KKGR (680 AM), also known as KGR Radio, is a

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 ...

licensed to serve

Helena, Montana Helena (; ) is the capital city of Montana, United States, and the county seat of Lewis and Clark County. Helena was founded as a gold camp during the Montana gold rush, and established on October 30, 1864. Due to the gold rush, Helena would ...

. The station is owned by KGR, LLC, and airs a

classic hits Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes songs from the top 40 music charts from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, with music from the 1980s serving as the core of the format. Music that was popularized by MTV in the early 1980s ...

music format. The station has been assigned the KKGR call letters by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

since November 26, 1996, and has been owned by KGR, LLC since 1999.

History

KHKR began broadcasting on May 26, 1988. The station was put on the air by an investor group that included Werner Nistler and the Lonnquist family, which had just sold KXGF in

Great Falls Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" *Artel Great (born ...

. At the time it signed on, KHKR was the only AM station playing country music in the Helena area; it was limited to daytime hours to protect

KNBR KNBR may refer to: * KNBR (AM), a radio station (680 AM) licensed to serve San Francisco, California, United States * KNBR-FM KNBR-FM (104.5 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to San Francisco, California, serving the greater San ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. On May 1, KHKR was joined by an FM companion, KHKR-FM 104.1, which was intended to sign on in time for Christmas but failed to air because a tower crew did not complete work on the FM facility. The country music on AM came to an end in 1991 when Hi-Line Radio Fellowship, which owned KXEI in Havre, leased the station. Hi-Line had been working to bring Christian radio on an FM frequency to the Helena area for some time, but motivated by delays in that process, it worked out a deal with the Lonnquists to take over KHKR instead. The call letters were changed to KVCM. Hi-Line's FM station made it to air at the end of 1993 and took the KVCM call sign with it; 680 reverted to KHKR, airing news and talk programming. In 1996, the Lonnquists sold the companion FM to STARadio Corporation. They retained the AM station, which flipped to classic country under new KKGR call letters, until 1999, when it was sold to Jim Schaeffer, the president of KBLL-AM- FM, for $90,000.

References

External links

* * * * {{Classic Hits Radio Stations in Montana KGR KGR