KXIC (800
kHz) is a
commercial
Commercial may refer to:
* a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television)
** Radio advertisement
** Television advertisement
* (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...
AM 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 radi ...
licensed
A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit).
A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...
to
Iowa City, Iowa
Iowa City, offically the City of Iowa City is a city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States. It is the home of the University of Iowa and county seat of Johnson County, at the center of the Iowa City Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the tim ...
, and serving the
Cedar Rapids area as well as
Johnson County. The station is owned by
iHeartMedia and licensed to iHM Licenses, LLC. It airs a
sports radio
Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often- boisterous on ...
format, with some news and talk shows. Most programming comes from
Fox Sports Radio.
KXIC operates on 800 kHz, a
clear channel frequency reserved for
XEROK in
Ciudad Juárez,
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
. As a result, it reduces power at night from 1,000 watts to 199; prior to 1986, it broadcast during the daytime only. It uses a directional antenna for both daytime and nighttime operation.
History
The Johnson County Broadcasting Corporation received a construction permit for a new daytime-only radio station in Iowa City from the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...
on December 15, 1947.
The permittee was formed by four war veterans, two with prior involvement at
WSUI
WSUI (910 AM) is a public radio station in Iowa City, Iowa. It is operated by the University of Iowa and is a member of Iowa Public Radio's news network. Its signal serves most of eastern Iowa. WSUI is one of two National Public Radio member ...
and two employed other stations in the region and sought to bring the first commercial station to Iowa City (WSUI is owned by the
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...
). KXIC began broadcasting on June 6, 1948, as an independent outlet. The station was the originating outlet for radio broadcasts of
Iowa Hawkeyes football, feeding a statewide network for decades; Gene Claussen called games until the 1980s, when the Hawkeyes consolidated their network under one broadcast originating at
WHO
Who or WHO may refer to:
* Who (pronoun), an interrogative or relative pronoun
* Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism
* World Health Organization
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* Who, a creature in the Dr. Seuss book '' Horton He ...
. George M. Ludwig, a state representative and father of space scientist
George H. Ludwig, served as KXIC's farm editor for 11 years before his death in 1959. While he was in college at the University of Iowa, future NBC newsman
Tom Pettit
William Thomas Pettit (April 23, 1931 – December 22, 1995) was an American journalist, who was a television news correspondent for NBC from the 1960s through 1995. During most of that period, he filed reports for ''NBC Nightly News'' (as well ...
worked at KXIC.
In the 1960s,
Interstate 80 was constructed in Iowa. For several years, KXIC protested the condemnation of part of its transmitter site land for use to build the new highway, as the 8.47 acres of land seized was crucial to the station's future plans to increase power from 1,000 to 5,000 watts. The radio station had initially been awarded $13,200 by a commission seizing land for the interstate, but it appealed the award, asking for $75,000 and later $100,000. The case reached the
Iowa Supreme Court
The Iowa Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Iowa. The Court is composed of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices.
The Court holds its regular sessions in Des Moines in the Iowa Judicial Branch Building located at 1111 ...
before it was returned to Johnson County district court, where a jury awarded the station $53,250; the higher court overturned the award because it included inadmissible evidence about a power increase it felt was infeasible. After the interstate was built, studies were conducted to ensure that lighting on the nearby interchange with Dubuque Street did not interfere with KXIC's operation.
With the door shut on an increase to 5,000 watts, KXIC opted to expand into FM broadcasting. In May 1966,
KXIC-FM 100.7 signed on. In addition to a new FM station, KXIC constructed expanded studios at the transmitter site.
After more than three decades of broadcasting, the Johnson County Broadcasting Company sold KXIC and the FM station, at that time known as KICG, to Tom Ingstad's Red River Valley Broadcasting Corporation in 1979 for $975,000. In the early 1980s, the station jettisoned its longtime full-service
middle of the road format
to take on country music sound; KXIC then adopted the syndicated
Music of Your Life
Music of Your Life is an American syndicated music radio format featuring adult standards music. First created by recording executive Al Ham in 1978, the format achieved popularity in the 1980s among AM radio stations in the United States and C ...
oldies/adult standards format in 1984. Two years later, in September 1986, KXIC was allowed to broadcast at night for the first time, picking up
NBC Talknet
NBC Talknet was a nighttime programming block on the NBC Radio Network from the 1980s to the 1990s. It comprised several advice-oriented call-in talk shows, the most notable personalities being Bruce Williams and Sally Jessy Raphael. At a time ...
programs. Several months later, KXIC flipped to
classic hits
Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes songs from the top 40 music charts from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, with music from the 1980s serving as the core of the format. Music that was popularized by MTV in the early 1980 ...
.
Ingstad reached a deal to sell KXIC and KKRQ to Heartland Media, a group headed by Ron Hamilton, in 1987 for $2.3 million. The transaction, however, never closed, and it was not until 1997 that Ingstad would sell the pair to
Jacor
Jacor Communications was a media corporation, existing between 1987 and 1999, which owned many radio stations in the United States. In 1998, Jacor was purchased by Clear Channel Communications, now iHeartMedia, for $2.8 billion.
Jacor Communica ...
for $8 million, with KXIC having moved to its present news/talk format. Through all of the changes in KXIC history, one fixture remained constant: a daily 15-minute show hosted by
Dottie Ray, who had been at the station since 1956 and began the daily show in 1959, hosting the show for 55 years until 2014 and interviewing 32,397 guests on more than 14,000 broadcasts.
Her show had survived the Ingstad purchase when advertisers pulled their support upon the announcement of the program's cancellation, prompting its restoration.
References
External links
KXIC official website
{{IHeartMedia
XIC
News and talk radio stations in the United States
Iowa City, Iowa
Radio stations established in 1948
1948 establishments in Iowa
IHeartMedia radio stations