KEOM (88.5 FM) is a non-commercial educational

high school radio High school radio are radio stations located at high schools and usually operated by its students with faculty supervision. The oldest extant high school AM radio station is AM 1450 KBPS in Portland, Oregon. Portland radio station KBPS, first li ...

station based in

Mesquite, Texas Mesquite is a suburban city located east of the city of Dallas, Texas, in the United States. Most of the city is located in Dallas County, though a small portion extends into Kaufman County. As of 2019 census estimates, the population was ...

. It is operated by the

Mesquite Independent School District The Mesquite Independent School District is a school district in Mesquite, Texas ( USA) (incorporating most of Mesquite and portions of Balch Springs, Dallas, Garland, and Seagoville, as well as formerly serving all high school students of Su ...

and broadcasts to the greater Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex. KEOM broadcasts in HD Radio.

History

The station was founded by Dr. Ralph Poteet, former MISD Superintendent, to present community information in a way not possible via

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. It was the United States′ first model of radio (a ...

stations, and to provide MISD students having interest in radio and communications with hands-on radio experience. The air staff is primarily made up of students from the five high schools in the city taking radio production classes. The station signed on the air September 4, 1984, on 88.3 FM with 3,000 watts on a tower. It moved to 88.5 and increased its power to 61,000 watts in 1992 upon the completion of a new City/School Communications Tower at Mesquite Memorial Stadium.

Programming

KEOM airs live broadcasts of high school sports from MISD schools. The station also broadcasts music primarily from the 1970s to the 1990s. KEOM is a station that signs on the air every day at 7 a.m. with the National Anthem. KEOM is one of a few secondary stations containing the North Texas

Emergency Alert System The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national warning system in the United States designed to allow authorized officials to broadcast emergency alerts and warning messages to the public via cable, satellite, or broadcast television, and bot ...

that sends messages from primaries WBAP and

KSCS KSCS (96.3 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Fort Worth, Texas, and serving the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. The station is owned by Cumulus Media and broadcasts a hot country music radio format. The studios are in the Victory Par ...

. Comparing KEOM and KLUV, its competitor in the Dallas area, the station contains a more enhanced and larger playlist than KLUV, the other Classic Hits station utilizing significantly more repetitions and having a more power songs-oriented playlist than KEOM.

Awards and honors

The station was named "Best Blast from the Past" in the 2007 ''

Dallas Observer ''Dallas Observer'' is a free digital and print publication based in Dallas, Texas. The ''Observer'' publishes daily online coverage of local news, restaurants, music, and arts, as well as longform narrative journalism. A weekly print issue circ ...

'' "Best of Dallas" rankings.

Signal

Unlike most of the area's FM stations like competitor KLUV, which transmit their signals from Cedar Hill, KEOM transmits its signal from an area southwest of Mesquite. Therefore, KEOM's signal is much stronger in most of

Dallas County Dallas County may refer to: Places in the USA: * Dallas County, Alabama, founded in 1818, the first county in the United States by that name * Dallas County, Arkansas * Dallas County, Iowa * Dallas County, Missouri * Dallas County, Texas, the nin ...

as well as the cities in the eastern portion of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex including

Waxahachie Waxahachie ( ) is the seat of government of Ellis County, Texas, United States. Its population was 41,140 in 2020. Etymology Some sources state that the name means "cow" or "buffalo" in an unspecified Native American language. One possible ...

McKinney McKinney is a city in and the county seat of Collin County, Texas. It is Collin County's third-largest city, after Plano and Frisco. A suburb of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, McKinney is about north of Dallas. The U.S. Census Bureau lis ...

, and

Terrell Terrell, Terell, Terrel, or Terrelle may refer to: Places United States *Terrell, Georgia, unincorporated community *Terrell, North Carolina, unincorporated community in Catawba County, North Carolina, United States *Terrell, Texas, city in Kau ...

to as far east as Canton, but is considerably weaker west of DFW.

References

External links