97.7 FM, Holdredge

Through the Years

• 1970

  KUVR FM signs on.  97.7 with 3,000 wats at 155 feet. Programming duplicates KUVR AM 25%.  Transmitter is located on the AM tower, west edge of Holdrege.

• 1977

  KUVR FM antenna is upgraded to 240 feet.  Programming duplicates the AM 50%.

• 1980

  Dave Tucker is the General Manager up to 2003.

• 1984

  KUVR FM changes call letters to KKTY FM.

• 1985

  KKTY duplicates KUVR programming 100%.

• 1988

  September, 1988-W.W. Broadcasting sells to High Plains Broadcasting, Inc. (Peggy Goth, Chris Erickson, Robert Edwards) for $162,000, including KUVR AM.

• 1989

  KKTY FM returns call letters to KUVR FM.

• 1990

  Format is soft adult contemporary, with Special programs:  Farm, Big Band, Swedish.

• 1996

  KUVR FM changes call letters to KMTY.  Format- Hot Adult Contemporary.

• 1998

  KMTY FM upgrades power to 55,000 watts at 262 feet.

• 1999

  September, 1999- High Plains Broadcasting sells to John C. Mitchell for $600,000, including KUVR AM.

• 2000

  Waitt Radio (Norman Waitt Jr, sole shareholder), which had been operating Mitchell Broadcasting’s 16 stations under  time brokerage and local marketing agreements since April 2000, buys Mitchell’s stations for $36.6 million.  Waitt Radio later merges with New Radio Group forming NRG Media.

• 2005

  KMTY 97.7 FM flips from NRG-owned satellite network’s Oldies Plus to Bob FM format.

• 2007

  NRG Media sells to Armada Media in a package that includes KUVR 1380 and KMTY 97.7 Holdrege, plus KODY 1240 AM and KXNP 103.5 FM in North Platte, NE for $4.5 million.

• 2008

  KMTY FM flips from Bob FM to Jack FM, a similar adult variety hits network operated by Sparknet.

• 2011

  KMTY is authorized to change its community of license to Gibbon, Nebraska.

• 2013

  KMTY is sold to Legacy Communications (Jay Vavricek) for $800,000 including KUVR AM, but half of that purchase price will be used as a credit against Armada’s purchase of six stations in the Scottsbluff market and two in the North Platte market from Legacy.  Armada and Legacy traded operations of the stations under local marketing agreements on May 1, 2013.

  KMTY format flips to “Big Country”.

• 2014

  KMTY’s move to Gibbon is completed, with 50,000 watts at 486 feet from a tower about 10 miles south of Gibbon.  The station includes Hastings in its legal ID although that market now receives a rimshot signal from the new facility.

• 2020

  KUVR is sold to the Nebraska Rural Radio Association as part of a package that includes six other stations for $1.75 million.   The sale splits KUVR from KMTY, which was once licensed to Holdrege and remains with Legacy.

• 2021

  KMTY flips format to Active Rock, branded as “Thunder 97.7 & 99.7.”   99.7 is a translator belonging to KRGI-FM-HD3 in Grand Island, NE.