KFRU (1400 AM) 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 radi ...

located in Columbia, Missouri. Its programming format consists primarily of news and talk. The station is licensed to

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 8 ...

. The station is also audible on

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

K255DJ 98.9 FM in Columbia.

History

KFRU was founded in Bristow, Oklahoma by E.H. Rollestone, in January 1925. That fall, the station was purchased by Stephens College and moved to Columbia (with Rollestone going on to found KVOO, now KTSB). On September 24, 1935, 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 jurisdicti ...

approved transfer of the station from Nelson R. Darragh, of St. Louis, to Luther L. Hill, of Des Moines. Several owners later, the station was purchased by the St. Louis ''Star-Times'' newspaper, mostly for its regional broadcast frequency of 630 kHz, later moved to its St. Louis radio station, KXOK. In 1940, KFRU became an affiliate of the Blue Network. The station was assigned its current 1400 kHz frequency in 1941. Mahlon Aldridge, Jr. was appointed manager in 1945, purchasing the station in 1948 in partnership with the publisher of the Columbia ''Daily Tribune''. In 1957, the station's format consisted of a mixture of country music, news and sports. Aldridge sold his interest to his partner's son in the 1980s, and competition caused the station's audience share to fall. After another change in ownership, KFRU was purchased by a local ownership group headed by Al Germond, who moved the studios into the broadcast complex with their KARO-FM (now

KPLA KPLA (101.5 FM) refers to a Cumulus radio station in Columbia, Missouri. KPLA first started out as 101.7 KARO-FM, an "easy listening" station in February 1983. In 1986, it became known as K102. Then in 1994, it became KPLA and has consistently be ...

) station. The group formed and purchased additional stations in the Columbia and

Jefferson City Jefferson City, informally Jeff City, is the capital of Missouri, United States. It had a population of 43,228 at the 2020 census, ranking as the 15th most populous city in the state. It is also the county seat of Cole County and the principa ...

markets under the name of Premier Marketing Group. KFRU 1400 (logo)

In 2004, KFRU and the other Premier Marketing Group stations were sold to Cumulus Broadcasting. In August 2017, KFRU applied for an FM translator at 98.9 as part of the FCC's AM revitalization project. The translator signed on for the first time on August 18, 2019.

Network affiliations

ABC Radio Network

When KFRU was purchased by the Star-Times, it became affiliated with the

NBC Blue Network The Blue Network (previously known as the NBC Blue Network) was the on-air name of a now defunct American radio network, which broadcast from 1927 through 1945. Beginning as one of the two radio networks owned by the National Broadcasting Comp ...

, now the

ABC Radio Network Cumulus Media Networks was an American radio network owned and operated by Cumulus Media. From 2011 until its merger with Westwood One, it controlled many of the radio assets formerly belonging to the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), which ...

,. KFRU switched to the Westwood One/CNN news feed in 2012. After Westwood One ended their newsfeed, KFRU returned to ABC News Radio on August 31, 2020.

Missouri Tiger Network

KFRU was the longtime flagship station of play-by-play broadcasts of Missouri Tiger football and basketball teams. On December 22, 2009, Mizzou Sports Properties (owned by Learfield Sports) announced it would move Tiger broadcasts to Zimmer Radio's mid-Missouri cluster, fronted by 99,000-watt KCMQ, starting in 2010. With

KMOX-AM KMOX (1120 AM) is a commercial radio station in St. Louis, Missouri. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it is a 50,000 watt Class A clear-channel station with a non-directional signal. The KMOX studios and offices are on Olive Street at Tucker Boulevar ...

in St. Louis as a network affiliate, the network has had many regional and national broadcasters providing play-by-play and color commentary for MU sports broadcasts, including: *

Jack Buck John Francis "Jack" Buck (August 21, 1924 – June 18, 2002) was an American sportscaster, best known for his work announcing Major League Baseball games of the St. Louis Cardinals. His play-by-play work earned him recognition from numerous hal ...

(member of the Baseball and Radio Hall of Fame) *

Harry Caray Harry Christopher Caray (; March 1, 1914 – February 18, 1998) was an American radio and television sportscaster. During his career he called the play-by-play for five Major League Baseball teams, beginning with 25 years of calling the games ...

