KUPL

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Radio station in Portland, Oregon

title: "KUPL" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["radio-stations-in-portland,-oregon", "country-radio-stations-in-oregon", "radio-stations-established-in-1948", "1948-establishments-in-oregon", "connoisseur-media-radio-stations"] description: "Radio station in Portland, Oregon" topic_path: "general/radio-stations-in-portland-oregon" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KUPL" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Radio station in Portland, Oregon ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox radio station"]

Field	Value
name	KUPL
logo	98.7 THE BULL logo.png
city	Portland, Oregon
country	US
area	Portland metropolitan area
branding	98-7 The Bull
frequency	98.7 MHz
airdate	June 6, 1948 (as KPOJ-FM)
format	Country
erp	25,000 watts
haat	502 meters
class	C1
facility_id	4114
licensing_authority	FCC
coordinates
callsign_meaning	Couple; Portland
former_callsigns
former_frequencies
owner	Connoisseur Media
licensee	Alpha Media Licensee LLC
affiliations	Premiere Networks
sister_stations
webcast
website
::

::callout[type=note]

KUPL (98.7 FM) is a commercial radio station in Portland, Oregon. The station is owned by Connoisseur Media and airs a country music radio format, known as "98.7 The Bull".

KUPL's studios and offices are located in Downtown Portland on SW 5th Avenue. The transmitter is in Portland's West Hills, on SW Barnes Road.

History

KPOJ-FM/KPOK-FM

On June 6, 1948, the station signed on as KPOJ-FM at 98.7 MHz. It was owned and operated by The Oregon Journal. It was powered at 44,000 watts and mostly simulcast co-owned KPOJ (1330 AM), a network affiliate of the Mutual Broadcasting System and the Don Lee Network.

KPOJ-FM moved one spot lower on the FM dial, to 98.5 MHz, on March 27, 1964. On August 15, 1968, KPOJ-FM changed its call sign to KPOK-FM. It played oldies and called itself "The Golden Sound". On June 18, 1973, KPOK-FM changed its format from oldies to beautiful music as "98-FM". On July 11, 1973, the call letters switched to KUPL-FM while AM 1330 aired country music, also using the KUPL call sign. The beautiful music on 98.5 lasted more than a decade.

Switch to country

In 1982, KUPL-AM-FM were acquired by Scripps Howard Broadcasting. On March 16, 1984, after 10 years as an easy listening station, KUPL-FM dropped the format and joined its AM counterpart as a country music station. KUPL AM had also previously broadcast easy listening since the late 1970s. In 1981, KUPL AM became a "Music of Your Life" affiliate, continuing with an easy listening format until 1984. The moniker for KUPL-FM was "K98, Continuous Hit Country". Later the station would be known as "Couple 98" by pronouncing the call letters KUPL.

In 1995, the AM station was sold for $2 million to Crawford Broadcasting, who switched it to a Christian radio format as KKPZ. The following year, KUPL-FM changed hands again, to American Radio Systems.

On September 4, 1997, KUPL-FM moved back from 98.5 MHz to 98.7 MHz, its original frequency. Over the course of the next decade the station would rebrand various times including 98.7 KUPL and New Country 98-7 KUPL. In 1998, KUPL-FM was acquired by CBS Radio.

Sale to Alpha Media

In August 2009, CBS sold its Portland cluster to newly formed Alpha Media. Radio vet Scott Mahalick was hired to program KUPL-FM. On September 16, 2010, the "-FM" suffix was removed from the station's callsign.

In March 2011, the station began using the slogan "98-7 KUPL, #1 For The Most New Country". On January 10, 2013, at midnight, the station dropped the "98-7 KUPL" branding for "98-7 The Bull." It only uses the actual callsign during legal station identifications.

Alpha Media merged with Connoisseur Media on September 4, 2025.

References

"Contact 98.7 The Bull". 987thebull.com.
[https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/finder?sr=Y&s=C&call=kupl&nav= Radio-Locator.com/KUPL-FM]
[https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-YB/1950/RADIO%20&%20TV%20ALL%20YB%201950%20B&W-11.pdf Broadcasting Yearbook 1950 page 250]
(June 14, 1948). "New FM Operation Open As KALE Changes to KPOJ".
(January 13, 2024). "KUPL-FM ad, 1983".
[https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-YB/1985/B-Radio-All-BC-YB-1985.pdf Broadcasting Yearbook 1984 page B-233]
"98.7 KUPL Big Money Jukebox TV spot 2006".
[https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-YB/2005/Radio-All-2005-BC-YB.pdf Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 2005 page D-429]
[https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-YB/1998/D-Radio-All-BC-YB-1998.pdf Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 1998 page D-364]
[https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-YB/1999/D-Radio-All-BC-YB-1999..pdf Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 1999 page D-368]
[http://oregonmediacentral.com/2009/08/first-on-omc-cbs-radio-sells-portland-station-group-to-alpha-broadcasting CBS Radio Sells Portland Station Group to Alpha Broadcasting] - [http://oregonmediacentral.com Oregon Media Central] (released August 7, 2009)
[http://oregonmediacentral.com/2009/08/first-on-omc-cbs-radio-sells-portland-station-group-to-alpha-broadcasting CBS Radio Sells Portland Station Group to Alpha Broadcasting] - [http://oregonmediacentral.com Oregon Media Central] (released August 7, 2009)
"KUPL Portland Gets Bullish – RadioInsight".
(September 4, 2025). "Introducing The New Connoisseur Media". RadioInsight.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::