History
Beginning
On May 31, 1922, a broadcasting station license, with the call letters WEAK, was issued to Julius B. Abercrombie in St. Joseph, Missouri. WEAK was deleted on September 26, 1923. Three years later, plans were made to reestablish a local station. While waiting for a broadcasting station authorization to be issued, test broadcasts by amateur station 9AYM were begun in August 1926, conducted by Abercrombe in conjunction with the Foster-Hall Tire Company, at a wavelength of 325 meters (923 kHz). [4]
The broadcasting station, KGBX, was authorized later that month for Julius B. Abercrombe at 1221 Frederick Avenue in St. Joseph, [5] and made its debut broadcast on the evening of August 17, 1926. [6] The call letters were randomly assigned from an alphabetical roster of available call signs. KGBX was set up by entrepreneur Ralph D. Foster and partner Jerry Hall at the Foster-Hall Tire Company to advertise their Firestone Tire dealership. [7] The original studios were located in the Foster-Hall tire store at 1221 Frederick Avenue, and originally broadcast at 500 watts.
KGBX began operations during a chaotic period when most government regulation had been suspended, with new stations free to be set up with few restrictions, including choosing their own transmitting frequencies. As of December 31, 1926, KGBX was reported to be transmitting on a self-assigned "split" frequency of 862 kHz. [8] Following the establishment of the Federal Radio Commission (FRC), stations were initially issued a series of temporary authorizations starting on May 3, 1927, [9] with KGBX reassigned to 860 kHz, which a short time later was changed to 1040 kHz. In addition, stations were informed that if they wanted to continue operating, they needed to file a formal license application by January 15, 1928, as the first step in determining whether they met the new "public interest, convenience, or necessity" standard. [10] On May 25, 1928, the FRC issued General Order 32, which notified 164 stations, including KGBX, that "From an examination of your application for future license it does not find that public interest, convenience, or necessity would be served by granting it." [11] However, the station successfully convinced the commission that it should remain licensed.
On November 11, 1928, the FRC implemented a major reallocation of station transmitting frequencies, as part of a reorganization resulting from its implementation of General Order 40. KGBX was initially assigned to 1210 kHz, [12] although this was soon changed to sharing 1370 kHz with KWKC in Kansas City.
In 1932, after the partnership dissolved, KGBX relocated to Springfield, Missouri. [13] On September 1, 1936, KGBX became the area's affiliation of the NBC Red Network. [14] In June 1940, the station upgraded its power to 5,000 watts, and on March 29, 1941, KGBX was moved from 1230 kHz to 1260 kHz, its location ever since, as part of the implementation of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement. In 1944, the station was acquired by the Springfield Broadcasting Company. [15] [7] This new company was under the ownership of the publishers of the Springfield News & Leader and Springfield Leader & Press daily newspapers. [16]
Era of change
After more than three decades of continuous ownership, Springfield Broadcasting Company sold KGBX to Stauffer Communications, Inc., on May 13, 1977. [17] A few months later, KGBX dropped its longtime NBC affiliation for the CBS Radio Network on August 1, 1977, while retaining its adult contemporary music programming at the time. [18] In January 1983, Stauffer Communications, Inc., reached an agreement to sell the station to Springcom, Inc. The deal was approved by the FCC on February 25, 1983, and the transaction was consummated on March 8, 1983. [19]
In February 1986, Springcom, Inc., contracted to sell the station to KGBX Communications, Inc. The deal was approved by the FCC on March 18, 1986, and the transaction was consummated on April 7, 1986. [20] This ownership would prove short-lived as KGBX Communications, Inc., made a deal in August 1987 to sell this station to Springfield Great Empire Broadcasting, Inc. [21] While approval for the sale was pending, the station applied to the Federal Communications Commission for a new callsign and was assigned KTTS on September 14, 1987. [1] The deal was approved by the FCC on September 29, 1987, [21] which immediately led both AM stations KGBX 1260 and KTTS 1400 to swap call-letters, formats, and networks.
In October 1998, after a number of internal shifts in the ownership of the license holder, Springfield Great Empire Broadcasting, Inc., agreed to transfer the broadcast license for KTTS to Great Empire Broadcasting, Inc. The deal was approved by the FCC on October 26, 1998, and the transaction was consummated on June 30, 1999. [22] This too would prove a short-lived change.
Present
Great Empire Broadcasting, Inc., reached an agreement in July 1999 to sell this station to Journal Broadcast Corporation. The deal was approved by the FCC on July 20, 1999, and the transaction was consummated on July 27, 1999. [23]
The new owners applied to the FCC for new call letters and the station was assigned KTTF on April 18, 2001. The station was assigned the current KSGF call letters by the FCC on June 14, 2002. [1]
Journal Communications and the E. W. Scripps Company announced on July 30, 2014 that the two companies would merge to create a new broadcast company under the E.W. Scripps Company name that owned the two companies' broadcast properties, including KSGF. The transaction was completed in 2015, pending shareholder and regulatory approvals. [24] Scripps exited radio in 2018; the Springfield stations went to SummitMedia in a four-market, $47 million deal completed on November 1, 2018. [25]
