KGLO (1300 AM) is a

commercial radio Commercial broadcasting (also called private broadcasting) is the broadcasting of television programs and radio programming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship, for example. It was the United States' first model ...

station in

Mason City, Iowa Mason City is a city and the county seat of Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, United States. The population was 27,338 in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Mason City is known for its musical heritage, a significant ...

, owned by

Alpha Media Alpha Media LLC is a radio broadcasting company based in Portland, Oregon, and led by Bob Proffitt. The group does business under the Alpha Media name. It was formed from the merger of Alpha Broadcasting, L&L Broadcasting, and Main Line Broadc ...

, through licensee Alpha 3E Licensee LLC. It airs a

news/talk Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, interviews ...

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

. The station's studios and offices are on South Yorktown Pike in eastern Mason City. KGLO is a Class B AM station, powered at 5,000 watts. It uses a

directional antenna A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna that radiates or receives greater radio wave power in specific directions. Directional antennas can radiate radio waves in beams, when greater concentration of radiation in a certain directio ...

with a three-

tower array A tower array is an arrangement of multiple radio towers which are mast radiators in a phased array. They were originally developed as ground-based tracking radars. Tower arrays can consist of free-standing or guyed towers or a mix of them. Tower ...

. Its

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

is on 200th Street near Partridge Avenue (

U.S. Route 65 U.S. Route 65 (US 65) is a north–south United States highway in the southern and midwestern United States. The southern terminus of the route is at U.S. Route 425 in Clayton, Louisiana. The northern terminus is at Interstate 35 just south of I ...

), about three miles south of Mason City.

Programming

KGLO's weekday schedule consists of

nationally syndicated Broadcast syndication is the practice of content owners leasing the right to broadcast their content to other television stations or radio stations, without having an official broadcast network to air it on. It is common in the United States whe ...

talk shows: ''

The Ramsey Show ''The Ramsey Show'' (formerly known as ''The Dave Ramsey Show'' and ''The Money Game'') is an American self-syndicated radio program hosted by finance author Dave Ramsey and a rotating group of co-hosts, that airs Monday through Friday from 2:0 ...

with

Dave Ramsey David Lawrence Ramsey III (born September 3, 1960) is an American radio personality who offers financial advice. He is the founder and CEO of Ramsey Solutions and a co-host of '' The Ramsey Show'', a nationally syndicated radio program. He ...

, Markley, Van Camp & Robbins,

The Sean Hannity Show ''The Sean Hannity Show'' is a conservative talk radio show hosted by Sean Hannity. The program is broadcast live every weekday, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET. The show is produced in the New York City studios of radio station WOR and is transmitt ...

, Ground Zero with Clyde Lewis'' and ''

Coast to Coast AM ''Coast to Coast AM'' is an American late-night radio talk show that deals with a variety of topics. Most frequently the topics relate to either the paranormal or conspiracy theories. It was hosted by creator Art Bell from its inception in 198 ...

with

George Noory George Ralph Noory (born June 4, 1950) is an American talk radio, radio talk show host. Since January 2003, Noory has been the weekday host of the late-night radio talk show ''Coast to Coast AM''. The program is radio syndication, syndicated to ...

''. It also carries

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The team is named afte ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

games. Most hours begin with an update from

CBS News Radio CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. It ...

History

Globe Gazette newspaper

KGLO

signed on A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio broadcasting, radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonw ...

the air on , and was the first radio station legally licensed to Mason City. Originally it was assigned the frequency of 1210

kilocycle The cycle per second is a once-common English name for the unit of frequency now known as the ''hertz'' (Hz). Cycles per second may be denoted by c.p.s., c/s, or, ambiguously, just "cycles" (Cyc., Cy., C, or c). The term comes from repetitive ph ...

s. It was owned by

Lee Enterprises Lee Enterprises, Inc. is a publicly traded American media company. It publishes 72 daily newspapers in 25 states, and more than 350 weekly, classified, and specialty publications. Lee Enterprises was founded in 1890 by Alfred Wilson Lee and is b ...

, which also owned the ''Globe Gazette''. The

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

derives from the daily newspaper's name. The founding general manager of KGLO and Lee Broadcasting was Francis C. Eighmey. KGLO began operation with only 250 watts of power by day and 100 watts at night. It was the lowest wattage radio station to be an

affiliate Affiliation or affiliate may refer to: * Affiliate (commerce), a legal form of entity relationship used in Business Law * Affiliation (family law), a legal form of family relationship * Affiliate marketing * Affiliate network or affiliation platfo ...

of the

CBS Radio Network CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. It ...

