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KKMS
Broadcast area	Minneapolis/St. Paul
First air date	1949
Frequency	980 (kHz)
Format	Christian radio
ERP	5,000 watts
Class	B
Callsign meaning	MinneapoliS
Owner	Salem Communications
Website	KKMS.com

KKMS (AM 980) is a Salem Communications-owned radio station licensed to Richfield, Minnesota and serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Studios are located in Eagan, Minnesota. They are co-owned with WWTC and KYCR.

The station programs a Christian-based religious format primarily featuring ministry personnel and preachers such as John MacArthur, Alistair Begg, James Dobson, J. Vernon McGee and Tom Shrader. Other individuals may also lease air time on the station. Other hosts such as Hank Hanegraaff and Janet Parshall provide more interactive programming. The station produces its own afternoon show, "KKMS Live! with Jeff and Lee." Several other shows are locally produced, such as Understanding the Times with Jan Markell and The David Wheaton Show. Also broadcast from KKMS is The Way of the Master Radio, with Todd Friel.

Contents 1 History 1.1 "Super U-100" 1.2 U-100 sold and broken up 1.3 WAYL and the Entercom years 1.4 The slow death of WAYL, and the return to rock music 1.5 AM 980 in sales limbo 1.6 980 AM finally becomes a Salem station 2 See also 3 External links

AM 980 originally featured a rather conservative MOR format as WPBC ("The People's Broadcasting Company"), which started broadcasting in 1949. The owners were very strict, to the point that they rejected advertising from beer and tobacco companies. And of course, no rock and roll music. Allegedly, one of WPBC's owners, Becky Ann Stewart, would use the sharp end of a compass to scratch away the grooves of tracks on albums that didn't meet her standards of "nice" music, in order to prevent rebellious DJ's from playing them. They began simulcasting the AM signal on FM at 101.3 MHz in the 1960s.

The owners sold the station in 1972 to Fairchild Industries, who then dismissed the entire staff and overhauled both stations. The FM was rechristened WRAH and programmed automated album oriented rock. The AM station changed to WYOO, picking up an oldies format. When the oldies format started to slide in the ratings, more MOR music was added, but ratings slid even further. The owners contemplated selling the station, so the general manager and program director, both hired from established Top 40 station KDWB, decided a major change needed to be made.

A decision was made to pick up a Top 40/hard rock format, in contrast to what they saw as the rigid, bland presentation of other similar stations in town. A decision was made to keep the WYOO call letters (as changing call letters with the FCC at the time was a long, difficult task). But they wanted to call the station something else on the air. Originally, it was to be Y-100, but a station in Florida calling itself that threatened to sue. After going through the alphabet, station management finally stopped at "U". The new station would be called "U-100". Later, they realized the coincidence of the "WYOO" call letters and the new branding of "U-100". And another oddity was the placement on the dial. The AM broadcast at 980, and the FM at 101.3. Management reasoned that back then, all radios were analog, and it seemed like the only number shown on that part of the dial was a big "100", so it was close enough to 980 and 101.3. It all just seemed to make sense.

On August 26, 1974, WYOO was broadcasting live from the Minnesota State Fair, garnering little attention from fairgoers with their adult pop music. The program director, Rob Sherwood, used this opportunity to abruptly change the format of both stations, debuting the AM and FM simulcast of "Super U-100" with a Joe Cocker song and a two minute montage of the new stations' new jingles. The new U-100 quickly became the topic of conversation throughout the area with its rowdy, outrageous mix of Top 40 and hard rock. With a constant bombardment of loud jingles the jocks would scream "YEEEEWWWW ONE HUNDRED!" and "BOOGIE!" when they weren't giving the time, temperature ("it's seventy-two degrees in Frriiidleeeeey!") or bad jokes. "Right on Super U" became a catch phrase on the station and amongst its fans. The presentation was tight, fast-paced and very foreground.

During the next two years, U-100 quickly became the most talked-about radio station in town. Competition was fierce in rock 40 radio at the time, and compared to U-100, WDGY, KDWB and KSTP-AM seemed a bit tame. As an added advantage, U-100 was the first Twin Cities top 40 station to broadcast on the FM dial in stereo (in addition to 980 AM).

