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  • 21 Aug, 2019

  • By, Wikipedia

KNWI

KNWI (107.1 FM, "Life 107.1") is a Christian adult contemporary radio station, licensed to Osceola, Iowa, and serving the Des Moines metropolitan area. It is owned and operated by University of Northwestern – St. Paul in Roseville, Minnesota, a religious university which owns a chain of radio stations around the U.S. KNWI also simulcasts on KNWM (96.1 FM) in Madrid, Iowa.

History

The station first signed on the air on October 1, 1982. The call sign was KJJC and the station played country music. It was owned by J. B. Broadcasting, Inc. and it was only powered at 3,000 watts, unable to be heard in the larger Des Moines radio market.

Signal upgrades

Despite targeting Des Moines for decades, the city was outside the station's city-grade contour. In 2018, UNW proposed a modification to KNWI to upgrade it to 100 kW from a tower near Winterset. The move required KDSN-FM 107.1 in Denison to move to 104.9; in order to assure approval, UNW Northwestern subsidiary UNW Media Holdings LLC reached an agreement to buy KDSN-FM and its associated AM KDSN 1530 from Mikadety Radio Corporation for $1.25 million. (In September 2018, UNW Media divested the KDSN stations to JC Van Ginkel, James Field, & Rodney Christensen's Crawford County Broadcasting for $1.15 million.) The frequency changes were approved by the FCC on August 12, 2019. In October 2021, KNWI officially made the upgrade to 100,000 watts, and as a result, KNWM briefly dropped the KNWI simulcast.

References

  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for KNWI". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^ "Facility Technical Data for KNWM". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  3. ^ Broadcasting Yearbook 1983 page B-90
  4. ^ "Station Sales Week Of 9/7: KDSN Gets Divested Soon After Its Acquisition - RadioInsight". RadioInsight. September 7, 2018. Retrieved September 7, 2018.
  5. ^ Ellis, Jon (August 12, 2019). "FCC approves upgrade for Des Moines-area Christian FM". Northpine. Retrieved October 2, 2019.
  6. ^ Ellis, Jon (October 27, 2021). "Central Iowa Contemporary Christian Station Upgrades". NorthPine: Upper Midwest Broadcasting. Retrieved September 6, 2024.