KMJK


KMJK is an urban adult contemporary radio station serving the Kansas City metropolitan area. Licensed to North Kansas City, Missouri, the Cumulus Media, Inc. outlet operates at 107.3 MHz with an ERP of 100 kW from a transmitter in Napoleon, Missouri. KMJK's studios are located in Overland Park, Kansas.
KMJK's main competitor is long-standing heritage station KPRS. It is the only Urban AC-formatted station in Kansas City.
KMJK is the Kansas City affiliate for both the "Rick & Sasha in the Morning" show and The D.L. Hughley Show.
In 2011, with Cumulus Media's acquisition of Citadel Media, Cumulus announced the station would be spun off and put into a trust called Volt Media, LLC in order to meet FCC mandates on ownership limitations, despite that Citadel does not own any stations in Kansas City. However, in October of the same year, Cumulus announced plans to reacquire the station.

History

What is now KMJK started broadcasting on September 11, 1969 at 106.3 FM as KLEX-FM, as the station's city of license was Lexington, Missouri and a transmitter just north of Odessa, Missouri. The format was country music. The station's call letters changed to KBEK-FM in 1976, and relocated to 107.3 in 1981 with a class C signal. The station was locally owned by Lexington Broadcasters until being sold in September 1989. In 1984, the station changed formats to satellite-fed Adult contemporary as KCAC. On December 1, 1988, the station changed formats back to country and changed call letters to KCFM. The station was acquired by Meyer Communications in September 1989. KCFM swapped formats and call letters with Capitol Broadcasting's KXXR on February 16, 1992 at Midnight. The first song played after the swap was "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred. Meyer continued to own the station, while being operated by Capitol via an LMA. US Radio, led by Philadelphia attorney Ragan Henry who owned other radio stations across the country, would buy the station in October 1992. On February 4, 1993, after 24 hours of stunting with a loop of "Kiss" by Prince, the station changed call letters and monikers to KISF, "Kiss 107.3". After KBEQ's unannounced flip to Country later that month, the station was the only Top 40 station in the market until KMXV flipped from AC to Top 40 in March 1994. KMXV also had a signal that covered the entire KC metro. Despite the station's coverage area being mainly east of Kansas City, the station received high ratings.
During the mid-1990s, alternative rock was becoming the popular sound of the decade, as the Top 40 format was entering a period of decline. Deciding to follow the trend, and to compete against KLZR, KISF started evolving towards modern rock with a lean on 1980s new wave in late 1994, with the shift complete by January 1995, including a slight name change to "107.3 Kiss FM". The station initially had trouble gaining an audience, largely because the station hung on to remnants of its former format, including imaging and presentation. In addition, the station shifted through several morning shows. By the summer of 1995, the station shifted to a more typical modern rock sound. Due to US Radio's financing balloon bank note becoming due, Henry was forced to sell his 49-station empire, with KISF being bought by Metropolitan Radio Group in April 1996. Syncom bought the station in May 1997.
The station rebranded as "107-3 The X" on March 16, 1997, and took the new calls KCCX on June 25 of that year. Classic rock station KCFX nearly threatened to sue the station because the call letters were too similar. To remedy this, the call letters were changed to KNRX on March 1, 1998. During this time, the station started leaning towards the active rock route by playing harder-edged rock acts, in order to compete with KQRC. The station's airstaff included Kansas City-native Mancow Muller in morning drive, Jason Justice, "The Morning Headrush" w/ Jay and Sammye, and Roach and Sumo hosting "The Midnight Moshpit", as well as carrying "Off the Beaten Track" featuring a freeform format on Friday nights, "Resurrection Sunday" and the syndicated "Out of Order Countdown" w/ Jed the Fish on weekends. Despite being Kansas City's only modern rock outlet, the station's ratings were mainly moderate to low, most likely because of the station's signal issues and poor management. Mancow's show would later be dropped in Fall of 1998.
At 10:04 a.m. on January 5, 1999, without warning, KNRX dropped the modern rock format. Jason Justice played the final song on "The X", which was the acoustic version of "Plush" by Stone Temple Pilots and announced a live legal ID that ended in "Boom". The station then began stunting with a ticking clock and a loop of "1999" by Prince. The following day at Noon, KNRX flipped formats to urban oldies. The station went by the moniker and slogan "K-107, The Rhythm & Soul of Kansas City". K-107's first song was "Celebration" by Kool and The Gang. The station also picked up Tom Joyner for morning drive. The station gained an immediate ratings boost after the flip.
On February 1, 2001, the station's call letters changed to the current KMJK. During the summer of that year, the station moved towards its current Urban AC format with the new moniker "Majik 107.3". In October 2003, the station, along with Radio 2000-owned KCHZ, was purchased by Cumulus Media and in the Summer of 2004, the station altered its moniker to "Magic 107.3". In 2008, the station changed its city of license to North Kansas City, Missouri. The station also had a construction permit to move its transmitter to a site near Levasy, Missouri.
Over the course of 2018, KMJK began dropping most of their classic soul and pre-1990s music from their playlist, and began adding more hip hop tracks, in order to better compete against KPRS. During the fall of 2019, the station also began de-emphasizing the "Magic" moniker, rebranding to using just their frequency.
Other uses of KMJK