KFRU
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| City | Columbia, Missouri |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Columbia and Vicinity |
| Branding | News/Talk 1400 |
| Frequency | 1400 kHz |
| First air date | January 1925 |
| Format | News/Talk |
| Power | 1,000 watts |
| Class | C |
| Affiliations | ABC Radio Network |
| Owner |
Cumulus Media (Cumulus Licensing LLC) |
| Sister stations | KBBM, KBXR, KJMO, KLIK, KOQL, KPLA |
| Website | www.kfru.com |
KFRU (1400 AM) is a radio station located in Columbia, Missouri, broadcasting with 1 kW of power. Its programming format consists primarily of news, talk and sports. The station is licensed to Cumulus Media.
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-AM, now KFAQ).
On September 24, 1935, the Federal Communications Commission 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) station. The group formed and purchased additional stations in the Columbia and Jefferson City markets under the name of Premier Marketing Group.
In 2004, KFRU and the other Premier Marketing Group stations were sold to Cumulus Broadcasting.
When KFRU was purchased by the Star-Times, it became affiliated with the NBC Blue Network, now the ABC Radio Network, to which it is affiliated.
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.
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