1380 AM, Holdredge

Through the Years

• 1956

  October 22, 1956-  KUVR Signs on.  Transmitter- West edge of town on State Highway 23 near the US-34 junction.   Studio- 613 4th Avenue in Holdrege.

• 1966

  General Manager- Moe Milliken, who holds that title until 1973.

  Format- Contemporary, Middle of the Road.  Farm & Ranch programming.

  Weekly Swedish half hour up to 1997.

• 1967

  Station receives pre-sunrise authorization at 500 watts.

• 1970

  October, 1970-KUVR FM signs on. Programming duplicates the AM 25%.

• 1971

  Pre-sunrise authorization reduced from 500 to 400 watts.

• 1977

  KUVR FM duplicates AM programming 50%.

• 1980

  Dave Tucker is General Manager up to 2003.

• 1985

  KUVR FM, now KKTY FM, duplicates AM programming 100%.

• 1988

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

• 1990

  Programming- Soft adult contemporary, with Special Programs- Farm, Big Band, Swedish.

• 1999

  September, 1999-High Plains Broadcasting sells to John C. Mitchell for $600,000, including KMTY 97.7 FM.

• 2001

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

• 2005

  KUVR drops AC Pure format and picks up Oldies Plus format from NRG-owned satellite network in Omaha.

• 2006

  KUVR attains authorized night operation at 62 watts.

• 2007

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

• 2013

  KUVR is sold to Legacy Communications (Jay Vavricek) for $800,000, including KMTY 97.7 FM, but half of that purchase price will be used as a credit against Armada Media’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.

• 2020

  KUVR and KMTY are sold to the Nebraska Rural Radio Association as part of a package that includes six other stations for $1.75 million.  The transmitter site of KUVR is moved to that of co-owned KRVN 880 AM (licensed to to Lexington, NE) about seven miles north of Holdrege.  KRVN has four towers but only uses one of them for daytime operation.  KUVR’s signal is diplexed onto this tower.  Lexington is about 25 miles northwest of the the tower site.

  The sale splits KUVR from KMTY 97.7 FM, now licensed to Gibbon, Nebraska, which was once licensed to Holdrege and remains with Legacy.