KPUR (1440 AM), branded as "Sportsradio 1440", 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 ...

serving the

Amarillo, Texas Amarillo ( ; Spanish for "yellow") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Potter County. It is the 14th-most populous city in Texas and the largest city in the Texas Panhandle. A portion of the city extends into Randall County ...

, area with a

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...

format. This station is under ownership of

Cumulus Media Cumulus Media, Inc. is an American broadcasting company and is the third largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States behind Audacy and iHeartMedia. As of June 2019, Cumulus lists ownership of 428 stations in 87 ...

. Its studios are located at the Amarillo Building downtown on Polk Street, and its transmitter tower is based southeast of Amarillo in unincorporated Randall County along Loop 335 (Hollywood Road). KPUR was once KFDA on 1230 kHz. It hit the air in 1939. After World War II, Amarillo station KGNC moved from 1440 kHz to 710 kHz with greater power. KFDA filed to move to the vacated 1440 raising power from 250 watts on 1230 to 5,000 watts days and 1,000 watts nights. Night used a three tower directional antenna system. The call letters changed to KPUR in 1966. The station was sold by former television partner

KFDA-TV KFDA-TV (channel 10) is a television station in Amarillo, Texas, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Gray Television alongside Borger-licensed Telemundo affiliate KEYU (channel 31). Both stations share studios on Broadway Drive ( ...

(and Texas State Network interests) to Charlie Jordan, the manager at the time. The towers were located east of Amarillo just south of the former

Route 66 U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...

(now

I-40 Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west Interstate Highway running through the south-central portion of the United States. At a length of , it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the country, after I-90 and I-80. From west to ea ...

) which shared land with the studios. In the mid seventies the land was largely sold off to shopping center developers. Towers were relocated to the present site. That site was subject to a late 1970s fire when a Harris MW-5 transmitter melted down. The MW-5 used a step up transformer to raise the three phase input power (at 240 volts) to 17,000 volts. The primary wiring had been bundled closely to the secondary wiring and tightly lashed together. When an insulation breakdown allowed the input wiring to arc, the high temperatures allowed the secondary wires to short to the inputs. This caused extremely high circulating currents and a meltdown of the transformer frame (made of metal castings and laminations). The station is an affiliate of the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...

radio network and the West Texas Friday Night Scoreboard Show. On March 30, 2012 KPUR changed their format from sports to oldies, branded as "True Oldies". On October 22, 2012 KPUR changed their format back to sports, branded as "ESPN 1440" with programming from

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternately platform-agnostically branded as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN". ...

. On January 2, 2013 KPUR switched affiliations from ESPN Radio to

CBS Sports Radio CBS Sports Radio is a sports radio network that debuted with hourly sports news updates on September 4, 2012, and with 24/7 programming on January 2, 2013. CBS Sports Radio is owned by Paramount Global and distributed by Westwood One. Programmin ...

, branded as "Sportsradio 1440".

References

External links

PUR Pur or PUR may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pur (band), a German band * Pur, a song by the Cocteau Twins People * Necla Pur (born 1943), Turkish economist and professor * Quraish Pur (1932–2013), Pakistani scholar, writer, and ...

Sports radio stations in the United States CBS Sports Radio stations Cumulus Media radio stations {{Texas-radio-station-stub