(member of the Baseball Hall of Fame) * Bob Starr *

Bob Costas Robert Quinlan Costas (born March 22, 1952) is an American sportscaster who is known for his long tenure with NBC Sports, from 1980 through 2019. He has received 28 Emmy awards for his work and was the prime-time host of 12 Olympic Games from 19 ...

( NBC Sports) *

Kevin Harlan Kevin Harlan (born June 21, 1960) is an American television and radio sports announcer. The son of former Green Bay Packers executive Bob Harlan, he broadcasts NFL and college basketball games on CBS and the NBA for TNT. 2022 will be his 38th ...

(

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W ...

) *

Tom Dore Tom Dore is a retired American basketball player and former Comcast SportsNet play-by-play announcer for the National Basketball Association's Chicago Bulls. A native of Northlake, Illinois, the 7'2" (218 cm) Dore played basketball at East ...

(

Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded on January ...

) *

Joe Buck Joseph Francis Buck (born April 25, 1969) is an American sportscaster. The son of sportscaster Jack Buck, he worked for Fox Sports from its 1994 inception through 2022, including roles as lead play-by-play announcer for the network's Nation ...

(

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

) * John Rooney (

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

) *Bill Wilkerson *

Kellen Winslow Kellen Boswell Winslow Sr. (born November 5, 1957) is an American former professional football player in the National Football League (NFL). A member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame (1995), he is widely recognized as one of the greatest tight ...

(

Fox Sports Net Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by The Walt Disney Company on Mar ...

) (member of the College Football Hall of Fame and Pro Football Hall of Fame) * Dan Kelly (member of the Hockey Hall of Fame) *

Jon Sundvold Jon Thomas "Sunny" Sundvold (born July 2, 1961) is an American former professional basketball player who was selected by the Seattle SuperSonics in the first round (16th pick overall) of the 1983 NBA draft. A 6'2" shooting guard from the Univer ...

Kevin Calabro Kevin Paul Calabro (born June 27, 1956) is an American sportscaster based in Seattle, Washington. The longtime voice of the former Seattle SuperSonics NBA franchise, Calabro has primarily called NBA basketball but has also announced collegiate fo ...

Former color commentators include Jim Kennedy and Rod Kelly. The current broadcast teams through the 2011-12 season are: *Football - Mike Kelly (play-by-play), Howard Richards (color commentary) and Chris Gervino (sideline) *Men's Basketball - Mike Kelly (play-by-play) and Gary Link (color commentary) *Women's Basketball - David Lile or Will Palaszczuk (play-by-play) and Gary Link or Michael Porter (color commentary)

St. Louis Cardinals Baseball Network

As of the 2012 Major League Baseball season, the station is no longer a

radio network affiliate; Zimmer Radio's KSSZ replaced KFRU as the Columbia market affiliate. According to previous years' KFRU promotional advertisements, they had been affiliated with the Cardinals for at least 60 years.

Awards

* Peabody Award for Public Service by a Small Station, 1940 *Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism, presented to Mahlon Aldridge *KFRU awarded the Missouri Broadcasters Association 2015 Station of the Year award. This was the first ever Station of the Year award given by the MBA. *KFRU inducted into the Boone County Historical Society's Hall of Fame, October 8, 2015, just days after the station's 90th Anniversary.

Affiliation with the University of Missouri School of Journalism

Prior to the founding of University-owned station KBIA-FM in 1971, KFRU was a primary training ground for broadcast journalism students at the University. Even after this time, the station still employs students and recent graduates; many graduates list the station on their current employment biography pages.

Former KFRU employees in TV/radio

*Eric Engberg, news director, 1963-68 - retired CBS News Washington Correspondent *Ben Bradley, host, reporter and news anchor - currently

WLS-TV WLS-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on North Stat ...

general assignment reporter *Dave Hunziker, sports director - currently

Oklahoma State Cowboys The Oklahoma State Cowboys and Cowgirls are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Oklahoma State University, located in Stillwater. The program's mascot is a cowboy named Pistol Pete. Oklahoma State participates at the National Col ...

play-by-play *Chris Gervino, sports director - currently

KOMU-TV KOMU-TV (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Columbia, Missouri, United States, serving the Columbia–Jefferson City market as an affiliate of NBC and The CW Plus. The station's studios and transmitter are located on US 63 southeast ...

