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| Broadcast area | Des Moines metropolitan area |
| Frequency | 1040kHz |
| Branding | NewsRadio 1040 WHO |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Format | News/talk |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| KCYZ,KDRB,KKDM,KXNO-FM,KXNO,KASI | |
| History | |
First air date | April 10, 1924; 101 years ago (1924-04-10) |
Former call signs |
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Former frequencies | [2] |
| Technical information[3] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 51331 |
| Class | A |
| Power | 50,000 watts |
Transmitter coordinates | |
| Repeater | 100.3 KDRB-HD2 (Des Moines) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live (viaiHeartRadio) |
| Website | whoradio |
WHO (1040kHz "Newsradio 1040") is a commercialAM radio station inDes Moines, Iowa, United States. The station is owned byiHeartMedia and carries a conservativenews/talkradio format, with studios on Grand Avenue in Des Moines.
WHO broadcasts with 50,000 watts, the maximum power permitted for AM stations in the United States. It uses anon-directional antenna from atransmitter site on 148th Street South inMitchellville, Iowa.[4] WHO programming is also heard on the secondHD Radiodigital subchannel of co-ownedKDRB (100.3 FM), and the station is Iowa's primary entry point station for theEmergency Alert System.
WHO dates back to the early days of broadcasting and is aClass Aclear-channel station. The station is one of only two 50,000-watt AM radio stations in Iowa. The other isKXEL inWaterloo. However, WHO was originally a Class I-A, while KXEL was given Class I-B status, requiring adirectional antenna at night, to avoid interfering with the other Class I-B station on 1540,ZNS-1 inNassau, Bahamas. Due to WHO's high power and Iowa's flat land (with excellent soil conductivity), it has an unusually large daytime coverage area, equivalent to a full-power FM station. It provides at least secondary coverage to almost all of Iowa, as well as parts ofIllinois,Missouri,Nebraska,Kansas,Wisconsin,Minnesota, andSouth Dakota. At night, it can be heard at night across much of North America with a good radio, but is strongest in the Central United States.
Weekdays on WHO begin with a 3-hour news and information program,The WHO Morning Show. Two local hosts have talk shows on weekdays,Jeff Angelo in late mornings andSimon Conway in afternoondrive time. The rest of the schedule is made up ofnationally syndicated programs, mostly from co-ownedPremiere Networks:The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show,The Sean Hannity Show,Our American Stories with Lee Habeeb,Coast to Coast AM withGeorge Noory andAmerica in the Morning with John Trout.
Saturdays begin with a local show,Saturday Morning Live with Dave Bohl. Syndicated weekend programs includeThe Kim Komando Show,Armstrong & Getty,Sunday Nights with Bill Cunningham,The Weekend with Michael Brown, andThe Ramsey Show withDave Ramsey. Programs on investing, health, technology, pets and religion are also heard, some of which are paidbrokered programming. Most hours begin with an update fromFox News Radio.
WHO has been the longtimeflagship station ofUniversity of Iowa sports.Jim Zabel, who joined WHO in 1944,[5] was theplay-by-play voice forHawkeyes football andbasketball games from 1949 to 1996. That is when the University of Iowa licensed exclusive rights to do radio play-by-play to Learfield Sports, which picked Gary Dolphin as the play-by-play announcer for Hawkeyes men's andwomen's basketball.
WHO broadcasts its local shows from theIowa State Fair for the duration of that event.
Each December, WHO collaborates with thePinky Swear Foundation to host the annualPinky Swear Radiothon, a full day of storytelling and fundraising to support children with cancer and their families. The event features emotional interviews, family spotlights, and live donor calls. Over the past ten years, the radiothon has raised more than two million dollars to help cover everyday expenses such as housing, gas, and groceries for families facing childhood cancer.
WHO began broadcasting on April 10, 1924.[6] The station was originally owned by Bankers Life, which is now thePrincipal Financial Group. Since January 1923 most radio stations in Iowa have been assignedcall signs starting with "K", so WHO is unusual in starting with "W", normally reserved for stations located east of theMississippi River.[7] WHO dates back to a period when new call signs generally were four letters, from a sequential list, but sometimes were only three letters long. Because its call letters were issued outside of the pattern normally employed at the time,[1] there has been speculation that they might have been chosen to stand for "We Help Others"[8] or the question "Who?". For many years, WHO has used an owl as its mascot, a play on its call letters, pronounced like an owl's call.
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The original studios were on the top floor of the Liberty Building in downtown Des Moines.[10] After theFRC'sGeneral Order 40 reallocated frequencies in 1928, WHO was assigned to 1000 kHz on a time-sharing basis withWOC inDavenport.
In late 1929, the Central Broadcasting Company was formed withB. J. Palmer as chairman. This company purchased both WOC and WHO, which were then synchronized to simultaneously broadcast identical programs on their shared frequency, each using a 5 kilowatt transmitter. In April 1932, a 50 kilowatt transmitter, located nearMitchellville, Iowa, and close to Des Moines, went into service, and the separate transmitters were replaced by this single transmitter, with the two stations now combined under a dual identity as WOC-WHO.[11] (WOC was restored as a station separate from WHO in November 1934, when the Palmer School purchased station KICK inCarter Lake, Iowa, which was moved to Davenport, and its call sign changed to WOC.)
Through most of its early years, WHO was anetwork affiliate of theNBC Red Network, broadcasting comedies, dramas, game shows, soap operas, sports andbig bands. WHO moved from 1000 AM to the current 1040 on March 29, 1941, as a result of theNorth American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA).
In 1948, WHO-FM (100.3) signed on the air. Originally WHO-FMsimulcast most of the programming heard on 1040 AM. In 1967, WHO-FM switched to classical music andbeautiful music. The FM station has changed formats and call letters several times since then and now broadcasts asKDRB, "100.3 The Bus". In 1954,WHO-TV began broadcasting on channel 13. Because WHO radio was a long-time affiliate of NBC Radio, the TV station also affiliated with the NBC Television Network.
WHO was continuously owned by the Palmer family for more than 70 years, untilJacor Broadcasting purchased the station in 1997. Jacor merged with Clear Channel Communications (nowiHeartMedia) a year later. WHO and the other Clear Channel radio stations in Des Moines (KDRB,KKDM,KLYF, andKXNO) continued to share a building with WHO-TV until moving into a new facility in 2005.
Herb Plambeck was a farm reporter for many years from 1936 to 1976.[12] Talk-show hostSteve Deace started his broadcast career at WHO.[13]
Until his death in 2013,Jim Zabel remained with WHO as co-host (with Jon Miller ofHawkeyeNation) of theSound Off sports talk show that aired on Saturdays during Hawkeyes seasons, and as co-host ofTwo Guys Named Jim on Sunday nights with formerIowa State University football coachJim Walden.
Future United States PresidentRonald Reagan worked as a sportscaster with WHO from 1932 to 1937.[14] Among his duties were re-creations ofChicago Cubsbaseball games. Reagan received details over ateleprinter for each play and would speak as if he were live from the stadium, improvising details such as facial expressions of players or the color of the sky. This practice was common prior to television.[15]
Around 1935, Reagan became a host on a WHO news show featuring commentary byH. R. Gross, who would later be elected to theUnited States House of Representatives forIowa's 3rd congressional district in 1948. On that show, Reagan also interviewed such celebrities asLeslie Howard andAimee Semple McPherson.[16][17]
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