KFAB
iHeartMedia, Inc. | |
KFFF, KGOR, KISO, KXKT | |
History | |
First air date | December 4, 1924 | (in Lincoln, moved to Omaha in 1948)
Technical information | |
Facility ID | 26931 |
Class | A |
Power | 50,000 watts |
Transmitter coordinates | 41°7′11″N 96°0′6″W / 41.11972°N 96.00167°W |
Links | |
Webcast | Listen Live |
Website | kfab.iheart.com |
KFAB (1110
KFAB is a
KFAB is licensed by the
Programming
Gary Sadlemyer, with KFAB for more than four decades, hosts "The KFAB Morning News" on weekdays. Local talk shows are heard in late mornings with Scott Voorhees and in late afternoons with Emery Songer. The rest of the weekday schedule is
Weekends feature shows on health, money, cars, gardening and cooking. Weekend syndicated programs include The Dana Loesch Show, Armstrong & Getty, The Weekend with Michael Brown, Sunday Night with Bill Cunningham, Somewhere in Time with Art Bell and Our American Stories with Lee Habeeb. Most hours begin with Fox News Radio.
History
Early years in Lincoln
Just before
On November 11, 1928, under the provisions of the
KFAB was originally on the
Move to Omaha
In 1944, KFAB moved to 1110 kHz,[10] giving WBBM unlimited use of 780 kHz.[11] WJAG in Norfolk, Nebraska was concerned that KFAB's operation on 1110 kHz would cause interference to its signal on 1090 kHz, so KFAB's owners paid the cost of moving WJAG to KFAB's former frequency of 780 kHz.[12]
KFAB relocated to Omaha as part of the frequency swap, originally with 10,000 watts, allowing it to still be heard at city-grade strength in Lincoln. It switched to a directional nighttime pattern to limit interference to WBT in Charlotte, North Carolina. WBT had previously operated full time with a non-directional antenna, and, concurrent with KFAB's reassignment to 1110 kHz, implemented a nighttime directional pattern in order to jointly protect KFAB's signal, with both stations primarily directing their nighttime signals north–south. A few years after moving to Omaha KFAB increased its power to 50,000 watts, allowing it to be heard across much of the western half of the continent at night. However, much of the Iowa side of the market only gets secondary coverage at night due to the need to protect WBT.
From its beginning KFAB has delivered a wide variety of programming, including news, weather, sports and farming reports. It became Nebraska's first 24-hour radio station in 1951. In the 1960s and 1970s, legendary newscaster Walt Kavanagh became famous for his school closing announcements during bad weather. The parents of nearly every school aged child in the area would listen intently as Kavanagh reported which districts were cancelled and which were not on snowy mornings.
In 1948, while still an undergraduate at the
Cornhuskers
For most of the time from its earliest days until the 1990s, KFAB dominated the Omaha market. From 1926 to 2015—except for a short break from 1996 to 2001—KFAB was the home of
University officials had been disappointed KFAB was not willing to air more than football and men's basketball games. For instance, volleyball and women's basketball games were shunted to KFFF, while baseball games had no radio home. School officials wanted to ensure that all Cornhusker sports would air on a single, powerful station. KXSP's daytime coverage is roughly comparable to that of KFAB.[14] Even with the loss of the Huskers, KFAB continued to be one of the highest rated stations in the Omaha/Council Bluffs market. It also retained substantial listenership in Lincoln despite being an out-of-market station.
Ownership changes
From the 1950s through the 1980s, KFAB was owned by the Seacrest family alongside the Lincoln Journal, now part of the
In 2005, KFAB became the first Nebraska radio station to broadcast using
References
- ^ Radio-Locator.com/KFAB
- ^ "Station Search Details - KFAB". licensing.fcc.gov. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
- ^ "New Stations", Radio Service Bulletin, December 1, 1924, page 2.
- ^ "New Radio Station Holds Its Opening", Lincoln (Nebraska) State Journal, December 5, 1924, page 6.
- ^ "KFAB—From Lincoln, Omaha's Future Biggest", The History of Omaha Radio: Volume One – 1899 to 1945 by Carl Mann, Revised First Edition 2019, page 40. The KFAB call sign had originally been sequentially assigned to a station in Portland, Oregon, which was licensed on June 13, 1922 ("New Stations", Radio Service Bulletin, July 1, 1922, page 3) and deleted on November 9, 1922 ("Strike out all particulars", Radio Service Bulletin, December 1, 1922, page 7).
- ^ "Broadcasting Stations" (effective November 11, 1928), Commercial and Government Radio Stations of the United States, June 30, 1928 edition, page 172.
- ^ Due to a change in the ionosphere, radio signals on the AM band travel greater distances at night.
- ^ "CBS Adds Two", Broadcasting, January 15, 1932, page 6.
- ^ "Present Practice in the Synchronous Operation of Broadcast Stations as Exemplified by WBBM and KFAB" by L. McC. Young, Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers, March 1936 (vol. 24, no. 3), page 433.
- ^ KFAB (advertisement), Broadcasting, October 23, 1944, page 19.
- ^ "Controlling Interest in WBT Goes to KFAB in 3-Way Deal", Broadcasting, February 7, 1944, page 16.
- ^ "KFAB 780 Lincoln becomes 1110 Omaha", The History of Omaha Radio: Volume 2 by Carl Mann, 2020, pages 12-13.(This source lists WJAG's original frequency as 1080 kHz; it was actually 1090.)
- ^ "Entertainment icon Johnny Carson announces $5.3 million gift to Hixson-Lied College of Fine & Performing Arts". unl.edu. 10 November 2004. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
- ^ Cordes, Henry (2015-02-10). "Tuning in to a new era of Husker radio: NU switches Omaha affiliate from 1110 KFAB to 590 KXSP". Omaha World-Herald.
- ^ Information from Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 2010 page D-348
- ^ "Omaha, NE HD Radio Stations". Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2014-10-14.
External links
- Official website
- KFAB in the FCC AM station database
- KFAB in Nielsen Audio's AM station database
- FCC History Cards for KFAB (covering 1927–1980)