KHAK (98.1 FM) 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 ...

that broadcasts a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

format to the Cedar Rapids-

Iowa City 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 time ...

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

area. Licensed to Cedar Rapids, the station is currently owned by

Townsquare Media Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wi ...

. KHAK's studios are located in the Alliant Energy Building on Second Street SE in Cedar Rapids, and its transmitter is located near US-30/ US-151 and Ivanhoe Road on the south side of Cedar Rapids.

History

KHAK is one of the top-ranked radio stations in the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Market. It is based in the Cedar Rapids Market, but it is heard in the Waterloo- Cedar Falls and

Quad Cities The Quad Cities is a region of cities (originally four, see History) in the U.S. states of Iowa and Illinois: Davenport and Bettendorf in southeastern Iowa, and Rock Island, Moline and East Moline in northwestern Illinois. These cities are t ...

markets as well in spots. Townsquare Media is the owner of the station, as well as its sister stations

KRNA KRNA (94.1 MHz) is a classic rock-formatted radio station licensed to Iowa City, Iowa. The station is currently owned by Townsquare Media. KRNA's studios located in the Alliant Energy Building in Downtown Cedar Rapids, and their transmitter ...

KRQN KRQN (107.1 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a Regional Mexican format. Licensed to Vinton, Iowa, United States, the station serves the Cedar Rapids area. The station is owned by George S. Flinn, Jr., and is programmed by Gorilla Broadcast ...

, and

KDAT KDAT (104.5 FM) is a radio station broadcasting an Adult Contemporary music format. Licensed to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the station serves the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City area. The station is currently owned by Townsquare Media. KDAT's studios are located ...

. The Cedar Rapids allocation for 98.1 FM signed on in 1961, alongside its AM sister station at 1360 AM, both taking on the call letters KHAK. Both stations formatted country music—although not exclusively until sometime later in the 1960s—and for many years the FM signal duplicated from the AM frequency.

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, 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 org ...

athletics were also a mainstay for many years. This setup continued for many years, until some point in the mid-1990s when KHAK-AM changed its format to

contemporary Christian Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is o ...

as KTOF-AM, and was a simulcast of KWOF in

Hiawatha, Iowa Hiawatha is a city in Linn County, Iowa, United States. It is a suburb located in the northwestern side of Cedar Rapids and is part of the Cedar Rapids Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 7,183 at the time of the 2020 census, an in ...

; KHAK-FM's country format remains to this day. On August 30, 2013, a deal was announced in which Townsquare Media would acquire 53

Cumulus Media Cumulus Media, Inc. is an American broadcasting company and is the third largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States behind Audacy and iHeartMedia. As of June 2019, Cumulus lists ownership of 428 stations in 87 ...

stations, including KHAK, for $238 million. The deal is part of Cumulus' acquisition of

Dial Global Westwood One is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming. The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1978. The company ...

; Townsquare and Dial Global are both controlled by

Oaktree Capital Management Oaktree Capital Management is an American global asset management firm specializing in alternative investment strategies. As of March 31, 2022, the company managed $164 billion for its clientele. The firm was co-founded in 1995 by a group that ...

. The sale to Townsquare was completed on November 14, 2013.

References

External links

Country radio stations in the United States Townsquare Media radio stations HAK {{Iowa-radio-station-stub