KRIB (1490AM) is acommercial radio stationlicensed toMason City, Iowa. It is owned byConnoisseur Media and airs asoft oldies andadult standardsradio format. The radio studios and offices are on South Yorktown Pike in eastern Mason City.

KRIB is aClass C AM station, powered at 1,000 watts. It uses anon-directional antenna. Thetransmitter is located behind its former studios on 19th Street Southwest, near Monroe Avenue, in Mason City.^[2] Programming is also heard on 250-wattFM translator K244FA at 96.7MHz, with a transmitter located atop the Cartersville Grain Elevator on South Eisenhower Avenue, also in Mason City.^[3]

The stationsigned on the air in April 1948. It was assigned the KRIBcall sign by theFederal Communications Commission.^[4]

Through the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, KRIB was the dominantTop 40 station for the Mason City market. This lasted until 1985, when the station made the transition tofull-serviceadult contemporary, competing against AC stationsKLSS-FM andKGLO. This did not last long, and in May 1987, after being sold to Boyd Communications, KRIB flipped its format tooldies. However, in 1989, prior owners Chesterman Company regained control of the station after suing Boyd for failing to make payments beyond the initial down payment to purchase the station.^[5] In April 1990, Hedberg Broadcasting, the owner ofKLSS and KLSS-FM, bought the station, with KLSS AM being subsequently sold to theUniversity of Northern Iowa.^[6] In the early 1990s, KRIB began playing a mix of soft oldies andadult standards, using thesyndicated service "America's Best Music" supplied byWestwood One for a time, before it was dropped in favor of local programming. In addition,ESPN Radio programming would later be added in evenings for a time.

In March 1997, Three Eagles Broadcasting bought the station.^[7] On September 6, 2004, KRIB flipped tocountry as "Eagle Country", though the prior standards format would continue to be heard in overnights for a brief time.^[8][9] On April 1, 2005, KRIB's country format would move to sister stationKYTC; subsequently, KYTC's oldies format would move to KRIB.^[10][11]

On February 3, 2012, KRIB shifted to adult standards, initially carrying programming from the syndicated "Music of Your Life" service.^[12][13] The station later reverted to being locally programmed, and shifted back to a soft oldies format.

Digity, LLC purchased the station on September 12, 2014. Two years later,Alpha Media acquired Digity, LLC, including KRIB, for $264 million.^[14][15]

In June 2024, due to staffing cuts across many ofAlpha Media's stations nationwide, which included the dismissal of operations manager and program director Jared Allen, KRIB began airing Westwood One's "Good Time Oldies" format.^[16][17][18] With the discontinuation of Good Time Oldies by Westwood One on April 20, 2025, KRIB switched back to a mix of soft oldies and adult standards under Westwood One's "Adult Standards" format.^[19]

In May 2025,Connoisseur Media announced its intent to acquire Alpha Media.^[20] The FCC approved the sale on August 13, 2025, and the sale was consummated on September 4.^[21]

KRIB was one of the first radio stations in Iowa to playRock and Roll and Top 40 hits, thus attracting a young audience. In February 1959, the station was one of the sponsors of theWinter Dance Party at theSurf Ballroom in nearbyClear Lake. The show'smaster of ceremonies was KRIB disc jockey Bob Hale. The show featuredThe Big Bopper,Ritchie Valens, andBuddy Holly. Infamously, all three perished in a plane crash just north of theMason City Municipal Airport that night. The event would later be described as "The Day the Music Died."

Over sixty years later, KRIB still changes its music format during the week of the anniversary of the Winter Dance Party, playing hit songs of the late 1950s and early 1960s, with an emphasis on tunes from February 1959.^[22] On Saturday mornings, it also airs an hour of oldies from the 1960s.

• KRIB official website
• Facility details for Facility ID 47095 (KRIB) in theFCC Licensing and Management System
• KRIB inNielsen Audio's AM station database
• Facility details for Facility ID 147922 (K244FA) in theFCC Licensing and Management System
• K244FA at FCCdata.org

• Radio stations in Iowa
• Mason City, Iowa
• Adult standards radio stations in the United States
• Oldies radio stations in the United States
• Connoisseur Media radio stations
• Radio stations established in 1948
• 1948 establishments in Iowa

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• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
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• Coordinates on Wikidata