KOWL (1490
AM, "NewsTalk 1490AM") is a
radio station
Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...
licensed to serve
South Lake Tahoe, California, United States. The station, established in 1956, is currently owned by Rothschild Broadcasting LLC.
Programming
KOWL broadcasts a
news
News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the te ...
/
talk radio
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, Interview (jo ...
format including
local news
In journalism, local news refers to coverage of events, by the news, in a local context that would not be of interest to another locality, or otherwise be of national or international scope. Local news, in contrast to national or international new ...
, local talk, hourly updates from
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio broadcaster CBS. It is headquartered in New York City. CBS News television programs include ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs ''CBS News Sunday Morn ...
, and a number of nationally syndicated radio shows.
Weekday syndicated programming includes
talk show
A talk show is a television programming, radio programming or podcast genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show', pp.3-4Erler, Robert (201 ...
s hosted by
Jim Bohannon, conservative pundit
Rush Limbaugh
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III ( ; January 12, 1951 – February 17, 2021) was an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative political commentator who was the host of ''The Rush Limbaugh Show'', which first aired in 1984 and was nati ...
, consumer advocate
Clark Howard, former U.S. Senator
Fred Thompson, medical expert
Dr. Dean Edell, and author
Laura Ingraham, plus ''
Coast To Coast AM'' with
George Noory.
Notable weekend programming includes a block of
big band music and computer advice from ''
The Kim Komando Show''.
History
The beginning
This station signed on in November 1956, broadcasting with 250
watt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...
s of power on a frequency of 1490
kHz, and licensed to serve the community of
Bijou, California.
The new station was assigned the KOWL
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 ...
by 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 ...
.
KOWL owner Robert Burdette also served as the station's first
general manager
A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...
and
program director.
Although the station was licensed to serve Bijou, California, KOWL's later
radio studios were located inside the
Harrah's Stateline Club, a casino in
Stateline, Nevada
Stateline is a census-designated place (CDP) on the southeastern shore of Lake Tahoe in Douglas County, Nevada, Douglas County, Nevada, United States. It lies next to the border with California and is conurbated with South Lake Tahoe, California ...
.
The station's original
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 ...
, a Gates BC-250L "Hi-Watter" AM transmitter, and
broadcast tower
Radio masts and towers are typically tall structures designed to support antennas for telecommunications and broadcasting, including television. There are two main types: guyed and self-supporting structures. They are among the tallest human-m ...
were installed roughly two miles south of the casino in
South Lake Tahoe, California.
The original Gates transmitter now resides at the Western Historic Radio Museum in Virginia City, Nevada.
New ownership
Barely 18 months after it launched, Burdette sold KOWL to Tahoe Broadcasters, Inc., in May 1958.
Ed Frech took the reins as president with John J. Murphy as general manager.
Just five years later, Tahoe Broadcasters, Inc., sold the station to a new company called KOWL, Inc., in a transaction that was consummated on June 1, 1963.
The new owners applied for and, in late 1963, received a
construction permit
Planning permission or building permit refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions.
House building permits, for example, are subject to bu ...
to upgrade their daytime signal to 1,000 watts while leaving the nighttime signal at 250 watts.
In 1968, the station's application for a change in
city of license
In U.S., Canadian, and Mexican broadcasting, a city of license or community of license is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator.
In North American broadcast ...
was granted.
This placed the city of license as the same community where the transmitter shack and broadcast tower had been located all along:
South Lake Tahoe, California.
KOWL broadcast a
middle of the road music format through much of the 1970s with a number of hours taken each week for
country & western
Country (also called country and western) is a music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is primarily focused on singing sto ...
.
By 1978, the format was a blend of MOR and
progressive country, thanks to the influence of the
Bakersfield sound.
In 1979, KOWL, Inc., sold the station to John and Kathleen Parker, Jeanette Merillat and Edward J. Pulaski who formed Pacific Communications, Inc.
The 1980s
In 1983, the station was sold to David Isenberg who formed Isenberg Media Corporation. In the following year, KOWL moved its offices and studios from Harrah's Tahoe to the Tahoe Keys Marina in South Lake Tahoe, California.
In April 1989, Isenberg Media Corporation, through owner David H. Isenberg, reached an agreement to transfer the broadcast license for KOWL to Regency Communications Limited Partnership, of which Isenberg was a member. The shift was approved by the FCC on June 12, 1989. Regency also acquired competitor KRLT 93.9 FM, South Lake Tahoe. Isenberg left the partnership group entirely on September 10, 1990.
The 1990s
In February 1993, the members of the Regency Communications Limited Partnership applied to the FCC to transfer the KOWL broadcast license to Park Lane Regency Radio, Inc. The transfer was approved by the FCC on June 7, 1993. In August 1998, Park Lane Regency Radio, Inc., applied to shift control of KOWL to a new holding company called Regent Licensee of South Lake Tahoe, Inc. The transfer was approved by the FCC on August 13, 1998, and the transaction was consummated on February 10, 1999.
Just a few months later, in July 1999,
Regent Communications subsidiary Regent Licensee of South Lake Tahoe, Inc., reached an agreement to sell KOWL to Commonwealth License Subsidiary, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Commonwealth Communications LLC (Dex Allen, principal).
The deal, which also included FM sister station
KRLT, was valued at a combined sale price of $1.25 million.
The deal was approved by the FCC on August 27, 1999, and the transaction was consummated on November 5, 1999.
KOWL today
In October 2003, Commonwealth Communications, LLC, announced an agreement to sell the stations to Cherry Creek Radio (Joseph D. Schwartz, CEO) holding company CCR-Lake Tahoe IV, LLC, as part of a 24-station deal valued at a reported $41 million.
The deal was approved by the FCC on December 19, 2003, and the transaction was consummated on February 3, 2004. At the time of the sale, the station aired 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 ...
/
sports radio
Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sport, sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often-low comed ...
format.
KOWL and sister station
KRLT were sold by Cherry Creek Radio to D&H Broadcasting LLC effective June 30, 2015; the purchase price for the transaction was $650,000.
It was announced on 11 August 2015, that KOWL was dropping Rush Limbaugh due to his show "repelling advertisers".
In May 2024, D&H Broadcasting LLC filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...
, blaming the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
eliminating its revenue by 80% as part of the decision, as well as failing to reach a $100,000
GoFundMe
GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. From 2010 to the ...
fundraising goal. On September 16, 2024, Rothschild Broadcasting LLC acquired KOWL for $275,000.
History of call letters
The call letters KOWL were previously assigned to an AM station (later KDAY and
KBLA) in
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...
.
[Sies, Luther F. (2014). ''Encyclopedia of American Radio, 1920-1960, 2nd Edition, Volume 1''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 11.]
References
External links
* (
Guide to reading History Cards)
KOWL official website
{{News/Talk Radio Stations in California
OWL
News and talk radio stations in the United States
Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2024
Radio stations established in 1956
El Dorado County, California
1956 establishments in California