KMST (FM)

KMST is a radio station licensed to Rolla, Missouri, and operated by the University of Missouri at St. Louis as an extension of St. Louis Public Radio. The station broadcasts at 88.5 MHz FM with an effective radiated power of 100,000 watts, making it the most powerful public radio station in south-central Missouri.

KMST
Simulcast of KWMU St. Louis
Frequency88.5 MHz
Programming
FormatPublic radio
AffiliationsNational Public Radio
Ownership
Owner
KWMU
History
Former call signs
KMSM (1964–1974)
KUMR (1974–2007)
Call sign meaning
K Missouri University of
Science and
Technology
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID69041
ClassC1
ERP100,000 watts
HAAT146 meters
Links
Public license information
WebcastListen Live
Websitewww.kmst.org

Historically, the station's programming has consisted of several genres of music such as classical and jazz as well as several popular National Public Radio programs such as All Things Considered, A Prairie Home Companion, Car Talk, and Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know? show. The station originated a weekly science talk show, titled We're Science, which was syndicated nationwide for several years in the mid-1990s.

The station originally broadcast under the call letters KUMR, from the abbreviation of the station's home, the University of Missouri–Rolla, through 2006. On January 1, 2008, the University of Missouri–Rolla changed its name to Missouri University of Science and Technology.[2] As a result, the station's original call sign, KUMR, was changed to KMST on July 16, 2007, as a reflection of the university's forthcoming name change.[3]

Until 2017, KMST broadcast from studios in the basement of the Curtis Laws Wilson library on the UMR/Missouri S&T campus. Effective July 1, 2017, the station (including its Lebanon translator) was transferred to the University of Missouri-St. Louis and became part of the St. Louis Public Radio network, airing the same broadcast as the St. Louis frequency.[4] The only local programming retained through the changeover was Wayne Bledsoe's Bluegrass for a Saturday Night, a local staple for many decades,[5] which continued until Bledsoe's August 2017 retirement.[6] Missouri S&T opted to end KMST's local operations after the University of Missouri system suffered a massive budget cut that led school officials to conclude KMST was no longer part of the school's "academic core."[7]

KMST was also heard in Lebanon, Missouri via translator K242AN on 96.3 MHz FM, until the translator went silent in August 2020; its license was cancelled by the Federal Communications Commission on March 28, 2022.

See also

References
  1. "Facility Technical Data for KMST". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. "Curators approve UMR name change". news.mst.edu. Missouri S&T Office of Public Relations. April 6, 2007. Archived from the original on August 17, 2009. Retrieved 2009-01-14.
  3. "KUMR to become KMST". Missouri University of Science and Technology. July 6, 2007. Retrieved 2018-02-08.
  4. "KMST 88.5". stlpublicradio.org. Retrieved 2017-08-01.
  5. "Bluegrass for a Saturday Night". KMST. Archived from the original on August 2, 2017. Retrieved 2017-08-01.
  6. Fels, Dawn (August 22, 2017). "Bledsoe to host last broadcast of Bluegrass for a Saturday Night". St. Louis Public Radio. Retrieved 2018-02-08.
  7. Falk, Tyler (June 16, 2017). "University budget crisis prompts St. Louis Public Radio takeover of station". Current. American University School of Communication. Retrieved 2018-02-08.

37.7989°N 91.7246°W / 37.7989; -91.7246

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