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Cumulus shuts down KPUR 1440 Amarillo

Don't look now, 🐸, but 1090 and 1400 in Plainview are about to hit the scrap heap before KPUR does. Monte Spearman took both of them silent March 31, 2024.

The pace is accelerating rapidly. Looks like Mesa Mike got out of the tracking just in time. Trying to keep up with all the deleted, silent, and remaining active AM facilities require significant time investment put forth, nowadays.
 
rosecitymedia said:
Don't look now, 🐸, but 1090 and 1400 in Plainview are about to hit the scrap heap before KPUR does. Monte Spearman took both of them silent March 31, 2024.
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Yep, AM radio is not doing well in the Texas Panhandle. Several others have disappeared in recent years. Amarillo AM is now two talk and three religious stations.

Note that KPUR is not the first AM Cumulus has killed in the Amarillo market, as they turned in the license of KLSZ 1550 (ex-KHBJ, ex-KCAN) around five years ago.
rosecitymedia said:
Looks like Mesa Mike got out of the tracking just in time. Trying to keep up with all the deleted, silent, and remaining active AM facilities require significant time investment put forth, nowadays.
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He had indicated an updated list was being worked on using a different system, but I haven’t seen any sign of it yet.
 
Thread bump: As part of its latest bankruptcy proceedings, Cumulus has asked the court to rescind the lease for the silent KPUR 1440 transmitter site, along with leases involving several other stations.

The KPUR license hasn’t been surrendered yet, but I think it’s safe to say the station is done.

radioinsight.com

Cumulus Media Seeks To Reject Leases As Part Of Restructuring; Surrenders Some Silent Licenses

As part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Cumulus Media is asking the court to have seven of its leases
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com
 
Did I somehow miss your thread on the deaths of KIKR in Beaumont and KBED in Port Arthur, 🐸?

KPUR still lives, for now, but it sure ain't looking good.
 
rosecitymedia said:
Did I somehow miss your thread on the deaths of KIKR in Beaumont and KBED in Port Arthur, 🐸?
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Yes, 🌹, you did.🤣. And they are really, really dead, as opposed to KFNC.🤪
rosecitymedia said:
KPUR still lives, for now, but it sure ain't looking good.
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KPUR has struggled for decades. IIRC it was off the air for a few years in the 1990s before returning with a merry-go-round of format changes. It’s not a bad signal, but Amarillo is over-radioed with more than 40 FM stations. AM is essentially dead in the market.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
Cumulus filed a Resumption of Operations for KPUR with the FCC today. I suspect any return is temporary.
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Just a further thought: KPUR is one of four silent AMs for which Cumulus is asking the bankruptcy court to void transmitter site leases. I assume they want to keep the license alive until the court officially kills those leases, which would clear the way for the KPUR license to be turned in. They wouldn’t be voiding the lease if there was any intention of resuming operation or selling the station.

If anyone is in the panhandle area perhaps they could check 1440 to see if KPUR is actually on the air, or only had a brief reactivation. There are no online SDRs in Amarillo that I can find, and the nearest one in Lubbock is rather deaf on AM.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
I assume they want to keep the license alive until the court officially kills those leases, which would clear the way for the KPUR license to be turned in. They wouldn’t be voiding the lease if there was any intention of resuming operation or selling the station.
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By resuming operation now for a short period of time before losing the transmitter site, they reset the clock until mid 2027 to find someone to buy the license and relocate it or to sign a new lease with the landowner. As other Cumulus stations whose leases were rejected are being surrendered this week, I would at least presume that someone has come forward with interest in the license.
 
KPUR was on about a month ago, coming in here most nights real well. i think they’ve turned it off, i haven’t heard it in about a week or so
 
Mediafrog+ said:
Yes, 🌹, you did.🤣. And they are really, really dead, as opposed to KFNC.🤪

KPUR has struggled for decades. IIRC it was off the air for a few years in the 1990s before returning with a merry-go-round of format changes. It’s not a bad signal, but Amarillo is over-radioed with more than 40 FM stations. AM is essentially dead in the market.
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I was chief engineer for the return to the air in the early 1990s. It was a real pain doing all of the field strength measurements for both patterns in order to get it back on the air. I got my start in radio through an Explorer Scout post that KPUR sponsored in the early 1970s.

I left broadcasting in 1996. My last job was chief engineer for KGNC AM & FM. I thought the market was already way oversaturated at that point. When I was growing up in the 1960s there were only seven AM and two FM radio stations in the market including Canyon.
 
1440 is back on with a 90s centric country format. just a basic liner every 4 songs and a legal id. no commercials.
 
LamptimerFan said:
I believe this is a simulcast of 95.7 KPUR-FM?
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Nope, its their HD2 channel. THe 1440 signal didnt match the 95.7 playlist and a facebook friend clued me in to what was being played
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
Nope, its their HD2 channel. THe 1440 signal didnt match the 95.7 playlist and a facebook friend clued me in to what was being played
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I can't find any record of 95.7 having an HD2 channel. Do you have a "verifiable source" that I can add to the station's Wikipedia page?

(I put 'verifiable source' in quotes because the people over at Wikipedia are real sticklers about this for some reason)
 
LamptimerFan said:
I can't find any record of 95.7 having an HD2 channel. Do you have a "verifiable source" that I can add to the station's Wikipedia page?

(I put 'verifiable source' in quotes because the people over at Wikipedia are real sticklers about this for some reason)
Click to expand...

The person who told me may have been wrong, because I don't see a trtanslator there, BUT.. what i can tell you IS.. it definately was not the main channle being simulcast this.. there was no match to 1440 and the KPUR 95.7 stream........it qwas doing its own thing
 
so what i can tell you for sure is that KPUR is 100 percent running their own 90s centric country format

No commercials. Heard a liner that had some effort into producing it, “The legendary KPUR-AM amarillo” between two songs. Than another song later, a very poor excuse for a computerized voice “stay tuned for another hour of music”. and they’ll go another 4 song so without a liner
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
so what i can tell you for sure is that KPUR is 100 percent running their own 90s centric country format

No commercials. Heard a liner that had some effort into producing it, “The legendary KPUR-AM amarillo” between two songs. Than another song later, a very poor excuse for a computerized voice “stay tuned for another hour of music”. and they’ll go another 4 song so without a liner
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Interesting... I wonder if this is a temporary format. There's no way they would run a format like this long-term when they already have FM stations that do this better. I wonder if Cumulus is planning to sell?
 


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