1600 AM, Nebraska City

Through the Years

• 1959

  June, 1959-  KNCY AM signs on at 1600 kHz, daytime only, with a directional antenna system.  Studio and transmitter located 3/4 miles West of Nebraska City, on Sylvan Road and Pinewood Drive.   Owner is Otoe Broadcasting Co. ( Sam M. Arnold, Samuel A Burk, Edwin D Hundley).

  The First Christian Church DOC began broadcasting the first Sunday that KNCY was on the air.  The program has continued without interruption for 63  years.

• 1960

  Studios/offices in 1960- to 107 N. 9th Street in Nebraska City.

• 1961

  Station sought to change frequency from 1600 to 1450 kHz to allow full time operation with 1,000 watts day, 250 watts night, contingent on KWBE-Beatrice on 1450 seeking change to 1590.   Application was dismissed in 1962.

• 1962

  Studios/offices move to 123 North 8th Street in Nebraska City where they remained for 18 years before moving one block south into a second story location on the corner of 8th & Central Avenue.

• 1967

  KNCY is sold by Otoe Broadcasting Company to the KNCY Radio Corporation (Carl M. Adams, President, 67.5%, William E. Wickens 22.5% and Robert A. Clark, vice president of operations 10%) for $110,000.  Pre-sunrise operation (6 a.m. to local sunrise) was authorized with 500 watts.

• 1976

  co-owned KNCY FM signs on at 97.7 FM

• 1990

  KNCY AM/FM is sold by Great Lakes Broadcasting Co. (Carl Adams) to Sunrise Broadcasting Corporation (Joerg G. Klebe, licensee of KBWH FM, Blair, NE and is vice-president of CVC Capital Corporation, parent of Sunrise Broadcasting Corporation, David J. Messing, General Manager) for $675,000.

• 1994

  Sunrise Broadcasting (Joerg Klebe) buys KCOE 105.5 Auburn, class A station for $67,500 with the intentions of teaming it with KNCY AM so that it would not be a stand alone AM.  Klebe had earlier seriously considered silencing KNCY AM 1600.

• 1999

  May, 1999-Sunrise Broadcasting, Newburgh, NY (Joerg Klebe) sells KNCY 1600 and KNCY FM 105.5 Auburn, NE to Radio 2000 NC Inc., Kansas City, KS (Frank Copsidas, Principal) for $710,000.  Format for both stations- Westwood One’s Mainstream Country.

• 2002

  November, 2002-Arbor Day Broadcasting, owned equally by Dean Sorenson, Richard Chapin and Richard Wagner) buys KNCY 1600 AM, Nebraska City and KNCY FM 103.1 Auburn from Radio 2000 for $600,000.  The three also own a station in Missouri, while Sorenson and Chapin are partners in Eternal Broadcasting, which owns two stations in Nebraska (KCRO, Omaha).  Sorenson also owns 17 stations which are operated by Waitt Radio under a local marketing agreement.  Mike Overton is General Manager over KNCY and KCRO.

• 2003

  KNCY AM adds nighttime operation authorized with 31 watts.

• 2007

  Riverfront Broadcasting (Carolyn Becker-51% and Doyle Becker-49%) Yankton, SD., which has operated KNCY AM & FM though a local marketing agreement since 2004, buys the stations outright from Arbor Day Broadcasting (Dean Sorenson, Richard Chapin, and Gloria Wagner) for $690,000.  KNCY AM 1600 has flipped to a mix of Adult Contemporary and Oldies.  KNCY FM/103.1 (Auburn) continues to carry the “KNCY Country” format that had been simulcast on both stations.

• 2012

  KNCY 1600 AM switches from Oldies to Classic Country.  The station’s FM counterpart, KNCY-FM 103.1 (Auburn-Nebraska City), carries a Modern Country format.

• 2013

  Flood Broadcasting buys KNCY AM (Nebraska City) and KNCY FM 103.1 (Auburn-Nebraska City, calls soon changed to KBIE FM) from Riverfront Broadcasting LLC for $810,000.  Flood Broadcasting is headed by Michael J. Flood of Norfolk, NE, who heads a company that owns KUSO and KNEN in Norfolk.  Riverfront also owns stations in several South Dakota markets.  Flood Broadcasting purchases an FM translator for KNCY 1600.  Flood pays Community Broadcasting 45,000 for K288GS/105.5 (Nebraska City), 250 watts from a tower near the beltway going around town.

• 2014

  Flood Broadcasting buys a second FM translator in Nebraska City from VSS Catholic Communications to relay KNCY AM for $20,000.  K235BY/95.1 250w watts, which Flood plans to move to a water tower east of Murray at Beaver Lake, delivering a rimshot signal into Plattsmouth.  KNCY launches an information-heavy Classic Hits format with mentions of Plattsmouth in the imaging, and briefly opens a remote studio on Main Street in Plattsmouth to show a presence in the city.  The format lineup includes ABC Information Network news, the rural Radio Network, Husker Sports, and the syndicated “Sports Nightly.”  The station also carries a daily show with Mick’l Severe, from the Omaha World-Herald.

• 2017

  KNCY 1600 AM reverts to Classic Country, “Otoe County Country,” a format it had carried until adding a simulcast on K288GS/105.5 (Nebraska City) in 2014.  The stations had carried an information-heavy Classic Hits format, first as “Big Apple News Radio” and then “News Channel Nebraska.”

  Meanwhile, K288BS flips to a pre-1990 playlist complementing the Country format of sister station “B103” (KBIE 103.1 Auburn-Nebraska City).