KFYR (AM)

KFYR (550 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Bismarck, North Dakota. It airs a news-talk radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. Some hours on weekends, the station plays oldies. The studios are on East Rosser Avenue in Bismarck.

KFYR

Bismarck, North Dakota
Broadcast area	Bismarck-Mandan
Frequency	550 kHz
Branding	KFYR 550 AM
Programming
Format	News-Talk
Network	Fox News Radio
Affiliations	Premiere Networks Westwood One Minnesota Vikings University of Mary
Ownership
Owner	iHeartMedia, Inc. (iHM Licenses, LLC)
Sister stations	KBMR, KQDY, KSSS, KXMR, KYYY
History
First air date	1925 (1925)
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	41426
Class	B
Power	5,000 watts
Transmitter coordinates	46°51′12″N 100°32′37″W
Translator(s)	99.7 K259AF (Bismarck)
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	kfyr.iheart.com

KFYR is powered at 5,000 watts with a signal that can be heard in seven U.S. states and three Canadian provinces. By day, it is non-directional. But at night, the station uses a directional antenna with a two-tower array. The transmitter is off 158th Street NE in Menoken. Programming is also heard on 250-watt FM translator K259AF at 99.7 MHz in Bismarck.

Signal

KFYR boasts an enormous coverage area. It can be heard across almost all of North Dakota during the day, as well as in parts of Minnesota, South Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. This owes to a combination of its position low on the North American AM dial, the power of its transmitter, the height of its towers and North Dakota's flat land.

On the AM band, lower frequencies have longer waves, which tend to travel farther across terrain. This is especially true for stations that operate at 5,000 watts or more. Additionally, the flat landscape of the prairies makes for near-perfect ground conductivity. At night, two towers are used in a directional pattern to protect CBK, the CBC Radio One outlet for most of Saskatchewan, which operates on nearby 540 AM. Even with this restriction, KFYR still covers almost all of North Dakota at night. It is the primary entry point station for the Emergency Alert System in both North and South Dakota.

It has been claimed that KFYR has the largest daytime coverage area of any AM radio station in the United States. A similar claim can be made for WNAX in Yankton, South Dakota, which transmits on 570 AM.

History

Early years

KFYR signed on the air in 1925 (1925). It was founded by Phillip J. Meyer and his wife, Etta Hoskins Meyer. It is Bismarck's oldest radio station. KFYR began operations with programming for only a few hours daily, signing off between shows. In its early years, it was an affiliate of the NBC Red Network, airing its dramas, comedies, news and sports during the "Golden Age of Radio."

Early programming included live studio musicians, transcribed music and programs, and live feeds from the NBC. Many popular soap operas, game shows, sporting events, religious services, children's programs, and big band broadcasts were part of the regular schedule. The station carried NBC's Monitor on weekends. Other programming included local news, weather, and sports, locally originated variety programs such as "What's The Weather" weekday mornings and "The Northwest Farmfront" weekdays at noon. Mike Dosch, an established musician from Strasburg, North Dakota (Lawrence Welk's hometown) was featured on several of the live shows and had his own late-night program of organ music for many years. There were also shows hosted by staff announcers who played recorded popular music by such artists as Nat King Cole, Doris Day, The Ames Brothers, Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians, and orchestras including Mantovani, Percy Faith, and Frank Chacksfield.

By 1950, the station had expanded its schedule to an 18-hour broadcast day. It began broadcasting at 6 a.m. and concluded at midnight.

TV and FM stations

In December 1953, it added television station KFYR-TV 5. Because KFYR was part of the NBC Radio Network, KFYR-TV became western North Dakota's NBC television affiliate, along with its three semi-satellites. In 1966, an FM station went on the air, KFYR-FM at 92.9 (now KYYY).

At one time, the Meyer Broadcasting Company roster also included AM radio stations in Billings and Great Falls, Montana, as well as an FM station in Minot, North Dakota. Marietta Meyer Ekberg, the Meyers' daughter, retired in 1998, and her radio holdings were sold to Jacor Communications,. Jacor, in turn, was acquired in 1999 by Clear Channel Communications, a forerunner to today's iHeartMedia.

Top 40 era

Facing stiff competition from more youthful stations, KFYR began to see its dominance and audience decline in the early 1960s. It decided to switch to a Top 40 format. It was popular with teenagers by virtue of its "torrid twenty" countdown show, which featured the twenty popular hits of the week. In the 1960s and 1970s, teenagers from South Dakota to parts of Canada enjoyed listening to "their" music on KFYR every evening (along with 1520 KOMA from Oklahoma City, 1090 KAAY from Little Rock, 890 WLS from Chicago, and 1500 KSTP from St. Paul).

KFYR gained brief national notoriety in 1979, when the station was sued in federal court by the Pointer Sisters and Elektra Records. The station had created a remix of their cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Fire" with "K-Fire" dubbed into the chorus where "fire" would be sung. The suit was settled out of court.

KFYR once broadcast in AM stereo, beginning with the Harris system in the mid-1980s, and later switching to the Motorola C-QUAM system. KFYR discontinued broadcasting in AM stereo around the turn of the millennium.

Switch to talk

As younger listeners increasingly tuned to FM for their hits, KFYR switched its music to adult contemporary and oldies. By the 1990s, it added more talk shows, until it had switched to a news-talk format. In 2011, it added an FM translator for listeners who prefer to hear the station on the FM dial. The translator on 99.7 FM was previously a simulcast of KQDY 94.5 FM before 2011.

Today, KFYR runs a news/talk format. Local talk shows are heard in mornings and during afternoon drive time. The rest of the weekday schedule is made up of nationally syndicated conservative talk programs: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, The Jesse Kelly Show, Our American Stories with Lee Habeeb, Coast to Coast AM with George Noory and America in the Morning. KFYR is a Fox News Radio Network affiliate.

Weekend syndicated shows include Armstrong & Getty and Sunday Nights with Bill Cunningham. There is live play-by-play sports from the Minnesota Vikings and University of Mary football games, and high school sporting events. Some hours on weekends include oldies shows.

Translator

KFYR also broadcasts on an FM translator:

Call sign	Frequency	City of license	FID	ERP (W)	Class	FCC info
K259AF	99.7 FM	Bismarck, North Dakota	2203	250	D	LMS

External links

• KFYR website
• Facility details for Facility ID 41426 (KFYR) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
• KFYR in Nielsen Audio's AM station database
• Facility details for Facility ID 2203 (K259AF) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
• K259AF at FCCdata.org
• FCC History Cards for KFYR