sports director *Will Sterrett, board-op - currently

KMBZ-FM KMBZ-FM (98.1 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Kansas City, Kansas. Owned by Audacy, Inc., KMBZ-FM airs a news/talk radio format. Its studios and offices are located on Squibb Road in Mission, Kansas. KMBZ-FM broadcasts at 98, ...

morning co-anchor *Sean Kelley - sports director - currently New Orleans Pelicans play-by-play * Ed Kilgore - currently

WGRZ-TV WGRZ (channel 2) is a television station in Buffalo, New York, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Delaware Avenue in downtown Buffalo, and its transmitter is located on Warner Hill R ...

sports director *Mike Roberts - currently KRCG-TV chief meteorologist *Mark Reardon - currently

talk show host *John Carney - overnight board-op/host - currently

talk show host *Michael Calhoun - currently

news anchor *Amy Miller - currently local

Morning Edition ''Morning Edition'' is an American radio news program produced and distributed by NPR. It airs weekday mornings (Monday through Friday) and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 5:00 to 9:00 A ...

host at

WDET WDET-FM (101.9 MHz) is a public radio station in Detroit, Michigan. Broadcasting from Wayne State University in the city's Cass Corridor neighborhood, about a mile south of the New Center neighborhood, WDET broadcasts original programming and ...

*Joe Scialfa - currently Newsradio 620 WTMJ-AM, Program Director *Michael Putney, news director - currently

WPLG-TV WPLG (channel 10) is a television station in Miami, Florida, United States, affiliated with ABC. The station is owned by Berkshire Hathaway as its sole broadcast property. WPLG's studios are located on West Hallandale Beach Boulevard in Pembrok ...

, Miami Political Reporter *Steve Moore - currently

, Vice President of News/Talk, CBS Radio, Director of Programming and Operations *Ellen Schenk - currently

morning co-anchor *Larry Zimmer - retired KOA-AM sports director, University of Colorado play-by-play *Mark Becker -

WSOC-TV WSOC-TV (channel 9) is a television station in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, affiliated with ABC and Telemundo. It is owned by Cox Media Group alongside Kannapolis-licensed independent station WAXN-TV (channel 64). Both stations s ...

reporter *Mark Davidson -

KSNW-TV KSNW (channel 3) is a television station in Wichita, Kansas, United States, affiliated with NBC and Telemundo. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, and maintains studios on North Main Street in northwest Wichita (near downtown); its tran ...

sports anchor/reporter *Matt Boltz - currently Houston Astrosradio network producer/engineer *Kevin Larue - currently KSL-AM news and program director *RJ McAllister, news - formerly news director at KWTO *Jim Fry - currently at

WFAA WFAA (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Decatur-licensed Estrella TV affiliate KMPX (channel 29), ...

Brian Sussman Brian Jay Sussman (born April 3, 1956) is an American conservative talk radio host and former meteorologist in the San Francisco Bay Area who was most recently at San Francisco radio station KSFO. After graduating from the University of Missouri, ...

- currently host at

KSFO KSFO (560 AM) is a commercial radio station in San Francisco, California. It is owned by Cumulus Media and airs a talk radio format. The station's studios and offices are on Battery Street in the SoMa district of San Francisco, along with f ...

*Paul Hannigan, news director - formerly reporter at

KTRH-AM KTRH () is a commercial radio station licensed to Houston, Texas and owned by iHeartMedia that airs a talk radio format. Programming is also heard on co-owned KODA's HD 2 channel at , and the station uses the iHeartRadio platform to stream ...

*Darren Hellwege - Host of "Morning Edition" and "Thinking Out Loud with Darren Hellwege" on KBIA-FM, Columbia; formerly of KCSC and WWLS, Oklahoma City. *Dick (Kettenbrink) Preston - Currently Morning and Noon news anchor at KRCG-TV Jefferson City, Mo.

Other former employees and program hosts

*James Keown - state capital reporter and Sunday Morning Roundtable contributor - currently incarcerated in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts after being convicted of murdering his wife by poisoning her with antifreeze. Keown was arrested by the United States Marshal’s Service in November 2005 during a commercial break on his “Partyline” program on sister-station KLIK in Jefferson City, Mo. *Roger Gafke, news director *Scott Baker - currently press secretary for Rep.

