan
. Under the right conditions, it can be picked up as far south as Nebraska
.
radio affiliate. In December 1953 it spawned a television station (KFYR-TV
, western North Dakota's NBC television affiliate, and its three semi-satellites) and in 1966, KFYR-FM at 92.9 (now KYYY
) began operation. At one time, the roster also included AM radio stations in Billings and Great Falls, MT. The station group was known as "The Meyer Broadcasting Company" and remained under the ownership of the Meyer family until 1998.
KFYR began operation with programming for only a few hours daily, signing off between shows. By 1950, the station had expanded its schedule to an 18 hour broadcast day. Early programming included live studio musicians, transcribed music and programs, and live feeds from the NBC Radio Network. Many popular "soap operas", sporting events, religious broadcasts, children's programs, and musical performances were part of the regular schedule. The station carried NBC's "Monitor" on weekends, and "Nightline" on weeknights. Other programming included local news, weather, and sports, locally originated variety programs such as "What's The Weather" weekday mornings and "The Northwest Farmfront" weekdays at noon. Mike Dosch, an established musician from Strasburg, ND (Lawrence Welk's hometown) was featured on several of the live shows and had his own late-night program of organ music for many years. There were also shows hosted by staff announcers who played recorded popular music by such artists as Nat King Cole, Doris Day, The Ames Brothers, Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians, and orchestras including Mantovani, Percy Faith, and Frank Chacksfield.
Facing stiff competition from less formal local stations along with regional outlets in Fargo, Minot, and Jamestown, ND and Winnipeg, Canada, KFYR began to see its dominance and audience decline in the early 1960s and switched to a Top 40
format. It was very popular with teenagers by virtue of its "torrid twenty" countdown show, which featured the twenty popular hits of the week. In the 1960s and 70s, teenagers from South Dakota to parts of Canada enjoyed listening to "their" music on KFYR every evening (along with KOMA
from Oklahoma City, KAAY from Little Rock, WLS from Chicago, and KSTP from St Paul).
KFYR gained brief national notoriety in 1979, when it was sued in Federal Court
by the Pointer Sisters
and Elektra Records
, for taking the liberty of having the Pointer Sisters' current hit, the Bruce Springsteen
penned "Fire", re-dubbed so that the Sisters appeared to be singing "K-Fire" on the chorus; the suit was settled out of court.
KFYR was revamped in the late 1990s and since then has broadcast a variety of programming, with news and talk radio
during the day, and classic rock
and oldies
music during the evening. KFYR also airs the National Football League
games of the Green Bay Packers
as an affiliate of the Packers Radio Network
.
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
located in Bismarck, North Dakota
Bismarck, North Dakota
Bismarck is the capital of the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Burleigh County. It is the second most populous city in North Dakota after Fargo. The city's population was 61,272 at the 2010 census, while its metropolitan population was 108,779...
, owned by Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...
. It transmits on a 5,000 Watt
Watt
The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...
signal that can be heard in seven U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
s and three Canadian provinces. KFYR also broadcasts on translator K259AF (99.7 FM) in Bismarck. 99.7 FM was previously a simulcast
Simulcast
Simulcast, shorthand for "simultaneous broadcast", refers to programs or events broadcast across more than one medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at the same time. For example, Absolute Radio is simulcast on both AM and on satellite radio, and the BBC's Prom concerts are often...
of KQDY
KQDY
KQDY , known as "KQ 94.5", is a radio station located in Bismarck, North Dakota, USA, owned by Clear Channel Communications. The stations airs a country music format competing with Cumulus Media's KUSB "US 103.3"....
94.5 FM before 2011.
Because of its location near the beginning of the AM band, as well as its transmitter power and North Dakota's flat land, KFYR has the largest land coverage area in the United States of any AM radio station during daytime hours. It can be heard across almost all of North Dakota during the day, as well as parts of Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, South Dakota
South Dakota
South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...
, Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
, Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
and Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
. Under the right conditions, it can be picked up as far south as Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
.
