KKOB (AM)

KKOB (770 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station, licensed to Albuquerque, New Mexico and owned by Cumulus Media. Its news/talk format is branded as "96.3 Newsradio KKOB", reflecting a simulcast with co-owned KKOB-FM (96.3 FM. Studios and offices are located in Downtown Albuquerque. KKOB is the oldest station in New Mexico, and is the state's primary entry point for the Emergency Alert System.

KKOB's transmitter site is off Second Street NW in North Valley. It is a Class B facility, operating around the clock with 50,000 watts, the maximum allowed in the United States by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). During the daytime, it uses a non-directional signal that reaches most of New Mexico's populated areas, as well as parts of Colorado and Arizona. At night, it uses a directional antenna, primarily to limit its signal to the east in the direction of WABC in New York City, the primary Class A station on 770 AM. With a good radio KKOB can be heard at night across much of the western half of North America. To compensate for KKOB's loss of signal at night in Santa Fe, since 1986, it has been simulcast on 770 kHz by a 230 watt experimental synchronous transmitter located in that city."For the Record: Facilities Changes"
''Broadcasting'', September 1, 1986, page 105.

Programming

KKOB-AM-FM provide local news and weather updates around the clock, traffic "on the 7's" and national news updates from ABC News Radio. Its weekday schedule features mostly local talk shows in the daytime including Bob Clark in morning drive time, Brandon Vogt middays, TJ Trout afternoons and Eric Strauss in the evening. The rest of the schedule is nationally syndicated talk radio hosts Dan Bongino, Mark Levin, Red Eye Radio and America in The Morning.

Weekends includes shows on money, health, home repair, gardening and technology, some of which are paid brokered programming. Syndicated shows on weekends include Jim Bohannon, Chris Plante, Ric Edelman and Bill Cunningham.

Sports

KKOB broadcasts University of New Mexico Lobos basketball and football games. Some other Lobo sports can also be heard on co-owned sports radio station KNML.

History

Early years

KOB was first licensed as a broadcasting station in April 1922. However, the person most responsible for its founding, Ralph Willis Goddard, by this time already had extensive experience with radio. Goddard was the dean of the Engineering School at New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (now New Mexico State University) in State College, New Mexico, near Las Cruces. Goddard headed the school's Radio Club, and in the spring of 1920, arranged for the university to be issued a license for an experimental radio station, which was issued the call sign 5XD. In addition to experimental work, this station was used for such things as reporting sport scores. Eventually the station expanded from its initial Morse code transmissions to include audio programs, including entertainment broadcasts.

Initially, there were no formal standards for radio stations making broadcasts intended for the general public. However, effective December 1, 1921, the United States Department of Commerce, which supervised radio at this time, issued a regulation requiring that stations making broadcasts intended for the general public now had to operate under a "Limited Commercial" license. On April 5, 1922, the university was issued a broadcasting station license with the randomly assigned call letters KOB.

The 1928 passage of the Davis Amendment