KGLO (1300 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 ...

licensed to serve

Mason City, Iowa Mason City is a city and the county seat of Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, United States. The population was 27,338 in the 2020 census, a decline from 29,172 in the 2000 census. The Mason City Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of Cerro G ...

. The station is owned by

Alpha Media Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἄλφα, ''álpha'', or ell, άλφα, álfa) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter aleph , whic ...

, through licensee Digity 3E License, LLC. It airs a

news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different media: word of mouth, printing, postal systems, broadcasting, electronic communication, or through the testimony of observers and witnesses to event ...

talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featu ...

format. The station aired an

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

format during the 1980s. The station's call letters reflect the ''

Globe Gazette The ''Globe Gazette'', known locally as the ''Globe,'' is a daily morning newspaper published in Mason City, Iowa in the United States. History The Globe Gazette traces its history back to July 17, 1858, and a weekly newspaper called ''The Cerro ...

'' newspaper. The station began broadcasting in 1938 on the assigned frequency of 1210 kHz. It was owned by Lee Broadcasting, a subsidiary of the owner of the ''Globe Gazette'',

Lee Enterprises Lee Enterprises, Inc. is a publicly traded American media company. It publishes 77 daily newspapers in 26 states, and more than 350 weekly, classified, and specialty publications. Lee Enterprises was founded in 1890 by Alfred Wilson Lee and is b ...

. The founding general manager of KGLO and Lee Broadcasting was Francis C. Eighmey. KGLO began operation with only 250 watts of power. It was the lowest wattage radio station to be included in the CBS Radio Network, but the station served what was recognized as a key market area in the midwest. In the early 1940s, the station was moved to its present frequency of 1300 in order to increase transmitting power. On March 29, 1941, its power was increased to 1,000 watts day and night with a non-directional antenna. The transmitting location was on old Highway 18 just west of Mason City. Shortly thereafter, power was increased to five kilowatts and two flanking towers were added to produce a directional signal at night with deep nulls to the east and west. In 1998, the transmitter was moved to six miles south of Mason City with directional pattern both day and night to provide a better signal over Mason City. The revenue generated by KGLO radio provided for significant corporate expansion. Eighmey began this process with the acquisition of

WTAD WTAD 930 AM is a radio station broadcasting a news talk format. Licensed to Quincy, Illinois, the station is owned by STARadio Corporation. WTAD carries a variety of local programming, as well as nationally syndicated shows such as Laura Ingra ...

Quincy, Illinois Quincy ( ), known as Illinois's "Gem City", is a city in and the county seat of Adams County, Illinois, United States, located on the Mississippi River. The 2020 census counted a population of 39,463 in the city itself, down from 40,633 in 2010. ...

. Additional radio stations were later added in

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. Lee Broadcasting also established KGLO-TV, the area's

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

affiliate, in 1954; that station is now KIMT-TV.KIMT history
/ref> Other television stations were acquired, including KGMB-TV in

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the isla ...

and

KOIN-TV Koin or KOIN may refer to: * KOIN Koin or KOIN may refer to: * KOIN, a TV station in Portland, Oregon * Koin, Guinea See also * Koine (disambiguation) {{dab ..., a TV station in Portland, Oregon * Koin, Guinea See also * Koine (disambi ...

in Portland. In the 1960s, the Lee Newspapers were merged with Lee Broadcasting. The KGLO call letters were assigned to the station by 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 ...

References

External links

KGLO official websiteKGLO's news website
GLO News and talk radio stations in the United States Mason City, Iowa Alpha Media radio stations Radio stations established in 1938 1938 establishments in Iowa {{Iowa-radio-station-stub