History
KFYR was founded in 1925 by Phillip J. Meyer and his wife, Etta Hoskins Meyer. It is Bismarck's oldest radio station. For many years, it was an NBCNBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
radio affiliate. In December 1953 it spawned a television station (KFYR-TV
KFYR-TV
KFYR-TV, ATSC channel 31 , is the NBC affiliated television station for Bismarck, North Dakota. KFYR-TV is the flagship station of NBC North Dakota, a network of four stations that serve most of central and western North Dakota, along with parts of South Dakota and Montana.The station serves the...
, western North Dakota's NBC television affiliate, and its three semi-satellites) and in 1966, KFYR-FM at 92.9 (now KYYY
KYYY
KYYY , known as Y-93, is a radio station in Bismarck, North Dakota, owned by Clear Channel Communications with an Adult Contemporary format...
) began operation. At one time, the roster also included AM radio stations in Billings and Great Falls, MT. The station group was known as "The Meyer Broadcasting Company" and remained under the ownership of the Meyer family until 1998.
KFYR began operation with programming for only a few hours daily, signing off between shows. By 1950, the station had expanded its schedule to an 18 hour broadcast day. Early programming included live studio musicians, transcribed music and programs, and live feeds from the NBC Radio Network. Many popular "soap operas", sporting events, religious broadcasts, children's programs, and musical performances were part of the regular schedule. The station carried NBC's "Monitor" on weekends, and "Nightline" on weeknights. Other programming included local news, weather, and sports, locally originated variety programs such as "What's The Weather" weekday mornings and "The Northwest Farmfront" weekdays at noon. Mike Dosch, an established musician from Strasburg, ND (Lawrence Welk's hometown) was featured on several of the live shows and had his own late-night program of organ music for many years. There were also shows hosted by staff announcers who played recorded popular music by such artists as Nat King Cole, Doris Day, The Ames Brothers, Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians, and orchestras including Mantovani, Percy Faith, and Frank Chacksfield.
Facing stiff competition from less formal local stations along with regional outlets in Fargo, Minot, and Jamestown, ND and Winnipeg, Canada, KFYR began to see its dominance and audience decline in the early 1960s and switched to a Top 40
Contemporary hit radio
Contemporary hit radio is a radio format that is common in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top 40 music charts...
format. It was very popular with teenagers by virtue of its "torrid twenty" countdown show, which featured the twenty popular hits of the week. In the 1960s and 70s, teenagers from South Dakota to parts of Canada enjoyed listening to "their" music on KFYR every evening (along with KOMA
KOKC (AM)
KOKC is a talk radio station located in Oklahoma City among a cluster of stations in the market owned by Pennsylvania-based Renda Broadcasting. KOKC is an affiliate of the CBS Radio Network.-The early years:...
from Oklahoma City, KAAY from Little Rock, WLS from Chicago, and KSTP from St Paul).
KFYR gained brief national notoriety in 1979, when it was sued in Federal Court
United States federal courts
The United States federal courts make up the judiciary branch of federal government of the United States organized under the United States Constitution and laws of the federal government.-Categories:...
by the Pointer Sisters
Pointer Sisters
The Pointer Sisters are an American pop/R&B recording act from Oakland, California that achieved mainstream success during the 1970s and 1980s. Spanning over three decades, their repertoire has included such diverse genres as pop, disco, jazz, bebop, blues, soul, funk, dance, country and rock.The...
and Elektra Records
Elektra Records
Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009....
, for taking the liberty of having the Pointer Sisters' current hit, the Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
penned "Fire", re-dubbed so that the Sisters appeared to be singing "K-Fire" on the chorus; the suit was settled out of court.
KFYR was revamped in the late 1990s and since then has broadcast a variety of programming, with news and talk radio
Talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
during the day, and classic rock
Classic rock
Classic rock is a radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format features music ranging generally from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, primarily focusing on the hard rock genre that peaked in popularity in the...
and oldies
Oldies
Oldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 15 to 55 years before the present day....
music during the evening. KFYR also airs the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
games of the Green Bay Packers
Green Bay Packers
The Green Bay Packers are an American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Packers are the current NFL champions...
as an affiliate of the Packers Radio Network
Packers Radio Network
The Packers Radio Network is a broadcast radio network and the official radio broadcaster of the Green Bay Packers football team. The network's flagship is Journal Communications' WTMJ in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which has broadcast the games since November 24, 1929...
.