KWYO (1410 AM) is a

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission 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 radio ...

broadcasting a

Classic Country Classic country is a music radio format that specializes in playing mainstream country and western music hits from past decades. Repertoire The radio format specializes in hits from the 1950s through the early 1980s, and focus primarily on innov ...

music format. Licensed to

Sheridan, Wyoming Sheridan is a town in the U.S. state of Wyoming and the county seat of Sheridan County. The town is located halfway between Yellowstone Park and Mount Rushmore by U.S. Route 14 and 16. It is the principal town of the Sheridan, Wyoming, Micropol ...

, United States, the station is currently owned by Lovcom, Inc. and features programming 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 ...

. All Lovcom stations are located in the Sheridan Media Radio Center, at 1716 KROE Lane on Sheridan's east side.

History

KWYO signed on the air for the first time on Monday, July 9,

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...

at 7:00pm, becoming

's first radio station. (KWYO is the second oldest radio station in

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

, behind KTWO in

Casper Casper may refer to: People * Casper (given name) * Casper (surname) * Casper (Maya ruler) (422–487?), ruler of the Mayan city of Palenque * Tok Casper, first known king of Maya city-state Quiriguá in Guatemala, ruling beginning in 426 * David ...

, which signed on as KDFN in 1930.) The original studio location was on the second floor of the Carroll's Furniture Store at 340 N. Main. During its early years, KWYO operated only at various times of the day, generally closing down in the afternoon from 1pm to 5pm. Between 1934 and 1941, the station increased its air time to a 17½ hour broadcast day. In 1941, the power was increased from 100 to 1000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of 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 quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

s and KWYO moved from 1370 to 1410 on the AM dial. In 1949, the studios were moved to the upper floor of the Gillette building at 21 North Main Street, and another move to 140 East Loucks occurred in 1961. In 1977, the power was increased to 5,000 watts. A sister FM station, KLWD (now

KYTI KYTI (93.7 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a country music format. Licensed to Sheridan, Wyoming, United States. The station is currently owned by Lovcom, Inc. and features programming from Westwood One. All Lovcom stations are located in th ...

), signed on at 96.5FM in 1978. In the mid 80s, the studios were relocated again, and throughout most of the 1990s, the programming originated from the 2nd floor of an office building at 2 North Main. In 1997, KWYO's studios were relocated to the Sheridan Media building at 1716 KROE Lane. In 2017, KWYO began simulcasting programming at 106.9 FM on translator K295CP.

Programming

KWYO began operation with 2,000

phonograph A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

records ranging from grand opera to jazz. Through the 80s and 90s the station played country music from records and

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then rele ...

. When the studios moved to the Sheridan Media building the format on KWYO was changed to

Westwood One Westwood One is an American radio network There are two types of radio network currently in use around the world: the one-to-many (simplex communication) broadcast network commonly used for public information and mass-media entertainment, and ...

's satellite-delivered " Adult Standards." Several years later, the music lineup was revamped slightly with a move to

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

's "Memories" format, and then again when that satellite format was dropped in favor of a

Waitt Radio Networks Dial Global Local (formerly Waitt Radio Networks) was a national radio network based in Omaha, Nebraska, formerly owned by NRG Media and purchased in April 2008 by Triton Radio Networks. As a subsidiary of Dial Global, they specialized in 24-ho ...

provided Adult Contemporary format. At 1pm on January 29, 2008, the format was changed to " Oldies Plus," also provided by Waitt Radio Networks. A few years later, it was switched again to a Classic Country format provided by Westwood One. In addition to music, KWYO broadcasts Sheridan City Council meetings, and provides live play-by-play of Sheridan area football and basketball games. The station was an ABC News affiliate for many decades, but switched to

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...

in the mid 2010s.

References

External links

KWYO official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kwyo WYO Classic country radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1934 1934 establishments in Wyoming