Nebraska History Archive Presentation:
In 1984 Mitchell Broadcasting Company was granted a construction permit for a brand new radio station. Licensed to Bellevue, NE the station at 1180 would serve the Omaha area with 24 hour news programming. The station finally went on the air in 1987 as K-KAR.
in 1993 Mitchell Broadcasting purchased 1290 KOIL and placed the news/talk format on the better signal. At about the same time, 1180 applied for a power upgrade to 25KW.
Following the move to 1290, KKAR and KOIL swapped call letters and 1180 became KOIL, with a Nostalgia format. The format didn't last, and when ESPN radio came to town, it was on 1180 KOIL.
In the 1990's the FCC opened up a new part of the AM band from 1610-1700. Certain stations were allowed to apply for these new frequencies, with the understanding that the original stations would go off the air in 5 years. 1180 was allocated an "expanded band" frequency at 1620 and ESPN programming moved to 1620 when it signed on in September of 1999.
The ESPN format on 1180 was replaced by Radio Disney (still under the ownership of Mitchell). The Mitchell stations became part of Waitt Radio under and were moved to 50th & Capitol in November of 2000.
In order to preserve the heritage call letters of KOIL, they were moved to Waitt's 1020 signal in April of 2003. 1180 then became KYDZ.
When expanded band allocations were granted, stations were allowed to operate their new and existing frequencies for a period of 5 years. At that time, one would have to be surrendered.
On January 2nd, 2006 Waitt/NRG moved the Radio Disney format to 1020. At midnight on February 28th 1180 went silent forever.
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