KFDI-FM (101.3

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 ...

) is a 100 kW

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 ...

operating in

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had ...

. Identifying as "Today's KFDI-FM 101.3, Wichita's Country Favorites," the station runs a contemporary

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. KFDI has a strong emphasis on news, weather, and traffic with the largest news radio team in Kansas and the only one staffed 24/7/366. The station is owned by SummitMedia. Its studios are located just north of Wichita and the transmitter is located outside

Colwich, Kansas Colwich is a city in Sedgwick County, Kansas, United States, located northwest of Wichita. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 1,455. History Colwich was founded in 1887. The name is a portmanteau of Colorado and Wichita, o ...

. KFDI also serves as a Radio partner of

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

affiliate

KWCH-DT KWCH-DT (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Hutchinson, Kansas, United States, serving the Wichita area as an affiliate of CBS. It is owned by Gray Television alongside CW affiliate KSCW-DT (channel 33), and maintains studios on 3 ...

News team

The news team includes News Producer George Lawson, morning drive anchor and reporter Jacob Weston, and reporters and anchors Ryan Arnold, Lance Ferguson, and Chris Maslen.

History

KFDI-FM has been playing country music since about 1972. Until 2002, the KFDI calls were also on sister station 1070 AM (now

KFTI KFTI (1070 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a classic country music format. Licensed to Wichita, Kansas, United States, the station serves the Wichita area. The station is owned by SummitMedia. KFTI is one of oldest stations in Kansas, dati ...

; the AM station first went on the air in 1962). Numerous influential disc jockeys and programmers have worked at the stations through the years, including Pat James (Now Operations Manager at

KHUT KHUT (102.9 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station broadcasting a country music radio format. Licensed to Hutchinson, Kansas, the station serves the Wichita metropolitan area and is owned by Eagle Communications, Inc. KHUT goes by the slogan "Co ...

Hutchinson, Kansas Hutchinson is the largest city and county seat in Reno County, Kansas, United States, and located on the Arkansas River. It has been home to salt mines since 1887, thus its nickname of "Salt City", but locals call it "Hutch". As of the 2020 cen ...

), Beverlee Brannigan, CMA award winners Brian Pierce and Kellie Michaels, Rick Regan, Mike Oatman, Gary Hightower (formerly on

XM Satellite Radio XM Satellite Radio (XM) was one of the three satellite radio (SDARS) and online radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Holdings. It provided pay-for-service radio, analogous to subscription cable television. Its s ...

Willie's Place Willie's Place was a truck stop and biodiesel processing plant located in Carl's Corner, Texas that was opened in 2005 and named after Willie Nelson. The facility was originally built circa 1980 by Carl Cornelius and named Carl's Corner. Willie' ...

as "Catfish"), Terry Burford, Dugg Collins,

Johnny Western Johnny Western (born October 28, 1934) is an American country singer-songwriter, musician, actor, and radio show host. He is a member of the Western Music Association Hall of Fame and the Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame. Early life Jo ...

, Buddy Nichols, Orin Friesen, Scott Piper, Jerry "Attaboy" Adams, Andy "O" (Mike Oatman's son), "Willie Wheelchair", Larry Scott, Dave Donahue, "Lovable" Larry Stonecipher (now on air part time at KHUT), "Gentle" Ben Ingram (now at

KWLS KWLS (107.9 FM) is an American radio station that broadcasts a classic country format serving Winfield, Kansas. History 107.9 FM signed in 1980 as KWKS, an adult contemporary station licensed to and serving Winfield (as is stated in their call ...

Winfield, Kansas Winfield is a city and county seat of Cowley County, Kansas, United States. It is situated along the Walnut River in South Central Kansas. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 11,777. It is home to Southwestern College. Hi ...

