Central Missouri's longest-lived radio station is 100 years old today (January 16, 2025). KFRU is currently a news/talk station, owned by Cumulus, broadcasting at 1400 kHz.
KFRU didn't start out in Columbia, though. An Oklahoma oilman, E.H. Rollstone, formed the "Etherical Radio Company" in Bristow, Oklahoma in 1925. The 500-watt station quickly became a station oriented toward nearby Tulsa. This gave Rollstone the idea of going for a higher-power license. It's unclear why KFRU wasn't simply upgraded, but instead, he sold it to Stephens College of Columbia in July 1925. KFRU was required to share time with WMC in Memphis once it moved to Columbia. The first official broadcast from Columbia came on October 7, 1925. After several reallocations, KFRU ended up sharing time with the state of Missouri's station, WOS in Jefferson City, and with WGBF in Evansville, Indiana, on the very desirable frequency of 630 kHz.
Rollstone, meanwhile, founded a more powerful station in Bristow the following year. That station became Tulsa's KVOO, now KOTV.
The two towers of KFRU on the Stephens campus were a landmark just east of downtown Columbia for nearly a quarter-century. Stephens frequently cooperated with the much larger University of Missouri nearby for various broadcasts, and broadcast Missouri Tigers football as early as 1926 - at first, away games only, with recreations from telegraphed reports, but, later, live and direct from the University's stadium.
Stephens had bought the station as a promotional tool among its alumnae, but the Great Depression put financial strains on the women's college. The station went through a succession of owners until the St. Louis Star-Times bought it in 1936. Though the newspaper made substantial investments in KFRU, it wasn't clear at first why the newspaper was interested in it.
Then in 1939 came a proposal from the Star-Times to move its St. Louis station, KXOK, to 630 kHz, assign the frequency in St. Louis that it was vacating to WGBF, and to put KFRU on much lower power at 1370 kHz, later becoming 1400 kHz. WOS had gone off the air by then, so these moves would resolve the time-sharing arrangement for WGBF and KFRU. With KXOK's new directional antenna, it was also possible for Denver station KHOW to upgrade to 630 kHz.
So KFRU, which had been a regional station for outstate Missouri, became strictly a local station for Columbia. New local ownership in 1948 made preparations to give the station a modern facility and vertical antenna to replace the old Stephens installation. That was finally accomplished in 1950.
Much can be written about KFRU's record of public service over the years; one history I can modestly suggest is History of KFRU - hosted by @route56 and written by me. KFRU became part of a local cluster in the 1990s and is now owned by Cumulus. It still manages to have some local programming, interspersed with the usual right-wing talk that typifies AM radio in this day and age. A few years ago, it added an FM translator at 98.9 MHz. It's not as intensively local as it was when I was the news director from 1980 to 1984, but that's true of a lot of AM stations that were once full-service operations.
Congratulations, KFRU, on making it to 100!
KFRU didn't start out in Columbia, though. An Oklahoma oilman, E.H. Rollstone, formed the "Etherical Radio Company" in Bristow, Oklahoma in 1925. The 500-watt station quickly became a station oriented toward nearby Tulsa. This gave Rollstone the idea of going for a higher-power license. It's unclear why KFRU wasn't simply upgraded, but instead, he sold it to Stephens College of Columbia in July 1925. KFRU was required to share time with WMC in Memphis once it moved to Columbia. The first official broadcast from Columbia came on October 7, 1925. After several reallocations, KFRU ended up sharing time with the state of Missouri's station, WOS in Jefferson City, and with WGBF in Evansville, Indiana, on the very desirable frequency of 630 kHz.
Rollstone, meanwhile, founded a more powerful station in Bristow the following year. That station became Tulsa's KVOO, now KOTV.
The two towers of KFRU on the Stephens campus were a landmark just east of downtown Columbia for nearly a quarter-century. Stephens frequently cooperated with the much larger University of Missouri nearby for various broadcasts, and broadcast Missouri Tigers football as early as 1926 - at first, away games only, with recreations from telegraphed reports, but, later, live and direct from the University's stadium.
Stephens had bought the station as a promotional tool among its alumnae, but the Great Depression put financial strains on the women's college. The station went through a succession of owners until the St. Louis Star-Times bought it in 1936. Though the newspaper made substantial investments in KFRU, it wasn't clear at first why the newspaper was interested in it.
Then in 1939 came a proposal from the Star-Times to move its St. Louis station, KXOK, to 630 kHz, assign the frequency in St. Louis that it was vacating to WGBF, and to put KFRU on much lower power at 1370 kHz, later becoming 1400 kHz. WOS had gone off the air by then, so these moves would resolve the time-sharing arrangement for WGBF and KFRU. With KXOK's new directional antenna, it was also possible for Denver station KHOW to upgrade to 630 kHz.
So KFRU, which had been a regional station for outstate Missouri, became strictly a local station for Columbia. New local ownership in 1948 made preparations to give the station a modern facility and vertical antenna to replace the old Stephens installation. That was finally accomplished in 1950.
Much can be written about KFRU's record of public service over the years; one history I can modestly suggest is History of KFRU - hosted by @route56 and written by me. KFRU became part of a local cluster in the 1990s and is now owned by Cumulus. It still manages to have some local programming, interspersed with the usual right-wing talk that typifies AM radio in this day and age. A few years ago, it added an FM translator at 98.9 MHz. It's not as intensively local as it was when I was the news director from 1980 to 1984, but that's true of a lot of AM stations that were once full-service operations.
Congratulations, KFRU, on making it to 100!