1420 AM, Omaha

Through the Years

• 1957

  March 2, 1957-  Original Sign On as KOOO at 500 watts.  The studios were located at 2321 M. Street in Omaha.  The Transmitter location was one mile east of the Missouri River and one-half mile south of South Omaha Bridge Road in Council Bluffs, IA.  The owner was Central Plains Broadcasting (Harold Soderlund 65% ownership).

   

• 1958

  Sold to KOOO Corporation (James Fenlon, Sioux City, IA) for $200,000.

• 1959

  Power was increased from 500watts to 1,000 watts.  Studios/offices were moved to the Livestock Exchange Building, 4920 South 30th Street, Omaha.

• 1960

  Station sold to Pier-San Broadcasting (Webb Pierce, Mark Sanders) for $275,000.  Studio/offices are moved into a former recording studio at 1910 California, Omaha.

  Engineer and air personality Don Denver begins his 18 year tenure at the station.

• 1963

  Studios/office move to 102 North 48th Street, Omaha.

• 1964

  Part-owner Jim Treat takes over as general manger for the next 12 years.

• 1968

  Station joins the MBS network.  (Mutual)

• 1972

  Sister FM at 104.5 signs on and simulcasts the AM 1420 programming.

• 1977

  June, 1977-Station is sold to Centennial Communications of Denver, CO, including the FM for $1.285 Million.  Simulcast continues.   Centennial president Bruce Meyer takes over as general manager.  Station joins CBS network, and softens the format with adult-contemporary artists, removing “hard-line” country.

• 1978

  September 1, 1978- AM splits from the FM simulcast, dropping country for All News, adding the fledging Nebraska News Network to its CBS and MBS affiliation.

  November 21, 1978-  Centennial’s Ray Hambric replaces Bruce Mayer who steps down as general manager.  The AM drops All-News after 3 months and begins simulcasting the FM’s Beautiful Music format, keeping CBS.

• 1979

  February, 1979- Call letters are changed from KOOO to KESY-AM, reflecting KESY FM simulcasting.

• 1980

  February, 1980-AM splits from the FM calls, and returns to a Country format. Call letters are changed back to KOOO.

• 1981

  Files for bankruptcy as KOOO AM 1420 is losing $15,000-$20,000 per month.

  August, 1981- Format flip to Adult Standards, automated with “Music of Your Life”

• 1982

  Moves studios/offices across the street to 4807 Dodge Street, Omaha.

  Station is sold to Richard Marshall Capital Corporation (Marshall Hambric, Sherry Sanders) including the FM for $3Million.

• 1984

  Sold to MediaOmaha, a subsidiary of Sungroup Investments (Indianapolis, IN) for $400,000, in a separate deal that was connected to a $2.2 million FM sale to the same group.

  September, 1984-AM is sold to Nelson Broadcasting, (Lyle W. Nelson) for $650,000. Studio/offices move to the Blackstone, 302 South 36th Street, Omaha.  Call letters are changed to KROM, “Radio Omaha” with a middle of the road format, sports and network affiliation with CBS.

• 1985

  Nelson returns station to MediaOmaha.  KESY AM call letters return, simulcasting the FM’s Beautiful Music format.

• 1989

  Nighttime operation is authorized at 330 watts.

• 1990

  June 15- Call letters changed to KLAO.

  June 22- Call letters changed back to KESY.

• 1995

  January 3, 1995- FM simulcasting ends, station picks up Satellite Music Network’s Soul Oldies format.  Call letters are changed to KBBX for “Boom Box”.

• 1998

  Station is sold along with its FM to Journal Broadcasting for $5.475 Million.  Journal flips the format to Spanish programming from the Hispanic Satellite Network on April 1, 1998.

• 2002

  May 10, 2002- as part of a major format shuffle, the format would move to then-sister station, 97.7 FM.  After two weeks of simulcasting, the call letters and format are changed to KHLP, “K-Help” with satellite delivered All-Advice programming, plus sports ranging from high school games to Omaha Royals baseball, Creighton basketball, and Omaha Beef indoor football.

   

• 2005

  Station is sold to Salem Communications (California) for $900,000. Call letters and format change to KTOK, satellite-fed conservative News/Talk and was marketed as “News/Talk 1420, KTOK.”

• 2008

  September 4, 2008- Station flips format to Spanish Christian, “La Luz” (The Light).

• 2016

  April 4, 2016- KOTK changes format to conservative talk, branded as “94.5/1420 The Answer”.

• 2018

  July, 2018-  Hickory Radio. Omaha, NE (Steve Seline) purchases the station from the Salem Media Group.

• 2019

  March 31, 2019- KOTK flipped to a simulcast of oldies-formatted KOBM (1490 AM), branded as “Boomer Radio”.

  April 1, 2019-  Call letters changed to KOBM.  Simulcasting with 1490, 94.5 FM, 97.3 FM, 104.1FM,106.5FM translators, creating the Boomer Radio Network.  1490 AM adopts the KIBM call letters.

• 2022

  December 20, 2022- FCC approves a callsign change for Hickory Radio’s KOBM/1420 (Omaha) to KXCB.  KOBM is part of Hickory/Walnut Radio’s “Boomer” network of five signals that primarily identifies by the frequency of KOBM’s FM translator, K233CO/94.5 Omaha.

   

• 2023

  February 1, 2023-“Bluffs Country 106.5” starts airing on Walnut Radio’s K293CX (Council Bluffs) and Hickory Radio’s KXCB/1420 (Omaha). K293CX transmits from Council Bluffs with a 250-Watt signal that’s strong in Council Bluffs and downtown Omaha.

  K293CX and KXCB had previously been part of the “My Boomer Radio” Oldies/Classic Hits network, which recently signed on K281DG/104.1 (Omaha), serving much of the same area that K293CX reaches.

  The new format positions itself as “Council Bluffs’ local hometown Country station,” making it the only radio station specifically targeting Council Bluffs.