KUDI

KUDI (88.7 FM) is a radio station licensed to serve the community of Choteau, Montana. From 1957 to 1975, KUDI was an AM radio station located in Great Falls, Montana, with a Top 40 format. The KUDI call letters were dormant from 1976 to 2008, where they were transferred to New Life Community Church of Choteau. KUDI then became an FM radio broadcaster. As of December 2019, the station is owned by MOTA Ministries of Fairfield, Montana, and airs a Christian contemporary format.

KUDI
CityChoteau, Montana
Branding"New Life Radio"
SloganRadio for Real Life
Frequency88.7 MHz
FormatChristian contemporary
ERP330 watts
HAAT138 metres (453 ft)
ClassA
Facility ID176530
Transmitter coordinates47°45′21″N 112°09′42″W
OwnerMOTA Ministries, Inc.
WebcastListen Live
Websitekudifm.com

History

KUDI AM

KUDI went on the air as KBGF on September 23, 1955, at 1450 on the AM dial. It was owned by Community Broadcasters, Inc., a group of local businessmen, and was the city's fourth radio station.[1] The call letters stood for "Keep Building Great Falls".[2] From its inception, it operated as a contemporary Top 40 music radio station.[3] KBGF was sold to a group of Washington state radio owners and operators in January 1957. The group included Paul Crain, Del Cody, Walter N. Nelskog, and D. Gene Williams. The sale was approved by the FCC in July 1957, and the call letters changed to KUDI.[4] The new call letters were an acronym for "Keep Up Doing It".[2]

Crain, who owned a financial interest in television station KRTV in Great Falls and television station KULR in Billings, eventually bought out his partners. He sold the station in May 1961 for $300,000 ($2,600,000 in 2019 dollars) to James F. Hadlock of Hollywood, California.[5] Hadlock sold the station to Leo Graybill of Great Falls in 1965. Graybill established Frontier Broadcasting to own the business, with stock in Frontier owned by his family.[3] The station suffered a fire on April 5, 1964, that completely destroyed its studio and transmitter on Smelter Avenue.[5] In the early 1970s, the Graybill family sold some stock to KUDI's general manager, Jerry Hartline.[3]

KUDI was regularly ranked second in listeners in the Great Falls market in the late 1960s and 1970s behind KMON (560 AM).[3] KEIN (1310 AM) changed its format to Top 40 after a change in ownership in 1972,[6] and quickly began gaining on KUDI.[3] Independent since its inception, KUDI affiliated with the CBS Radio Network in 1974.[7] Robert Schuster, a former life insurance agent, replaced Hartline as general manager in August 1975.[8]

Frontier Broadcasting sold KUDI to Sun River Broadcasting in January 1976.[9][10] Sun River Broadcasting was owned by Tom Ingstad and Bob Lockhart. Ingstad was a member of a family which owned Ingstad Broadcasting, a privately-held company that owned radio stations in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.[9] The sale was approved by the FCC on July 30, 1976. KUDI signed off the air on September 3, 1976. The station went back on the air on September 15, 1976 as KQDI. During the 12 days of broadcasting silence, the station made major studio and transmitter improvements. As "The New Q", KQDI deemphasized news and information in favor of a Top 40-only format.[10]

KUDI FM

The KUDI call letters were resurrected and assigned by the FCC on November 10, 2008, to New Life Community Church in Choteau, Montana.[11] The new station, located at 88.7 on the FM band, adopted a Christian radio format for talk, news, religious programming, and contemporary Christian music.[12]

On April 14, New Life Community Church donated the call letters, station, and all station assets to MOTA Ministries of Fairfield, Montana.[12] The transaction was consummated on December 4, 2019.

References
  1. "Falls 4th Radio Station Will Go On Air Friday". Great Falls Tribune. September 22, 1955. p. 9.
  2. "Dan Snyder to Build FM Station". Great Falls Tribune. January 9, 1977. p. 36.
  3. Horner 1975, p. 22.
  4. "Washington Men Buy Station KBGF". Great Falls Tribune. January 10, 1957. p. 1; "Station Transfer Authority Asked". Great Falls Tribune. April 18, 1957. p. 13; "FCC Approves Sale of Falls Radio Station". Great Falls Tribune. July 5, 1955. p. 1.
  5. "Fire Destroys Station KUDI". Great Falls Tribune. April 6, 1964. p. 1.
  6. Horner 1975, p. 10.
  7. Horner 1975, p. 24.
  8. "Business in Brief...". Great Falls Tribune. August 10, 1975. p. 31.
  9. "FCC Approval All That's Needed for Sale of KUDI". Great Falls Tribune. January 21, 1976. p. 13.
  10. "KUDI Going Off the Air Friday". Great Falls Tribune. September 2, 1976. p. 8.
  11. "Call Sign History". FCC Media Bureau CDBS Public Access Database.
  12. Jacobson, Adam (June 19, 2019). "A Montana FM Is Donated". Radio and Television Business Report. Retrieved December 12, 2019; "Deal Digest: Access.1 Exits Stations Ownership". Inside Radio. June 20, 2019. Retrieved December 12, 2019.

Bibliography


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