Broadcast area | Greater Monroe |
---|---|
Frequency | 1310 kHz |
Branding | Redden Radio 1310 |
Programming | |
Language(s) | English |
Format | Talk |
Affiliations | Music of Your Life |
Ownership | |
Owner | Red Bear Broadcasting Corporation |
History | |
First air date | August 4, 1956 | (as KUZN)
Former call signs | KUZN (1956–1984) [1] |
Technical information | |
Facility ID | 55336 |
Class | D |
Power | 5,000
watts day 49 watts night |
Transmitter coordinates | 32°29′2.4″N 92°9′10.8″W / 32.484000°N 92.153000°W |
KMBS (1310 kHz, "Redden Radio 1310") is an American radio station broadcasting a talk format. Licensed to West Monroe, Louisiana. The station serves the Greater Monroe, and is owned by Red Bear Broadcasting Corporation. [2]
KUZN signed on the air August 4, 1956. The 1,000-watt, daytime-only station [1] was owned by Howard E. Griffith and broadcast primarily country and gospel music. [3] KUZN moved to new quarters on Parkwood Drive in 1967, when Griffith launched a television station, KUZN-TV channel 39. [4] An expansion into FM radio followed the next year with KUZN-FM 98.3. [5] In the mid-1960s, Gary Burbank worked at KUZN as "Johnny Apollo, the blue-eyed soul brother in the front row". [6]
Griffith, who also was an engineer who had developed a new type of television antenna and who had twice attempted to establish local TV stations, died of a heart attack in February 1976. [7] The next year, KUZN and the FM station (by this point known as KYEA) were sold to Morgan Broadcasting Corporation, owned by Chuck and Kay Morgan, for $305,000. [8] The buyer was intimately familiar with the Griffith stations, as he had worked for KUZN since its 1956 establishment as staff announcer and served as general manager since 1961. [9] Under Charles Morgan, the station became KMBS in 1994; it changed formats several times, including contemporary hit radio, jazz [10] and lastly oldies, which was the format at the time of Chuck Morgan's death and the transfer of KMBS to his widow Kay. [11] The FM station was sold off in 1986. [12]
Kay Morgan sold KMBS in 1993 to Red Bear Broadcasting Company, owned by Chuck Redden. [13] Under Redden, the station has aired a variety of oldies and talk formats; it also aired Fox Sports Radio for a time. [14]