KIOS-FM

Last updated

KIOS-FM
KIOSfmlogo.png
Broadcast area Omaha–Council Bluffs metropolitan area
Frequency 91.5 (MHz) (HD Radio)
BrandingOmaha Public Radio, 91.5 KIOS
Programming
Format Public Radio - News - Talk - Jazz
Affiliations National Public Radio
BBC World Service
Ownership
Owner
History
First air date
September 15, 1969;54 years ago (1969-09-15)
Call sign meaning
"Instruction Omaha Schools" [1]
Technical information [2]
Licensing authority
 FCC
Facility ID 17416
Class C1
ERP 55,000 watts
HAAT 169 meters (554 ft)
Links
Public license information
Webcast Listen live
Website kios.org

KIOS-FM (91.5 MHz) is a non-commercial, listener-supported public radio station in Omaha, Nebraska. It is owned and operated by Omaha Public Schools (OPS), airing programming from National Public Radio (NPR) and other public radio producers. KIOS-FM has an annual budget of $1.2 million and employs 15 people. [3] Studios and offices are in the OPS complex on Burt Street, northwest of Downtown Omaha.

Contents

KIOS-FM is a Class C1 station. It has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 55,000 watts. The transmitter tower is behind Benson High School at 52nd and Maple Streets in Omaha. [4]

Programming

On weekdays, KIOS has a news-talk format. Programs from NPR and other public radio networks include Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Fresh Air, 1A and Marketplace . The KIOS staff supplies news updates during the shows. On weekday evenings, KIOS plays jazz music and the BBC World Service is heard overnight.

Weekend talk programs include Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, On The Media, The Splendid Table, This American Life and Travel with Rick Steves . Weekend music shows include The Thistle & Shamrock, Afropop Worldwide, American Routes, World Cafe and Hearts of Space .

History

Construction

KIOS-FM is the second oldest non-commercial station in Omaha. (KGBI 100.7 FM went on the air in 1966, three years before the debut of KIOS.) KIOS was primarily intended as a teaching tool for students in Omaha high school broadcasting courses. After becoming a charter member of NPR in 1971, KIOS shifted its emphasis toward news and information programming. [3]

On October 4, 1967, Omaha Public Schools applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a new radio station to serve the Omaha area. It initially proposed to build a commercial radio station on 104.5 MHz. It felt an assignment low on the FM dial would cause interference with Channel 6 WOW-TV (now WOWT). [5] : 159  In analog television days, the audio from Channel 6 was heard at bottom of the FM band.

Instead, the FCC granted a construction permit for a non-commercial outlet on 91.5 MHz, on March 27, 1968. [6] KIOS-FM signed on the air on September 15, 1969;54 years ago. [7] Concerns about audio interference with WOW-TV proved unfounded.

Educational programs

The original KIOS format primarily consisted of daytime educational programs for use as classroom instruction in Omaha city schools. Classical music and variety programming aired in the evening. [8] The studios and transmitter were originally at Central High School, and most of the students taking broadcasting classes utilizing KIOS attended that school. [9]

In 1974, KIOS-FM began subcarrier broadcasts of a regional radio reading service for the blind. "Radio Talking Book" was the sixth such service in the United States. [10] [5] : 214 

In 1975, the KIOS transmitter was moved to its present location at Benson High School. It used the highest parcel of land that OPS owned. [5] : 215  The higher elevation allowed the station increased coverage. [11] That same year, KIOS's studios moved to Technical High School, now the headquarters of OPS. The move was part of a centralization of the radio and television production programs in the district. [12]

NPR programming

With the start of National Public Radio in 1971, KIOS became a charter member. It shifted from classroom instruction to provide mostly public radio programming. For hands-on experience, student training switched to a new carrier current station inside Technical High School in 1977. [13]

Before NPR started offering Morning Edition , KIOS aired a local classical music wake-up program hosted by longtime Omaha broadcaster Frank Bramhall. In his career, Bramhall had served as a Top 40 disc jockey and as a television meteorologist. He moved to University of Nebraska-owned KVNO 90.7 FM in 1979. [5] : 215  Another popular personality on KIOS was Omaha musician Preston Love. He hosed a jazz show known as Love Notes.