, but the station served what was recognized as a key market area in the

Midwest The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

Signal upgrade

In the early 1940s, the station moved to its present frequency of 1300 kHz, coupled with a power upgrade. On March 29, 1941, power was increased to 1,000 watts day and night with a

non-directional antenna In radio communication, an omnidirectional antenna is a class of antenna which radiates equal radio power in all directions perpendicular to an axis (azimuthal directions), with power varying with angle to the axis (elevation angle), declining t ...

. The transmitter was on old Highway 18 just west of Mason City. Shortly thereafter, power was increased to 5,000 watts and two flanking towers were added to produce a directional signal at night with deep nulls to the east and west. In 1998, the transmitter was moved to six miles south of Mason City with directional pattern both day and night to provide a better signal over Mason City. The revenue generated by KGLO radio provided for significant corporate expansion. Eighmey began this process with the acquisition of

WTAD WTAD (930 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Quincy, Illinois and owned by STARadio Corporation. WTAD broadcasts a news talk format. It carries a variety of local programming, as well as nationally syndicated shows such as Laura In ...

Quincy, Illinois Quincy ( ) is a city in Adams County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. Located on the Mississippi River, the population was 39,463 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 40,633 in 2010. The Quincy, Illinois, mic ...

. Additional radio stations were later added in

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

. Lee Broadcasting established KGLO-TV, the area's

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

affiliate, in 1954. That station is now KIMT-TV. Other television stations were acquired, including KGMB-TV in

Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

and

KOIN-TV KOIN (channel 6) is a television station in Portland, Oregon, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Salem–licensed CW owned-and-operated station KRCW-TV (channel 32). The two stations share studi ...

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

Full Service and News-Talk

In the 1960s, the Lee Newspapers were merged with Lee Broadcasting, becoming

. As network programming shifted from radio to television, KGLO began a

full service Full service or Full Service may refer to: Entertainment Books * ''Full Service'' (book), a 2012 memoir by Scotty Bowers * '' Full Service No Waiting'', a 1998 album by Peter Case Music * "Full Service", a song by the New Kids on the Block fr ...

, middle of the road format of popular adult music, news, sports and farm reports. In August 1977, the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

(FCC) ruled that one company could not own all the media outlets in a city, forcing Lee Enterprises to break up its cluster in Mason City. As a result, KGLO-TV and KGLO radio were separated with the latter's sale to B-Y Communications. The station shifted to

adult contemporary music Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, sou ...

in the 1980s. By the 1990s, listeners were tuning to FM radio stations for music, so KGLO made the transition to all-talk with frequent news, sports and farm reports. James Ingstad Broadcasting bought the station in March 1990.

Cumulus Broadcasting Cumulus Media, Inc. is a broadcasting company of the United States and is the second largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States ahead of Audacy and behind iHeartMedia. As of June 2019, Cumulus lists ownership ...

bought the station in 1998, then sold it to

Clear Channel Communications iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc., formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc., a company founded by ...

in 2000. In 2007, Clear Channel sold the station to Three Eagles Broadcasting.''

Broadcasting & Cable ''Broadcasting & Cable'' (''B&C'', or ''Broadcasting+Cable'') was a telecommunications industry monthly trade magazine and, later, news website published by Future US. Founded in 1931 as ''Broadcasting'', subsequent mergers, acquisitions and ...

Yearbook 2010''
page D-222
Retrieved October 9, 2023. In 2014, KGLO was sold to Digity, LLC. Two years later, Alpha Media acquired Digity, LLC, including KGLO, for $264 million. Longtime morning show host Tim Fleming, who had been with KGLO since 1977, was let go from the station in May 2024 due to nationwide staffing cuts initiated by Alpha Media. In addition, longtime news director Bob Fisher was also let go, and

Mason City High School Mason City High School is a state school, public high school in the Mason City Community School District. It is within the city of Mason City, Iowa, United States. It is located in Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, Cerro Gordo County. The school colors ...

sports broadcasts were dropped.The Programming/On-Air Purges Across Alpha Media Show No Signs Of Stopping
/ref>

References

External links

* {{Alpha Media 1938 establishments in Iowa Alpha Media radio stations Mason City, Iowa News and talk radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1938 GLO