KRLL AM 1420 is under new ownership as of April 1.
The “Real Country” station, managed by long-time owners Jeff Shackleford and Raeann Reagan for nearly 25 years under the Moniteau Communications license, is now owned by John Scheper and Mid-Missouri Radio LLC.
Scheper has co-owned stations in the past and now resides in Osage County, where he is a fire chief.
Many aspects of the station’s programming remain unchanged, including the intent to continue covering local news and high school athletics and offering Sunday church and gospel programming, Shackleford said. The station will begin carrying new hosts “Big D & Bubba” in the morning starting Monday.
Some upgrades will join the familiar sound — Shackleford said Scheper has already begun adding new processing equipment to improve the station’s signal and sound quality.
Shackleford said Scheper has also done well to bolster KRLL’s social media presence, especially on Facebook, and the station now livestreams 24/7. All told, Shackleford said the new ownership is well-equipped to improve KRLL, from its format to how listeners can tune in.
“He’s really technically inclined to take this station to the next level,” Shackleford said.
Other additions include some expanded sports broadcasting. The station will carry Kansas City Royals baseball games — once professional sports seasons are back underway — and St. Louis Blues hockey next year, and Scheper said he’s negotiating deals to get NFL football and college athletics into the rotation as well.
The station is also pivoting to include more farming and farm market news, Scheper said. The station now carries three hours of ag programming per day, along with market and livestock updates.
“We’ve really stepped up our agricultural broadcasting,” Scheper said. “Moniteau County is the fifth-highest producing ag county in the state.”
Scheper said he has a more than 30-year history in agricultural broadcasting, and the aim is for KRLL to put out meaningful broadcasting around the topic for its listeners.
In the meantime, Scheper said, one important continuing programming block will be the two-hour “War on COVID-19” show that runs each morning. Scheper said educating listeners about the virus and how it impacts people’s daily lives in a non-political slant is an important way to use the station’s platform for now.
“It’s not normally something I would do, but I think that the current situation with (coronavirus) and the impact it has, I think it certainly deserves us trying to do something on a street level to address it,” Scheper said.
While Reagan will stay on as the day-to-day operations manager, Shackleford said the time is right for him to move on. He said his future may include working in radio again, but for now, he’ll spend time at his home in the Lake of the Ozarks area and continue to help with the transition at the station.
“We had a good 25 years — we want to, of course, thank all our sponsors and listeners through the years that have helped us along the way,” Shackleford said.
He said it was important to him that if the station was sold, it would be in good hands as far as continuing some of the programming local listeners had grown to love.
“I think it’s going to be a win-win for everybody involved,” Shackleford said.