| Broadcast area | NorthernIowa |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 1010kHz |
| Programming | |
| Format | News and Information |
| Network | Iowa Public Radio (News and Information) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Iowa Public Radio, Inc. |
| History | |
First air date | March 1, 1948; 77 years ago (1948-03-01) |
Former call signs |
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| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 69035 |
| Class | D |
| Power | 760watts day 16 watts night |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live |
| Website | IowaPublicRadio.org |
KRNI (1010AM) is anon-commercial, listener-supportedpublicradio stationlicensed toMason City, Iowa, and serving NorthernIowa. It is owned byIowa Public Radio, Inc., and carries the network's "News and Information" service, along withflagship stationWOI 640Ames andWSUI 910Iowa City. KRNI is amember station ofNational Public Radio (NPR) and also carries programs from thePublic Radio Exchange (PRX) andAmerican Public Media (APM). TheBBC World Service is heard overnight.
By day, KRNI is powered at 760watts. But it reduces power to 16 watts at night. It broadcasts from a singletower with anon-directional signal. Thetransmitter is east of Mason City. Even with its modest power, the region's flat land and near-perfect ground conductivity allow KRNI to provide at least secondary coverage to most of north-central Iowa and parts of southernMinnesota in the daytime. At night, it must protect from interference two CanadianClass A stations on1010 AM,CFRB inToronto andCBR inCalgary, rendering KRNI's 16 watts all but unlistenable, even in Mason City.
KRNI was established as KSMN, the second local station in Mason City, in 1948. KSMN provided news and, ultimately, country music until it was switched to a simulcast ofKLSS (106.1 FM), the FM station previously started by KSMN, in 1985. When the owners of KLSS-AM-FM acquired another AM station in 1990, this station was spun off.
It was donated to theUniversity of Northern Iowa, which converted it into apublic radio station as a simulcast of its main station,KUNI. It remained a public radio station after Iowa's state universities merged their radio operations into IPR in 2004.
The Mohawk Broadcasting Company, led by Robert Carson, incorporated in 1947[2] and filed for and received aconstruction permit from theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) to build a new radio station on 1010 kHz. It would operate with 1,000 watts as adaytimer, required to go off the air at night. The application was filed on October 30.[3]
Construction began before year's end at a former schoolhouse three miles east of town onU.S. Route 18.[4] KSMNsigned on the air on March 1, 1948; 77 years ago (1948-03-01).[5] The call letters were said to stand for "Sports Music News".[6]
The station suffered a devastating fire to its transmitter site, causing $35,000 in damage, on the night of January 29, 1951. The heat was so intense that the keys melted off typewriters and the entire plant was a total loss, though the studios were not, having previously been moved to the Weir building in downtown Mason City.[7] The station was back in service three days later thanks to emergency equipment provided by transmitter manufacturers and other Iowa radio stations.[8]
In 1952, KSMN principals formed the Twin States Television Corporation.[9] The group then filed for channel 3, which had been allotted to Mason City.[10] This application, however, conflicted with one by Mason City stationKGLO; Twin States withdrew its application in October 1953, allowing for the construction of KGLO-TV (nowKIMT) on the channel.[11]
Mohawk Broadcasting sold KSMN in 1956 to Land o' Corn Broadcasters, owned by Charles V. Warren, for $115,000.[12] Warren then sold the company toRed Blanchard and Harry Campbell in 1959 for $140,000; by this time, KSMN had additional studios inHampton andClear Lake.[13][3] While Blanchard moved to Mason City, he continued to host the weeklyWGNBarn Dance show in Chicago, commuting 800 miles round-trip in his own aircraft each week; he noted that it only took him 30 minutes longer to get to the studio in Chicago than it did when he lived inBerwyn, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, and that he had fun making the journey.[14]
Blanchard and Campbell sold KSMN to Hayward Talley ofLitchfield, Illinois, trading as the North Central Iowa Broadcasting Company,[3] in 1963. The sale was made because of the increasing demands on Blanchard as an entertainer, with more public appearances and a planned color television broadcast of theBarn Dance.[15] An editor's note in theGlobe-Gazette newspaper accompanying an editorial written by Blanchard to bid the town farewell noted that he had become "one of Mason City's most popular personalities".[16]
Under Talley, KSMN filed in 1966 to add an FM station; however, it could not build it at its AM transmitter site due to short-spacing to another station inWaterloo.[17] The new station was approved in May 1967 and planned to broadcast KSMN during daytime hours while extending its service at night.[18]KLSS (106.1 FM) debuted on November 1 of that year.[19]
In 1984, Talley sold KSMN and KLSS to Hedberg Broadcasting ofBlue Earth, Minnesota.[20] KSMN initially retained its long-running country music format,[21] but on March 4, 1985, this was abandoned and KSMN switched to simulcasting KLSS and itsadult contemporary format, also adopting the KLSS call letters.[22]
In 1990, Hedberg Broadcasting reached a deal to buyKRIB (1490 AM) for $250,000. The deal was of special significance to the company, as company founder Paul Hedberg had worked at KRIB as a teenager in the late 1950s. FCC rules of the time did not permit ownership of multiple AM or FM stations in the same area, so KLSS AM had to be divested.[23] It was donated to theUniversity of Northern Iowa, which at the time had been providing a rebroadcast service ofKHKE inCedar Falls in the Mason City area via a low-powered translator.[24] Programming switched to a rebroadcast of KHKE in September 1990.[25]
The transmitter, cited as having 10 years of service life remaining when Hedberg donated the facility to UNI,[24] was replaced in 1999 using federal grant monies.[26]
In 2004, the radio services of the University of Northern Iowa,Iowa State University, and theUniversity of Iowa were amalgamated intoIowa Public Radio. KRNI was switched in 2011 to the news and information service of IPR.[27] Effective June 30, 2022, all three schools' station licenses were transferred toIowa Public Radio, Inc.
43°08′31″N93°06′40″W / 43.14194°N 93.11111°W /43.14194; -93.11111