KVCU AM 1190, branded Radio 1190, is a
college radio
Campus radio (also known as college radio, university radio or student radio) is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively created or produced ...
station affiliated with the
University of Colorado Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado syst ...
. Operated by CU since 1998, the station broadcasts from studios in the basement of the University Memorial Center on the CU campus.
History
As a commercial station
The Brocade Broadcasting Company (later changed to Brokade Broadcasting), owned by Enid C. Pepperd and Dona B. West, obtained a construction permit from the FCC for a new daytime-only radio station in Boulder on November 6, 1972, nearly four years after filing for the station in February 1969.
The station signed on November 1, with middle of the road music and news programming. The format was short-lived, the station lost money, and the owners wanted out; a sales manager, Dan Skibitsky, persuaded Brokade to change the format to progressive rock. Though the format flip brought more interest, a sale was still in the cards. Two years after launching, Brocade sold the station to the Greenlee and Gawne families, trading as Centennial Wireless, for $220,000. In 1979, the station was granted approval to increase power to 5,000 watts. Two years later, the Greenlees then acquired KRNW (97.3 FM), which they relaunched as freeform rocker and
adult album alternative
Adult album alternative (also triple-A, AAA, or adult alternative) is a radio format. See pages 9 and 10Mills, Joshua. "A New Radio Music Format: Rock for Prosperous Adults" New York Times, Feb 28 1994, p. 2. ProQuest. Web. Accessed September 4, 2 ...
format pioneer
KBCO
KBCO (97.3 FM) is a radio station in Denver that is licensed to Boulder, Colorado. Owned by iHeartMedia, it broadcasts an adult album alternative (AAA) format.
Its studios are located alongside its sister stations in southeast Denver, while it ...
.
KADE became KBCO in 1985, and two years later, the Greenlees sold the pair to Noble Broadcast Group in a $27.25 million transaction. Up until then a low-rated simulcast of the FM, the station changed to talk in 1995 as "KHOW2", a brand extension of co-owned
KHOW
KHOW (630 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Denver, Colorado, and serving the Denver metropolitan area. The station is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. KHOW is one of three iHeart-owned stations in Denver with a news/talk radio format. C ...
(630 AM). Noble owned the stations until it was purchased by
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 ...
in 1996.
Donation to CU
In mid-1997, Jacor offered the 1190 AM facility to the University of Colorado—as a donation. CU had not owned a broadcast station in nearly 75 years; from 1922 to 1925, the university had operated KFAJ, which conducted experiments and supported instruction in radio communications, but which was unlistenable at any time
KOA was broadcasting and was thus closed. At the time, the university's carrier-current station could not even be heard in all campus dormitories. Jacor had good reason to make the donation: it needed to divest a station if it wanted to acquire
KTCL
KTCL (93.3 FM) is a radio station licensed to Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Owned by iHeartMedia, it broadcasts an alternative rock format targeting the Denver metro area. Its studios are located alongside iHeartMedia's other Denver stations at 4695 ...
in
Fort Collins
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
, another FM station the company was already programming in the region, as it owned a full complement of eight stations in the Denver market.
The station went off air in January 1998 to prepare for the transfer, and under the new call letters KVCU, it signed on November 4 of the same year. The new outlet aired a combination of student output and programs from volunteer DJs—60 of them by 2001.
For the first time since breaking from its simulcast with KBCO-FM in 1995, 1190 AM's programming began being heard on FM in 2016, when the station debuted on an FM translator (K255DA at 98.9 MHz, now K251CV on 98.1) in Boulder.
As of March 2021, K251CV relays the HD3 sub-channel of
KQKS
KQKS (107.5 FM, KS107.5) is a Rhythmic Top 40 radio station, licensed to Lakewood, Colorado. It is owned by Audacy, Inc. and serves the Denver-Boulder metropolitan area. KQKS's current slogan is ''#1 For Today's Hottest Music'', referring ...
. (KVCU currently airs on translator K284BY (104.7 FM), licensed to
Erie
Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 a ...
.)
References
External links
University of Colorado Student Government
{{coord, 39, 57, 53, N, 105, 14, 07, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title
VCU
University of Colorado Boulder
VCU
Radio stations established in 1973
1973 establishments in Colorado