But the station was not to last forever. The AM dial in the Twin Cities was crowded with top 40 stations, with U-100, WDGY, KDWB, and recent arrival KSTP all fighting for the same audience. AM music stations also desired to transition to the rapidly growing popularity of the FM dial. Doubleday Broadcasting, then the owner of KDWB, desperately wanted their own FM signal. And Fairchild was looking to sell their two stations. In February 1976, Doubleday announced it would be buying WYOO-FM with the intention of simulcasting KDWB on the FM signal. Since one company could not own two AM or FM stations in the same market at the time, the AM station had to be sold separately. The owner of WAYL )93.7 FM), an easy listening station, agreed to purchase 980 AM. WYOO-FM signed off for the last time at midnight on September 15, 1976, and KDWB morning personality True Don Bleu launched the new KDWB-AM and FM the following morning at 6 AM. The next week, 980 AM came back on the air with a simulcast of WAYL.

WAYL (whose mascot was a whale) simulcast easy listening music on both 93.7 FM and 980 AM until the early 1980s, when they briefly switched to a lite rock format as KMFY. Soon, this experiment ended and WAYL returned to the AM simulcast. By the mid-1980s, the once-popular easy listening format was dying a quick death. Whereas WAYL once had two or three competitors, at this point it seemed that one was too many, as advertisers began to shun the format's older demographics. By this time, the two stations were owned by a larger company, Entertainment Communications, later known as Entercom.

In 1987, the FM finally dropped easy listening and switched to classic hits as KLXK. WAYL's call letters and format remained on 980 AM, before completely giving up on beautiful music and briefly simulcasting with its FM sister as KLXK, then a switch several years later to KRXX (93X). Eventually, the AM station branched off from its FM. KZOW, the AM sister station of KJJO, carried a full-time syndicated network called "Z-Rock". Z-Rock was full-time hard rock and heavy metal, and in a way, was similar in presentation to the old U-100 (but without the jingles and disco music). KZOW eventually dropped Z-Rock, and Entercom decided to pick it up for 980 AM. The network and the new KMZZ call letters debuted in December 1990. As Z-Rock shifted to a more mainstream rock presentation, KMZZ dropped the network on January 1, 1993 and began programming an in-house automated hard rock format as "Mega Rock". Mega Rock did not last, and later that year, 980 AM returned to simulcasting their sister station.

When Entercom sold the FM station to Capital Cities/ABC in 1994, the AM station was not part of the deal. As a buyer was being sought, 980 was still owned by Entercom (though programmed by local ABC station KQRS through a local marketing agreement) and continued to simulcast 93.7 until a buyer could be found. Upon taking control of KRXX, ABC immediately changed the format to modern rock as KEGE ("The Edge"). AM 980's call letters would remain KRXX until finally picking up the KEGE call letters later that year.

During much of the 1990s, very little demand existed for many weaker AM stations on the dial. Few people listened to music on AM anymore, and many of these signals were used to simulcast FM signals. AM stations were tough to divest, and 980 AM was on the selling block for several years, still owned by Entercom but programmed by ABC's local station cluster. Over time, demand for AM signals went up as these small stations were purchased or leased by ethnic groups, deep-pocketed religious broadcasters and other niche groups. The station was finally sold in December 1996 to a religious broadcaster and the call letters switched to the current KKMS. Eventually, KKMS was sold to Salem Communications, a company that grew by buying less desirable AM stations around the country. Today, Salem, which programs both Christian and secular formats, is one of the biggest owners in the radio industry, and they own two other AM stations in the Twin Cities market. All three stations are based at the same Eagan studios that housed 980 AM through its many incarnations.

• KDWB
• WAYL

• KKMS
• Right on Super U! Recalling U100, the controversial 1970s radio station
• Rob Sherwood's reflections of U100
• Radiotapes.com, featuring historic airchecks of WPBC, WYOO and other Twin Cities stations
• Query the FCC's AM station database for KKMS