KRVN 880 is an 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 radio ...

Lexington, Nebraska Lexington is a city in Dawson County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 10,348 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Dawson County. Lexington is located in southern Nebraska, on the Platte River, southeast of North Platte. It s ...

and serving most of the rural central and western part of the state. The station features agricultural news programming during the day and

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 ...

at night. KRVN is one of two 50,000-watt stations in Nebraska, the other being

KFAB KFAB (1110 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Omaha, Nebraska, with studios and offices on Underwood Avenue in Omaha. It broadcasts a talk radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. KFAB is a Class A clear channel station, operatin ...

in Omaha. It is the second-most powerful station in the state; unlike KFAB, it is not a

clear-channel A clear-channel station is an AM radio station in North America that has the highest protection from interference from other stations, particularly concerning night-time skywave propagation. The system exists to ensure the viability of cross-cou ...

, Class A station, but it does operate on a clear-channel frequency, on which WCBS in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

is the dominant station. KRVN broadcasts from a four-tower antenna array located in the middle of cornfields near

Holdrege, Nebraska Holdrege is a city in Phelps County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 5,495 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Phelps County. The Nebraska Prairie Museum is located in Holdrege. History Holdrege was established in 1883 whe ...

. KRVN is Nebraska's primary entry point station for the

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 ...

. Due to its transmitter power and central Nebraska's flat land (with near-perfect

ground conductivity Ground conductivity refers to the electrical conductivity of the subsurface of the earth. In the International System of Units (SI) it is measured in millisiemens per meter (mS/m). Radio propagation Ground conductivity is an extremely importan ...

), KRVN boasts one of the largest coverage areas in the Western United States. During the day, tower #3 radiates the transmitter's full power to almost all of Nebraska's densely populated area, as well as more than half of

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

and northeastern

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. At night, power is fed to all four towers to provide a directional signal aimed to the west to protect WCBS. This results in the second-largest city within its coverage area, Kearney, only getting a grade B signal; a translator at 106.9 FM is used to make up for this shortfall. Even with this arrangement, it is able to cover western Nebraska, northwestern Kansas, northeastern Colorado, and most of the Dakotas. KRVN is a member of the

Nebraska Cornhuskers The Nebraska Cornhuskers (often abbreviated to Huskers) are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The university is a member of the Big Ten Conference, and the Cornhuskers compete in NCAA Divis ...

radio network. The KRVN network is unique in that it is owned and operated by a

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

of farmers and ranchers, the

Nebraska Rural Radio Association The Nebraska Rural Radio Association is a radio broadcast network in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It was formed in 1948 with the goal of bringing information to farmers and ranchers in the state, including daily grain and livestock markets, weather ...

. It was founded in 1948, opening its first station, KRVN, in 1951. It was originally located at 1010 AM, broadcasting with 10,000 watts. In 1972, it moved to its current frequency and boosted its transmitting power to 50,000 watts; the lower dial position and stronger transmitter enabled it to serve more of central Nebraska's farmers.NRRA timeline
/ref> The NRRA launched a sister music station with a similar callsign, KRVN-FM (River 93.1), in 1962.

References

External links

About KRVN
– Includes a timeline of developments of the Nebraska Rural Radio Association's network
FCC History Cards for KRVN
RVN (AM) News and talk radio stations in the United States {{Nebraska-radio-station-stub