KKMS (980 kHz "The Mission") is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Richfield, Minnesota, and serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul radio market. It is owned by the Salem Media Group and broadcasts a Christian talk and teaching radio format. The transmitter and radio studios are on Cliff Road near Minnesota State Highway 77 in Eagan.
The station uses a brokered programming system, where national and local religious leaders buy time on the station and may use their programs to seek donations to their ministries. Some national hosts on KKMS include John MacArthur, Alistair Begg, David Jeremiah, J. Vernon McGee, June Hunt and Jim Daly. Several Salem Radio Network conservative talk hosts are also heard on the station, Eric Metaxas, Jay Sekulow and Charlie Kirk. The station produces a local afternoon show, "Crosswalk with Lee Michaels."
History
WPBC
The People's Broadcasting Company, founded by former WCCO announcer Bill Stewart and his wife Becky Ann, obtained a construction permit for a new radio station at 980 kHz in Minneapolis on May 18, 1949. It signed on five months later on October 18. An independent station, WPBC played a variety of middle-of-the-road pop music and standards, and was even considered an innovator in the concept of singing jingles. To protect other stations on 980 AM from interference, WPBC was a daytimer, required to go off the air at night.
The Stewarts took a rather conservative approach in programming the station. They shied away from performers such as Elvis Presley and most early rock and roll music, which they described as "junky music with morally degrading lyrics." Their philosophy extended to commercials as well, to the point that they rejected advertising from beer and tobacco companies. Allegedly, the Stewarts would go so far as to use the sharp end of a compass to scratch away the grooves of tracks on albums that didn't meet their standards of "nice" music, in order to prevent rebellious DJs from playing them.
The daytime-only station expanded to FM when WPBC-FM 101.3 began simulcasting 980 AM on July 18, 1960. The FM station was able to continue WPBC's programming into the night while the AM stations was silent. Four years later, the Stewarts were approved to move both stations from Minneapolis to Richfield, increase the AM's power to 5 kW, and begin broadcasting at night using a directional antenna.
In 1969, the AM and FM stopped simulcasting. The FM retained the "good music" format, while the AM shifted even further to adult standards.
WYOO
The Stewarts, citing increased competition from larger companies, sold WPBC-AM-FM in 1972 to Fairchild Industries for $1.5 million. Fairchild subsequently dismissed the entire staff and overhauled both stations. On November 3, 1972, WPBC became WYOO, airing an oldies format, while WPBC-FM went off the air for technical adjustments, to emerge as album-oriented rock station WRAH. One unusual program feature was newscasts that consisted of four and a half minutes of sports and a handful of news headlines—the opposite of most radio newscasts.
After debuting to middling ratings that later declined, WYOO went in a new direction in April 1974, spearheaded by new general manager Mike Sigelman, the former sales manager of Top 40 outlet KDWB. A shift to an adult contemporary format was met with even lower ratings. Management saw a gap for a Top 40 station on FM, so both stations flipped on August 26, 1974. The change occurred during the Minnesota State Fair. The programmers wanted to call the station "Y100”, but WHYI in Miami, which also used the “Y100” moniker, sent the station a cease and desist order. As a result, WYOO became "U100", and quickly turned into a competitive station in the market.
WAYL and the Entercom years
In early 1976, Fairchild Industries decided to put both stations up for sale, and the pair were broken up. In February, the owners of KDWB (630 AM) purchased the FM facility for $850,000. The AM station was then sold for $625,000 to Entertainment Communications, Inc. (which later became Entercom, now Audacy), owners of beautiful music/easy listening outlet WAYL (93.7 FM). It was WAYL's interest in the AM frequency—sewn up first, but announced second—that led to a search for a buyer for the FM facility. WYOO-FM became KDWB-FM on September 16, 1976, and WYOO (AM) became WAYL on September 20.