On December 31, 1949, KRMG first signed on. It was founded by Kerr-McGee Oil Company partners Robert S. Kerr and Dean McGee. The call sign was chosen to take two letters from the names of the founding owners, KerR and McGee. Kerr, at the time a U. S. Senator, wanted a station that would cover both Tulsa and Oklahoma City. KRMG had to protect co-channel stations to the north and south. So six towers were constructed to create a directional pattern hitting Oklahoma City as well as Tulsa. The station was powered at 50,000 watts in the daytime to achieve the desired coverage pattern, originally reduced to 10,000 watts at night. In 1957, KRMG was acquired by the Meredith Corporation, a publishing and broadcasting company. It was a CBS Radio Network affiliate. KRMG aired a full servicemiddle of the road format from the 1950s to the early 70s. In 1961, KRMG was acquired by Swanco Broadcasting. That same year, it added an FM sister station, KRMG-FM at 95.5 MHz. At first it simulcast AM 740 but later switched to beautiful music as KWEN, and in 1982 it flipped to country music. KWEN changed ownership over the years but today is again co-owned with KRMG. KRMG is credited with the development of Tulsa's River Parks. The station first hosted the "Great Raft Race" in 1973. It was a floating race down the Arkansas River from Sand Springs to Tulsa, attracting large crowds to the river banks. The River Parks Authority was formed in 1974 to develop the area. In the late 1970s, KRMG moved to a full service adult contemporary sound. In the 1980s, as music listening began to shift from AM to FM, KRMG added talk shows at night from NBC Talknet. By the 1990s, the station dropped music altogether and made the transition to the current news/talk format. Cox Media acquired KRMG and KWEN in 1997. In 2009, a new KRMG-FM was created at 102.3 MHz. That station's Christian contemporary music format was dropped to allow it to simulcast KRMG's talk programming, giving Tulsa radio listeners the choice of hearing KRMG on AM or FM. It also improved KRMG's nighttime coverage in portions of Tulsa. On July 7, 2014, KRMG-AM-FM changed their slogan to "Tulsa’s 24-hour News, Weather and Traffic, News 102.3 and AM 740 KRMG."
Former hosts
Former KRMG hosts include John Erling, Ann Williams, Dianna Proffitt, Dick Andert, Jerry Vaughn, Watson Jelks, Johnny Martin, Trey Callaway, Rob Hough, and Wes Minter. In the KRMG newsroom, ABC's Bob Brown and CNN's Bob Losure once served as reporters. Frank Powers is now in Jacksonville, Florida. Rand LaVonn was news director in the late 1980s. He is now in Dallas where he volunteered as President of PRSA Dallas in 2013 and President of the Press Club of Dallas from 2000–01. LaVonn was a communications manager for electric and gas utilities in the Dallas region. John Durkee served as news director for 18-years prior to joining the City of Tulsa as Communication Director and then moving on to Tulsa's NPR affiliate KWGS. Union Public SchoolsPublic Relations Director Gretchen Haas was an anchor and reporter. Richard Dowdell was a reporter and anchor for KRMG News for over 30 years.
