KMBZ is the oldest surviving station in Kansas City, beginning experimental broadcasts in 1921.[5] The station officially signed on as a commercially licensed station on April 5, 1922, with the call sign WPE. It was the second radio station in the state of Missouri, behind only St. Louis' WEW.
In 1928, Midland Broadcasting bought the station and renamed it KMBC for Midland Broadcasting Company. In 1953, Midland put KMBC-TV on the air as a shared time arrangement with another local radio station owner. Cook Paint and Varnish Company bought the Midland holdings in 1954. KMBC-AM-TV operated out of the Lyric Theatre.
In 1961, Cook sold the radio and television stations to Metromedia. In 1962, Metromedia signed on KMBC-FM (later KMBR and KLTH, now KZPT). In 1967, Metromedia sold both radio stations to Bonneville International but kept the television station. Bonneville is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) based in Salt Lake City, marking the second time the station was owned by an LDS Church organization. Since Metromedia held the rights to the KMBC call letters, Bonneville changed the AM station's call letters to KMBZ. The choice was deliberate; "Z" rhymes with "C", allowing Bonneville to continue trading on the old call letters. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the station's nickname was "Z-98". During those years, the station aired a full servicemiddle of the road music format.
In 1997, Bonneville sold its entire Kansas City cluster, which by then consisted of KMBZ, KLTH, and KCMO-AM-FM, to Entercom Communications (now Audacy).
After having worked as Director of Promotion for the Kansas City Royals baseball team, Rush Limbaugh got his start in political commentary on the station in 1983. He continued to be heard on KMBZ, through his syndicated talk show, until his death in 2021. For many years KMBZ also repeated Limbaugh's show overnight.
KMBZ was the Royals flagship station for some time. For a time in the 1980s, it ceded flagship status to WIBW in Topeka, Kansas. Also, flagship status switched to WHB-AM, a Kansas City all-sports station, from 2003 through 2007. In 2008, Royals games switched to co-owned sports radio station KCSP. Beginning in 2009, some Royals games returned to KMBZ, when KCSP is committed to another sporting event. KMBZ is also the Kansas City affiliate for the Missouri Tigers radio network, broadcasting football, men's and women's basketball and the "Tiger Talk" coach's show.
In 2009, KMBZ began simulcasting its programming on the HD3 subchannel of sister station KUDL. On March 24, 2011, Entercom announced that on March 30, KUDL's analog FM broadcasts would become a full-time simulcast of KMBZ as KMBZ-FM. On December 24, 2014, Entercom announced that the KMBZ simulcast would split on January 5, 2015; on that date, KMBZ became "Talk 980", carrying mostly syndicated shows, while KMBZ-FM began airing a mostly locally-oriented programming schedule.[7]
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