), and many more. Oatman, Burford, Collins, Western, Scott and Donahue are members of the Country Music Disc Jockey's Hall of Fame. Friesen was named the International Bluegrass Music Association's very first Bluegrass Broadcaster of the Year in 1990. He also produced the IBMA awards show from 1990 to 2000. The stations were purchased by

Journal Broadcast Group Journal Media Group (formerly Journal Communications) was a Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based newspaper publishing company. The company's roots were first established in 1882 as the owner of its namesake, the ''Milwaukee Journal'', and expanded into br ...

in 1999. Prior to that, they were owned by Great Empire Broadcasting, headquartered in Wichita. Great Empire was owned by Mike Oatman and Mike Lynch. (Lynch is also in the Country Music Disc Jockey's Hall of Fame in the Broadcasting Executives section.) At its peak, Great Empire was the largest chain of country music stations in the United States. Other country stations in the group were KVOO/

KVOO-FM KVOO-FM (98.5 MHz) is a commercial radio station in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The station is owned by Griffin Communications and it airs a country music radio format. The station picked up the heritage call sign and country format in 1988. It shared the ...

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma and List of United States cities by population, 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

WOW Wow or WoW may refer to: Games and toys *''World of Warcraft'', a massively multiplayer online role-playing game *''World of Warplanes'', an online flight simulator *''World of Warships'', an online naval simulator *''Wizard of Wor'', a 1981 a ...

/ WOW-FM in

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...

, and KTTS/

KTTS-FM KTTS-FM (94.7 FM) is a country music formatted radio station, licensed to Springfield, Missouri and the greater Springfield area (market #140). It began broadcasting in 1948, and is one of the oldest FM stations in the United States. Programming ...

Springfield, Missouri Springfield is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. The city's population was 169,176 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Springfield metropolitan area, which had an estimat ...

. At one time, they had also owned stations in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

(

KRBQ KRBQ (102.1 FM) is a classic hip hop radio station in San Francisco, California and owned by Audacy, Inc. The station transmits its signal from Mount Beacon atop the Marin Headlands above Sausalito, California, while studios are located in the ...

AM/ FM) and

Shreveport Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population o ...

(

KWKH KWKH (1130 AM) is a sports radio station serving Shreveport, Louisiana. The 50-kilowatt station broadcasts at 1130 kHz. Formerly owned by Clear Channel Communications and Gap Central Broadcasting, it is now owned by Townsquare Media. Its studi ...

, home of the "

Louisiana Hayride ''Louisiana Hayride'' was a radio and later television country music show broadcast from the Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana, that during its heyday from 1948 to 1960 helped to launch the careers of some of th ...

") All of the stations went by the "Radio Ranch" moniker and were full service country music stations. Local news, weather and traffic were emphasized. Lost pet reports were also aired on the stations. On July 30, 2014, it was announced that the

E. W. Scripps Company The E. W. Scripps Company is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglomerate. The company is he ...

would acquire Journal Communications in an all-stock transaction. The combined firm retained their broadcast properties and spun off their print assets as Journal Media Group. Ahead of the merger, Journal was required by the FCC to divest KFTI-FM, which was sold to

Envision Envision may refer to: Organizations * Envision EMI, a management company based in Virginia, USA * Envision Energy, a wind turbine manufacturer and energy technology company based in Shanghai, China * Envision Financial, a financial institution ...

in December 2014. KFDI and its four sister stations (

KICT-FM KICT-FM (95.1 MHz) is a radio station in Wichita, Kansas broadcasting an active rock format. The station is owned by SummitMedia. Its studios are in Wichita and the transmitter is located outside Colwich, Kansas. History The station began as ...

KFXJ KFXJ (104.5 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a classic rock music format. Licensed to serve Augusta, Kansas, United States, the station serves the Wichita, Kansas, area. The station is owned by SummitMedia and features programming from AB ...

KYQQ KYQQ (106.5 FM) is a radio station operating in Wichita, Kansas, in the United States, and licensed to Arkansas City, Kansas. Calling itself "Radio Lobo 106.5," the station airs a Regional Mexican format and is owned by SummitMedia. Its studios ...

, KFTI) merged with the E.W. Scripps Company on April 1, 2015. Scripps exited radio in 2018; the Wichita stations went to SummitMedia in a four-market, $47 million deal completed on November 1, 2018.

References

External links

* {{Authority control FDI-FM Country radio stations in the United States HD Radio stations Radio stations established in 1972 1972 establishments in Kansas