KUMA broadcasts a news/talk radio format which features programming from Westwood One and Premiere Radio Networks.[2] Local weekday programming includes The Morning Edition with Butch Thurman and Danny Houle plus a 30-minute program called The Coffee Hour.
KUMA began regular broadcasting on August 25, 1955, as a 1,000 watt daytime-only station broadcasting at 1370 kHz.[7] The station, owned and operated by the Pendleton Broadcasting Company, began unlimited 5,000 watt operation at 1290 kHz on January 3, 1956.[8]: A-351 Pendleton Broadcasting Company was owned by the Fisher family as one of four Oregon radio stations controlled by the Fisher Stations Group.[8]: A-412
Pendleton Broadcasting Company, licensee of KUMA, was acquired by Theodore A. "Ted" Smith and his wife Phyllis on November 1, 1966.[9] Ted Smith had joined Pendleton Broadcasting Company in 1955, as general manager of KUMA, after his service in the United States Navy.[10][11] Ted Smith served as the president of the Oregon Association of Broadcasters in 1962.[12] KUMA was joined by an FM sister station, dubbed KUMA-FM, in 1978.[10] In September 1988, Ted and Phyllis Smith applied to the FCC to transfer control of the Pendleton Broadcasting Company to Gregory A. Smith, their son.[13][14] The deal was approved by the FCC on November 18, 1988.[13]
In March 1993, Pendleton Broadcasting Company, Inc., reached an agreement to sell this station and AM sister station KUMA to Capps Broadcast Group's Round-Up Radio, Inc. The deal was approved by the FCC on July 1, 1993, and the transaction was consummated on the same day.[15]
KUMA switched to its current all-talk format in October 2002.[16] The station's initial talk lineup included syndicated news and talk programming hosted by Rush Limbaugh, Paul Harvey, Michael Reagan, Laura Ingraham, Jim Bohannon, and Art Bell.[16]
Effective November 1, 2017, Capps Broadcast Group sold KUMA and nine other broadcast properties to Elkhorn Media Group for $1.75 million.
^"Directory of AM and FM Stations and Market Data for the United States". 1956 Broadcasting Yearbook-Marketbook. Washington, D.C.: Broadcasting Publications, Inc. 1956. p. 257.
^ ab"Directory of AM and FM Radio Stations in the U.S.". 1958 Broadcasting Yearbook. Washington, D.C.: Broadcasting Publications, Inc. 1958.
^"Directory of Radio Stations in the United States and Canada". Broadcasting Yearbook 1979. Washington, D.C.: Broadcasting Publications, Inc. 1979. p. C-182.