Kenny Hulshof Kenneth C. "Kenny" Hulshof (; born May 22, 1958) is an American politician and lawyer who represented in the United States House of Representatives. He was the unsuccessful nominee of the Republican Party for Governor of Missouri in the 2008 el ...

*Rod Kelly - Missouri Basketball

color commentator A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main ( play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and ...

*Kathy Poppe (Watson)- Constituent Service Director, U.S. Senator John Boozman, former talk host/reporter (KWHN - Fort Smith, Arkansas) *Barry Bennett - Currently Director of Communications for Missouri House of Representatives * Brian Hauswirth, news director - currently public information officer with the Missouri Department of Corrections *Doug Ross *Dick Aldrich -Radio Communications for Missouri House of Representatives * Chris Lincoln - co-founder of Winnercomm; ABC Sports and ESPN commentator on

Thoroughbred racing Thoroughbred racing is a sport and industry involving the racing of Thoroughbred horses. It is governed by different national bodies. There are two forms of the sport – flat racing and jump racing, the latter known as National Hunt racing i ...

; former sports host of KTUL-TV, Tulsa *Dr. John Williams - host, ''The Pet Place'' *Bob O'Connell - host, ''The Garden Spot'' *Ray Rothenberger - host, ''The Garden Spot'' (deceased) *Stacy Allen - meteorologist *Brendan Cosgrove - news - currently Broadcast Associate at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

*Greg Crain - sports (deceased) *Leslie Callison - news *Judd McIlvain - consumer reporter, worked at

KRCG KRCG (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Jefferson City, Missouri, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for the Columbia–Jefferson City market. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station maintains studios and transm ...

KTTV KTTV (channel 11) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV ou ...

, KCBS-TV and CBS 48 Hours. *Ara Ayer - reporter for WAAY-TV; producer for Dateline NBC, NBC Nightly News; conflict photographer: World Picture News; commercial director, DP, filmmaker for PBS, Bloomberg TV *Anne Steffens - formerly with

KMOV KMOV (channel 4) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated with CBS and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power Circle owned-and-operated station KDTL-LD (channel 16). The two stations s ...

, now Director of the Office of Communications of the Archdiocese of St. Louis *John Fougere, sportscaster - currently Press Secretary to Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon *Robert Loggia - actor *Brad Whitworth - sportscaster/announcer - now Sr. Comms Mgr, Strategic Alliances at

Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...

*Kevin M. Gray - sportscaster and sports director - now President of the Kansas City Sports Commission *Tony Messenger - evening show host; was concurrently a Columnist with the Columbia ''Daily Tribune'' - now Editorial Page Editor of the Springfield News-Leader *Chris Kelly - evening show host; former local and state politician; resigned to accept appointment as Boone County associate circuit judge (retired) - now Democratic candidate for Missouri House of Representatives 24th District *Mike Kelly - Morning sports reports; Missouri Men's Basketball play-by-play; Left his full-time job as Missouri Athletic Department Director of Broadcast Operations on May 30, 2007 to join The Insurance Group sales departmen

but will remain as play-by-play announcer. During the David Lile Show on June 29, 2007, it was announced that it was his last day "due to budgetary reasons" with the Cumulus stations (he also provided reports for Jefferson City station KLIK-AM) *Dave Schmidt - Weatherman for KOMU TV in Columbia, Mo. *Steve Lager- 25 year radio career in Kansas City including mornings at KCIY *Dusty Rhodes-the Midnight Mayor *Bob Pollack - Sports Director *Brad Stephenson - news anchor/reporter Richard M. Cottam (deceased) - news anchor/reporter 1957-1963; Instructor Dept. of Journalism Univ. of Missouri- Columbia 1956-1963; Co-host "Conversations with Dick and Doris" 1961-1963; NBC News associate Producer Huntley-Brinkley Report 1963-1967; NBC News Election unit 1968-1971

References

External links

History of KFRU
* * {{coord, 38, 57, 52, N, 92, 18, 26, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title Radio stations in Missouri, FRU News and talk radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1925 Cumulus Media radio stations