KCTR-FM (102.9

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...

, "Cat Country 103") is a commercial

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission 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 radio ...

Billings, Montana Billings is the largest city in the U.S. state of Montana, with a population of 117,116 as of the 2020 census. Located in the south-central portion of the state, it is the seat of Yellowstone County and the principal city of the Billings Metrop ...

. KCTR airs a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

format Format may refer to: Printing and visual media * Text formatting, the typesetting of text elements * Paper formats, or paper size standards * Newspaper format, the size of the paper page Computing * File format, particular way that informatio ...

. Licensed to

, United States, the station serves the Billings area. The station is currently owned by Townsquare License, LLC.

History

102.9 FM began broadcasting in August 1979 as KOOK-FM, sister station to KOOK (970 AM). The new outlet used Schulke Radio Productions's automated

beautiful music Beautiful music (sometimes abbreviated as BM, B/EZ or BM/EZ for "beautiful music/easy listening") is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in North American radio from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Easy listening, elevator musi ...

format with just eight commercial units an hour. KOOK-AM-FM was acquired by "Major" Dan Miller, a 25-year employee of the stations, and the Mesa Broadcasting Company of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in 1983. Citing low support, KOOK-FM flipped to country as KBIT on January 16, 1984. The station returned to KOOK-FM on November 4, 1985, as part of a format and call sign trade between the AM and FM stations that moved country to AM and the former contemporary hit radio format on KOOK to FM. The move failed to generate increased interest in the stations, and Miller left the management group and KOOK. After the FM station improved in listenership over the course of 1987, KOOK-KBIT was sold again in 1988, to Citadel Associates of Phoenix. Citadel wasted little time changing the format on KOOK-FM back to country; KOOK and KBIT began simulcasting as KCTR-AM-FM, retiring the KOOK call letters from Billings radio after having been used since 1951. In October 2007, a deal was reached for KCTR-FM to be acquired by GAP Broadcasting II LLC (Samuel Weller, president) from

Clear Channel Communications iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...

as part of a 57 station deal with a total reported sale price of $74.78 million. What eventually became

GapWest Broadcasting Gap Broadcasting Group was a group of companies that owned around 116 broadcast stations (including 1 low-power television station and 5 low-power stations) in 23 radio markets in northwestern and central southern United States in the late 2000s. ...

was folded into

Townsquare Media Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wi ...

on August 13, 2010.

References

External links

Official Website

Flash StreamMP3 Stream
CTR-FM Country radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1979 1979 establishments in Montana Townsquare Media radio stations {{Montana-radio-station-stub