Bob FM is back; Dave Murfin buys it and six other stations out of Rocking M bankruptcy

The once-popular Bob FM is back in Wichita, although under new call letters, along with five other former Rocking M Media stations that My Town Media purchased out of bankruptcy last fall.

That’s part of Wichitan Dave Murfin’s newly formed Murfin Media.

My Town Media, which is based in Pittsburg and has eastern Kansas stations, is a subsidiary along with Western Kansas Broadcast Center, which is based in Garden City and has stations in western Kansas.

“The missing element was nothing in Wichita,” said Mark Yearout, Murfin Media CEO and Western president. “When the bankruptcy came about, we thought, ‘Here’s our opportunity.’ ”

The sale also included stations in Pratt and Liberal along with a translator, which is an FM signal assigned to an AM station.

“Bob was the first one we got back on the air,” Yearout said.

So far, it’s playing only music. The station has yet to start selling advertising.

It has changed the call letters from KIBB to KBOB but remains at 97.1 FM.

Canada-based Kroeger Media, which has a Bob franchise nationally, is programming the station, and it’s playing music similar to what Connoisseur Media used to play when it started Bob in 2006. (Connoisseur sold Bob and KVWF, 100.5-FM, to Rocking M in 2017.)

“Bob plays everything,” said Yearout, parroting the station’s old slogan.

He said that means music from the “ ’80s, ’90s and who knows?”

“They mix and match their music to be different.”

Also acquired in the bankruptcy were KWME, 92.7-FM; KVWF, 100.5-FM, in Augusta; KKLE, 1550-AM, in Winfield; and KLEY, 100.3-FM and 1130-AM, in Wellington.

Murfin Media’s My Country format, which already is airing on six of its stations, will play its country and red dirt format on 100.5 as well.

For the Winfield station, Yearout said, “We’re working on a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week bluegrass format.”

Yearout said he’s still making a final decision on 92.7, but it may simulcast 100.5.

Murfin Media now has 34 stations and seven translators across the state.

The company paid almost $1.2 million for the stations.

That compares to the more than $6.2 million that the short-lived Wichita company Allied Media Partners was going to pay in 2019 for the five stations plus KKGQ, 92.3-FM.

Before the deal could close, Rocking M went through a serious of legal and financial problems, culminating with the bankruptcy, that resulted in the stations being off the air and then back — in some cases, repeatedly.

Yearout, who previously worked for the Entercom radio group for 13 years as general sales manager and then was president of Southwind Broadcasting where Murfin was a partner, said it’s a new era for the stations.

“The local ownership is extremely important I think to Wichita and the surrounding area because we make decisions here in Wichita for all of our stations across Kansas,” he said.

“The money will stay in Kansas. The employees are Kansas residents in most all occasions, so it’s really going to be a boost in radio to have them locally owned.”