WHO (AM)
FCC | |
Facility ID | 51331 |
---|---|
Class | A |
Power | 50,000 watts |
Transmitter coordinates |
|
Repeater(s) | 100.3 KDRB-HD2 (Des Moines) |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Webcast | Listen live (via iHeartRadio) |
Website | whoradio |
WHO (1040
WHO broadcasts with 50,000 watts, the maximum power permitted for AM stations in the United States. It uses a
WHO dates back to the early days of broadcasting and is a Class A clear-channel station. The station is one of only two 50,000-watt AM radio stations in Iowa. The other is KXEL in Waterloo. However, WHO was originally a Class I-A, while KXEL was given Class I-B status, requiring a directional antenna at night, to avoid interfering with the other Class I-B station on 1540, ZNS-1 in Nassau, Bahamas. Due to WHO's high power and Iowa's flat land (with excellent soil conductivity), it has an unusually large daytime coverage area, equivalent to a full-power FM station. It provides at least secondary coverage to almost all of Iowa, as well as parts of Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, Wisconsin, Minnesota and South Dakota. At night, it can be heard at night across much of North America with a good radio, but is strongest in the Central United States.
Programming
Weekdays on WHO begin with a three-hour news and information program, The WHO Morning Show. Two local hosts have talk shows on weekdays,
Saturdays begin with a local show, Saturday Morning Live with Dave Bohl. Syndicated weekend programs include
Sports
WHO has been the longtime
State Fair
WHO broadcasts its local shows from the Iowa State Fair for the duration of that event.
History
Early years
WHO began broadcasting on April 10, 1924.[6] The station was originally owned by Bankers Life, which is now the Principal Financial Group. Since January 1923 most radio stations in Iowa have been assigned call signs starting with "K", so WHO is unusual in starting with "W", normally reserved for stations located east of the Mississippi River.[7] WHO dates back to a period when new call signs generally were four letters, from a sequential list, but sometimes were only three letters long. Because its call letters were issued outside of the pattern normally employed at the time,[1] there has been speculation that they might have been chosen to stand for "We Help Others"[8] or the question "Who?". For many years, WHO has used an owl as its mascot, a play on its call letters, pronounced like an owl's call.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/57/WOC-WHO_radio_advertisement_%281933%29.jpg/200px-WOC-WHO_radio_advertisement_%281933%29.jpg)
The original studios were on the top floor of the Liberty Building in downtown Des Moines.[10] After the FRC's General Order 40 reallocated frequencies in 1928, WHO was assigned to 1000 kHz on a time-sharing basis with WOC in Davenport.
In late 1929, the Central Broadcasting Company was formed with B. J. Palmer as chairman. This company purchased both WOC and WHO, which were then synchronized to simultaneously broadcast identical programs on their shared frequency, each using a 5 kilowatt transmitter. In April 1932, a 50 kilowatt transmitter, located near Mitchellville, Iowa and close to Des Moines, went into service, and the separate transmitters were replaced by this single transmitter, with the two stations now combined under a dual identity as WOC-WHO.[11] (WOC was restored as a station separate from WHO in November 1934, when the Palmer School purchased station KICK in Carter Lake, Iowa, which was moved to Davenport, and its call sign changed to WOC.)
Through most of its early years, WHO was a
WHO-FM and WHO-TV
In 1948, WHO-FM (100.3) signed on the air. Originally WHO-FM
WHO was continuously owned by the Palmer family for more than 70 years, until Jacor Broadcasting purchased the station in 1997. Jacor merged with Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia) a year later. WHO and the other Clear Channel radio stations in Des Moines (KDRB, KKDM, KLYF, and KXNO) continued to share a building with WHO-TV until moving into a new facility in 2005.
Alumni
Herb Plambeck was a farm reporter for many years from 1936 to 1976.[12] Talk-show host Steve Deace started his broadcast career at WHO.[13]
Until his death in 2013, Jim Zabel remained with WHO as co-host (with Jon Miller of HawkeyeNation) of the Sound Off sports talk show that aired on Saturdays during Hawkeyes seasons, and as co-host of Two Guys Named Jim on Sunday nights with former Iowa State University football coach Jim Walden.
Ronald Reagan
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1d/Ronald_Reagan_as_a_WHO_Radio_announcer_in_Des_Moines%2C_Iowa.jpg/210px-Ronald_Reagan_as_a_WHO_Radio_announcer_in_Des_Moines%2C_Iowa.jpg)
Future United States President Ronald Reagan worked as a sportscaster with WHO from 1932 to 1937.[14] Among his duties were re-creations of Chicago Cubs baseball games. Reagan received details over a teleprinter for each play and would speak as if he were live from the stadium, improvising details such as facial expressions of players or the color of the sky. This practice was common prior to television.[15]
Around 1935, Reagan became a host on a WHO news show featuring commentary by H. R. Gross, who would later be elected to the United States House of Representatives for Iowa's 3rd congressional district in 1948. On that show, Reagan also interviewed such celebrities as Leslie Howard and Aimee Semple McPherson.[16][17]
References
- Works cited
- Cannon, Lou (2003). Governor Reagan: His Rise to Power. New York: PublicAffairs. ISBN 1-58648-030-8.
- Stein, Jeff (2004). Making Waves: The People and Places of Iowa Broadcasting. Cedar Rapids, Iowa: WDG Communications. ISBN 0-9718323-1-5.
- Notes
- ^ a b "New Stations", Radio Service Bulletin, May 1, 1924, page 3.
- ^ "Revised list of broadcasting stations, by frequencies, effective 3 a. m., November 11, 1928, eastern standard time", Second Annual Report of the Federal Radio Commission for the Year Ended June 30, 1928, Together With Supplemental Report for the Period From July 1, 1928, to September 30, 1928, page 204.
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WHO". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ "WHO-AM 1040 kHz - Des Moines, IA". radio-locator.com.
- ^ "Newsradio 1040 WHO". whoradio.com. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011.
- ^ "Iowa Radio: Des Moines (WHO entry), Broadcasting Yearbook (1977 edition), page C-76.
- ^ "'K' Calls Are Western", The Wireless Age, April 1923, page 25.
- ^ "Telephone Broadcasting Stations for the United States" (WHO entry), Citizens Radio Callbook, Spring 1925, page 16.
- ^ "WOC-WHO" (advertisement), Broadcasting, April 1, 1933, page 21.
- ^ "Liberty Building, Des Moines". SkyscraperPage.com. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
- ^ Education's Own Stations (Palmer School of Chiropractic section) by S. E. Frost, Jr., 1937, page 316.
- ^ "Herbert Plambeck (1908–2001) Papers, 1920-2001" (PDF). Iowa State University Special Collections Department. Retrieved November 1, 2021.
- ^ Calmes, Jackie (November 3, 2015). "Steve Deace and the Power of Conservative Media". The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved November 5, 2018.
- ^ Cannon 2003, pp. 40, 52
- ^ Cannon 2003, p. 43
- ^ Cannon 2003, p. 46
- ^ "Gross, Harold Royce". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. U.S. Congress. Retrieved November 28, 2023.
External links
- WHO in the FCC AM station database
- WHO in Nielsen Audio's AM station database
- FCC History Cards for WHO (covering 1927-1980)
- WHO radio historical artifacts from DesMoinesBroadcasting.com
- WHO-Tour of Transmitter and History