KIOS-FM began soliciting donations from its listeners in 1982. The move was made in the face of declining allocations from OPS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. [14]

In the early 1980s, general manager Frank Coopersmith proposed changes in programming that included big band music as KIOS saw a decline in its ratings. Coopersmith had been hired by OPS in part because 90.7 KVNO had surpassed KIOS in the ratings. [15] : 85  Listeners and members of the station's community advisory board protested the reshuffle as moving KIOS-FM away from its information and education mission. [16] Coopersmith was fired in 1984 in what he alleged was a political move to replace employees seen as close to the recently dismissed superintendent of Omaha schools. [17]

The station began 24-hour broadcasting for the first time in 1985. [18] But this was curtailed five years later due to school board budget cuts. [19] A few years after that, KIOS returned to a round-the-clock schedule.

In 1985, an agreement was made among the three NPR-aligned stations serving Omaha and Council Bluffs: KIOS-FM, KVNO and 89.7 KIWR, owned by Iowa Western Community College. The pact resulted in KIOS adopting its current news and information schedule. [20] KVNO became a classical music station and KIWR concentrated on alternative rock.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KALW</span> Public radio station in San Francisco

KALW (91.7 MHz) is an educational FM public radio station, licensed to the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), which serves the San Francisco Bay Area. Its studios are located at Phillip and Sala Burton Academic High School off Mansell Avenue in San Francisco, and its transmitter tower is on Twin Peaks.

WABE – branded 90.1 FM WABE – is a non-commercial educational FM radio station licensed to Atlanta, Georgia, and serving the Atlanta metropolitan area. The market's National Public Radio (NPR) member station, WABE carries a general public radio schedule with local hosts Lois Reitzes, Rose Scott and H. Johnson and produces the Peabody Award-winning podcast Buried Truths with Hank Klibanoff.

WVIZ is a PBS member television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is owned by Ideastream Public Media alongside classical music station WCLV and co-managed with Kent State University–owned WKSU, the NPR member for both Cleveland and Akron. The three stations share studio facilities at the Idea Center on Playhouse Square in Downtown Cleveland; WVIZ's transmitter is located in suburban Parma, Ohio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WNYE (FM)</span> Public radio station in New York City

WNYE is a non-commercial educational FM radio station licensed to New York City. The station is operated, along with WNYE-TV, by NYC Media, a division of the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment. Studios are located at the City University of New York's Graduate Center at 365 Fifth Avenue, and the transmitter is at the former Condé Nast Building.

KSNB-TV is a television station licensed to York, Nebraska, United States, serving southeastern and central Nebraska as an affiliate of NBC. It is owned by Gray Television alongside CBS affiliates KOLN/KGIN in Lincoln and Grand Island, and CW+ affiliate KCWH-LD in Lincoln. KSNB-TV's transmitter is located near Beaver Crossing, Nebraska. Its news operations are primarily based at a studio located north of Hastings on US 281, with a secondary news bureau and sales office on West State Street in Grand Island. Master control and some internal operations are based at KOLN's facilities on North 40th Street in Lincoln. The KSNB-TV signal reaches Lincoln; in the Tri-Cities area of the market, KSNB-TV is broadcast as a subchannel of KGIN.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WBAA</span> Radio station in Indiana, United States

WBAA and WBAA-FM (101.3 FM) are jointly operated non-commercial educational radio stations licensed to West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, both serving the Lafayette metro area and the Indianapolis area with public radio formats. The stations were founded by Purdue University, but in 2022, 100 years after WBAA's start, ownership was transferred to Metropolitan Indianapolis Public Media, Inc. (MIPM), which also owns WFYI radio and television in Indianapolis. Both stations originate from studios in the Edward C. Elliott Hall of Music on the Purdue campus, with transmitter sites south of Lafayette at the Throckmorton Purdue Agricultural Center.

WCLV is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, carrying a fine art/classical music format. Owned by Ideastream Public Media, the station serves both Greater Cleveland and Northeast Ohio as the home station for the Cleveland Orchestra and an affiliate of the BBC World Service.

