KWFS (1290 kHz) is an AM radio station with a news/talk radio format serving the area of Wichita Falls, Texas, United States. It is owned by Townsquare Media, with studios on Kell Boulevard in Wichita Falls. KWFS is the oldest radio station still remaining in Wichita Falls. It was the third established in the city, but the first two outlets (on 620 and 990 kHz) were moved in to the Dallas–Fort Worth area in the 1990s. History Foundation of KTRN on FM As early as 1944, the city's two daily newspapers, the Wichita Daily Times and Record News, began planning to build a radio station. However, they sought not to build an AM radio station but to start an FM outlet. An application for a station on 46.5 MHz was filed on March 29 in the name of publisher Rhea Howard; a conditional grant was issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on January 9, 1946. Final approval for a station on 97.7 MHz was granted June 1, 1946, for what the newspapers hoped to be the first FM radio station in Texas. Construction began on a new studio on Seventh Street and a transmitter building in the Westover Hills area by summer, and the new FM station took the call letters KTRN, for the Times and Record News. KTRN was beaten to air by KTHT-FM in Houston, which began August 22; by year's end, there were also six other stations in operation. Ultimately, KTRN went on air December 23, 1946, an early Christmas gift to Wichita Falls; the day before, it broadcast Handel's Messiah from a local church as a test of its remote control equipment. The station initially operated with a temporary power of 250 watts, but it upgraded to 3,800 watts on 97.3 MHz in September 1947. April of that year saw the station obtain affiliation with the Mutual Broadcasting System. On the AM band While KTRN was busy bringing FM to North Texas, on November 30, 1944, the Texoma Broadcasting Company, part of the Harte-Hanks chain, applied to the FCC to build a new AM station at 970 kHz, later modified to 1290. After a hearing, the new AM station was approved on January 16, 1948. In April, the Times Publishing Company and Texoma Broadcasting Company proposed a merger of their radio interests; KTRN would take over the construction permit for the AM station, KTEN, which