KMRN (1360 AM, "U.S. Country 1360") is an American

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 the

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

Cameron, Missouri Cameron is a city in Clinton County, Missouri, Clinton, DeKalb County, Missouri, DeKalb and Caldwell County, Missouri, Caldwell counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. The population was 8,513 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The C ...

. The station, founded in 1971, is owned by

Alpha Media Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἄλφα, ''álpha'', or ell, άλφα, álfa) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter aleph , which ...

and the

broadcast license A broadcast license is a type of spectrum license granting the licensee permission to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses generally include restrictions, which vary ...

is held by Alpha Media Licensee LLC.

Programming

KMRN broadcasts a full-service

classic country Classic country is a music radio format that specializes in playing mainstream country and western music hits from past decades. Repertoire The radio format specializes in hits from the 1950s through the early 1980s, and focus primarily on innov ...

music

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 ...

branded as "U.S. Country 1360" to the Northwest Missouri area. In addition to

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, ...

from the 1960s through the early 1990s, KMRN airs news from

Fox News Radio Fox News Radio is an American radio network owned by Fox News. It is syndicated to over 500 AM and FM radio stations across the United States. It also supplies programming for three channels on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. History In 2003, ...

and MissouriNet, agricultural news from Brownfield, community bulletins and funeral notices, plus

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

and

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...

. Local church services are broadcast on Sunday mornings.

History

Launch

In February 1971, Cameron Radio, Inc., received a

from the

U.S. 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 jurisdictio ...

(FCC) for a new broadcast radio station to serve

. It signed on with 500

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

s of power on a frequency of 1360

kHz 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 on ...

but authorized to broadcast during daylight hours only. The new station was assigned

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

"KMRN".

1980s

In January 1981, KMRN applied to the FCC for authority to begin broadcasting at night as well as in the daytime. To prevent

skywave In radio communication, skywave or skip refers to the propagation of radio waves reflected or refracted back toward Earth from the ionosphere, an electrically charged layer of the upper atmosphere. Since it is not limited by the curvature of ...

interference, the station would transmit with only 25 watts of power from sunset to sunrise each day instead of the 500 watts in use during daylight hours. The FCC granted a new

construction permit Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...

to make these changes on May 1, 1981. After construction and testing were completed in August 1981, the commission granted KMRN a new broadcast license to cover these changes on September 11, 1981. After more than a decade on the air, Cameron Radio, Inc., made a deal to sell KMRN to Titan Corporation in July 1981. The FCC approved the deal on September 17, 1981. This proved short-lived as in July 1982, Titan Corporation applied to transfer the KMRN broadcast license to Cameron Radio, Inc. The FCC approved this move on July 26, 1982.

1990s

In March 1994, Cameron Radio, Inc., contracted to sell KMRN to Osland Broadcasting Company. The new company was owned by Iowa native Norman A. Osland and his wife, Betty. The deal gained FCC approval on August 30, 1994, and the transaction was completed on October 8, 1994. In February 1997, as the Oslands were preparing to return to Iowa for family reasons, Osland Broadcasting Company applied to sell KMRN to NFO, Inc. The FCC approved this move on April 15, 1997, and completion of the transaction took place on May 5, 1997. Two years later, in May 1999, NFO, Inc., filed an application to transfer the KMRN license to Shepherd Group holding company KAAN, Inc. The FCC approved the move on July 13, 1999, and completion occurred on July 20, 1999.

2000s

In February 2007, the KAAN, Inc, subsidiary of Shepherd Enterprises, Inc. (David L. Shepherd, president) reached an agreement with Dean Goodman's

GoodRadio.TV, LLC Good Radio Networks LLC, doing business as GoodRadio.TV, was a West Palm Beach, Florida based radio ownership group headed by former ION Media Networks, Pax president Dean Goodman. Partners in this venture include former National Association of ...

. Goodman agreed to pay Shepherd $27,600,000 for 16 Missouri-based radio stations, including KAAN, KAAN-FM, Bethany and KMRN, KKWK, Cameron, controlled by KAAN, Inc., plus $100,000 for a non-competition agreement and $2,900,000 over five years as a consulting fee. The FCC approved the multi-station sale on May 9, 2007, and the deal was consummated on August 8, 2007. One week later, as part of a complex internal reorganization of the GoodRadio.TV holding companies, an application was filed to transfer the licenses for KMRN and

KKWK KKWK (100.1 FM) is an American radio station broadcasting a classic rock music format. Licensed to Cameron, Missouri, United States, the station serves the rural areas north of the Kansas City metropolitan area as well as serves as a rimshot int ...

, and KAAN and

KAAN-FM KAAN-FM (95.5 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station broadcasting a country music radio format. Licensed to Bethany, Missouri, United States, the station is currently owned by Alpha Media and features programming from Westwood One. KAAN-FM firs ...

Bethany, Missouri Bethany is a city in, and the county seat of, Harrison County, Missouri, United States, approximately midway between Kansas City and Des Moines on Interstate 35. The population was 2,915 at the 2020 census. History The settlement of Harrison Co ...

, to a new license holding company named Cameron/Bethany License Company, LLC. The FCC approved the transfer on September 10, 2007, and formal consummation took place on September 17, 2007. In December 2013, GoodRadio.TV and its subsidiaries merged into Digity, LLC. Effective February 25, 2016, Digity and its 124 radio stations were acquired by

for $264 million.

References

External links

KMRN official website
{{Alpha Media MRN Country radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1971 DeKalb County, Missouri Alpha Media radio stations