WKSU is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to serve Kent, Ohio, featuring a public radio format. Owned by Kent State University and operated by Ideastream Public Media, WKSU's primary signal encompasses the Akron metro area, Greater Cleveland and much of Northeast Ohio as the regional affiliate for National Public Radio (NPR), American Public Media, Public Radio Exchange and the BBC World Service. The station's reach is extended into the Canton, Mansfield, Lorain, Ashtabula, Sandusky, New Philadelphia and Wooster areas via a network of five full-power repeaters, two low-power translators, and one on-channel booster.

Nebraska Public Media, formerly Nebraska Educational Telecommunications (NET), is a state network of public radio and television stations in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is operated by the Nebraska Educational Telecommunications Commission (NETC). The television stations are all members of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), while the radio stations are members of National Public Radio (NPR).

KUCV is a radio station in Lincoln, Nebraska, United States. A member of NPR, it is owned by Nebraska Public Media and is the flagship station of the Nebraska Public Radio Network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nebraska Television Network</span> ABC affiliate in Kearney, Nebraska

The Nebraska Television Network (NTV) is the ABC affiliate for most of central and western Nebraska. It consists of two full-power stations—KHGI-TV in Kearney, with its transmitter near Lowell, and KWNB-TV in Hayes Center—as well as two low-power stations in McCook and North Platte. NTV is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, alongside Lincoln-licensed Fox affiliate KFXL-TV, and operates from studios on Nebraska Highway 44 east of Axtell, about 14 miles (23 km) south of Kearney, with a secondary studio and news bureau at the Conestoga Mall in Grand Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WLRN-FM</span> Public radio station in Miami

WLRN-FM is a class C1 FM station on 91.3 MHz, and is the main public radio station for South Florida and the Keys based in Miami. The station is owned by the Miami-Dade County Public Schools and is the area's flagship NPR member station, therefore carries Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, and Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!. It is also affiliated with Public Radio International and carries The Takeaway and The World, among others. It airs its own locally-produced music programs Evenin' Jazz with Tracy Fields on weeknights, and Night Train on Sundays, before being taken over by the BBC World Service during the overnights.

WNER is a sports radio station in Watertown, New York, United States. The station is owned by Stephens Media Group. It broadcasts the national programming of Fox Sports Radio.

WLIW-FM is a radio station licensed to Southampton, New York, and serving eastern Long Island and coastal Connecticut. Owned by The WNET Group, it is a sister station to PBS member television station WLIW, and features programming from American Public Media, NPR and Public Radio Exchange. The station also broadcasts in HD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KQAC</span> Classical radio station in Portland, Oregon

KQAC is an American classical radio station licensed to serve the community of Portland, Oregon. KQAC is owned by All Classical Public Media, Inc., a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. This classical music service is broadcast 24/7 in the Portland metro area at 89.9, at 88.1 at the Oregon Coast and in the Columbia Gorge. It is available worldwide via the Internet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KVNO</span> Classical music public radio station in Omaha, Nebraska

KVNO is a radio station with a classical music format in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. It is owned by the University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO) and broadcasts from studios on the university's Dodge Street campus and a transmitter facility co-sited with television station KMTV. The station is a media operations unit of UNO's College of Communication, Fine Arts and Media; KVNO's broadcasting license is held by the University of Nebraska Board of Regents. HD Radio subchannels of KVNO provide feeds of MavRadio, the student-run radio station at UNO, and a subchannel primarily consisting of BBC World Service output.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WVSS</span> Radio station in Menomonie, Wisconsin

WVSS is a radio station licensed to Menomonie, Wisconsin. The station is part of Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) and airs WPR's "NPR News & Music Network", consisting of classical music and news and talk programming, as well as local news from WPR's regional studio in Eau Claire.

KBRH is a radio station broadcasting a classic rhythm and blues format in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States. The station is owned by the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board and run by students at Baton Rouge Magnet High School alongside WBRH.

Dale Munson was a former television and radio personality, best remembered as the chief meteorologist for WOWT-TV in Omaha, Nebraska from the 1960s to 1991. His 46-year broadcasting career also included work in Iowa and Minnesota, before he spent eight years as an announcer and classical music DJ for KVNO radio in Omaha.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WBRB (Michigan)</span> Radio station in Michigan, United States

WBRB was a radio station on 1430 kHz AM in Mount Clemens, Michigan, United States. Operating from 1957 to 1990, the station primarily served as the radio voice of Macomb County. In its last years of operation, its format consisted of motivational speeches and adult contemporary music.

References

  1. ↑ Minge, Jim (November 22, 1997). "Call Letters Fit Stations". Omaha World-Herald. p. 65SF.
  2. ↑ "Facility Technical Data for KIOS-FM". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  3. 1 2 Grace, Erin (September 23, 2019). "KIOS, friend who does all the talking, turns 50". Omaha World-Herald. p. 1B. Archived from the original on September 14, 2022. Retrieved September 14, 2022.
  4. ↑ Radio-Locator.com/KIOS
  5. 1 2 3 4 Mann, Carl (2020). "The History of Omaha Radio: An Inside Look at the Evolution of Broadcasting" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on December 16, 2021. Retrieved September 14, 2022– via World Radio History.
  6. ↑ "FCC History Cards for KIOS". Federal Communications Commission.
  7. ↑ "School District FM Station On Air With Just One 'Ad'". Omaha World-Herald. September 15, 1969. p. 4. Archived from the original on September 14, 2022. Retrieved September 14, 2022– via GenealogyBank.
  8. ↑ Carlsen, Ellen (July 4, 1969). "Central High's Radio Station Beaming With Students Soon". Omaha World-Herald. p. 10. Archived from the original on September 14, 2022. Retrieved September 14, 2022– via GenealogyBank.
  9. ↑ Bresette, James (April 16, 1971). "Central High's 'Youth' Station Class in Action". Omaha World-Herald. p. 25. Archived from the original on September 14, 2022. Retrieved September 14, 2022– via GenealogyBank.
  10. ↑ Cater, Christie (July 13, 1975). "'Talking Book' Program Feels Pinch". Omaha World-Herald. p. 12-B. Archived from the original on September 14, 2022. Retrieved September 14, 2022– via GenealogyBank.
  11. ↑ McGovern, Tim (December 2, 1975). "KIOS Finds They're Still Listening". Omaha World-Herald. p. 19. Archived from the original on September 14, 2022. Retrieved September 14, 2022– via GenealogyBank.
  12. ↑ "Remodel Bid At Tech High Is $230,345". Omaha World-Herald. April 8, 1975. p. 6. Archived from the original on September 14, 2022. Retrieved September 14, 2022– via GenealogyBank.
  13. ↑ Mitchell, Betsy (January 7, 1977). "KTEC 'Only Sound Around' And Only to Small Audience". Omaha World-Herald. p. 9. Archived from the original on September 14, 2022. Retrieved September 14, 2022– via GenealogyBank.
  14. ↑ Jordan, Jeff (March 30, 1982). "Stations Seek Support of Listeners". Omaha World-Herald. p. 29. Archived from the original on September 14, 2022. Retrieved September 14, 2022– via GenealogyBank.
  15. ↑ Mann, Carl (2021). The History of Omaha Radio: An Inside Look at the Evolution of Broadcasting (PDF). Vol. 3. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 29, 2022. Retrieved September 14, 2022.
  16. ↑ Whitesides, John (September 27, 1983). "Board Orders KIOS to Resolve Conflict". Omaha World-Herald.
  17. ↑ Mahoney, Jerry (August 9, 1984). "Fired KIOS Director Blames Political Plot". Omaha World-Herald.
  18. ↑ "KIOS Broadcasting 24 Hours Every Day". Omaha World-Herald. December 2, 1985.
  19. ↑ Shanahan, Deborah (August 14, 1990). "Omaha Schools' Budget to Mean Lower Tax Rate". Omaha World-Herald. p. 11.
  20. ↑ Hilt, Michael L. (Summer 1990). "Public Radio: Three Stations' Survival". Feedback. pp. 20–23. Archived from the original on March 18, 2020. Retrieved September 14, 2022.

41°17′17″N95°59′38″W / 41.288°N 95.994°W / 41.288; -95.994

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.