WHO (1040 kHz "Newsradio 1040") is a commercial AM radio station in Des Moines, Iowa, United States. The station is owned by iHeartMedia and carries a conservative news/talkradio format, with studios on Grand Avenue in Des Moines.
WHO dates back to the early days of broadcasting and is a Class Aclear-channel station. The station is one of only two 50,000-watt AM radio stations in Iowa. The other is KXEL in Waterloo. However, WHO was originally a Class I-A, while KXEL was given Class I-B status, requiring a directional antenna at night, to avoid interfering with the other Class I-B station on 1540, ZNS-1 in Nassau, Bahamas. Due to WHO's high power and Iowa's flat land (with excellent soil conductivity), it has an unusually large daytime coverage area, equivalent to a full-power FM station. It provides at least secondary coverage to almost all of Iowa, as well as parts of Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, Wisconsin, Minnesota and South Dakota. At night, it can be heard at night across much of North America with a good radio, but is strongest in the Central United States.
WHO broadcasts its local shows from the Iowa State Fair for the duration of that event.
History
Early years
WHO began broadcasting on April 10, 1924.[6] The station was originally owned by Bankers Life, which is now the Principal Financial Group. Since January 1923 most radio stations in Iowa have been assigned call signs starting with "K", so WHO is unusual in starting with "W", normally reserved for stations located east of the Mississippi River.[7] WHO dates back to a period when new call signs generally were four letters, from a sequential list, but sometimes were only three letters long. Because its call letters were issued outside of the pattern normally employed at the time,[1] there has been speculation that they might have been chosen to stand for "We Help Others"[8] or the question "Who?". For many years, WHO has used an owl as its mascot, a play on its call letters, pronounced like an owl's call.
The original studios were on the top floor of the Liberty Building in downtown Des Moines.[10] After the FRC's General Order 40 reallocated frequencies in 1928, WHO was assigned to 1000 kHz on a time-sharing basis with WOC in Davenport.
In late 1929, the Central Broadcasting Company was formed with B. J. Palmer as chairman. This company purchased both WOC and WHO, which were then synchronized to simultaneously broadcast identical programs on their shared frequency, each using a 5 kilowatt transmitter. In April 1932, a 50 kilowatt transmitter, located near Mitchellville, Iowa and close to Des Moines, went into service, and the separate transmitters were replaced by this single transmitter, with the two stations now combined under a dual identity as WOC-WHO.[11] (WOC was restored as a station separate from WHO in November 1934, when the Palmer School purchased station KICK in Carter Lake, Iowa, which was moved to Davenport, and its call sign changed to WOC.)
In 1948, WHO-FM (100.3) signed on the air. Originally WHO-FM simulcast most of the programming heard on 1040 AM. In 1967, WHO-FM switched to classical music and beautiful music. The FM station has changed formats and call letters several times since then and now broadcasts as KDRB, "100.3 The Bus". In 1954, WHO-TV began broadcasting on channel 13. Because WHO radio was a long-time affiliate of NBC Radio, the TV station also affiliated with the NBC Television Network.
WHO was continuously owned by the Palmer family for more than 70 years, until Jacor Broadcasting purchased the station in 1997. Jacor merged with Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia) a year later. WHO and the other Clear Channel radio stations in Des Moines (KDRB, KKDM, KLYF, and KXNO) continued to share a building with WHO-TV until moving into a new facility in 2005.
Alumni
Herb Plambeck was a farm reporter for many years from 1936 to 1976.[12] Talk-show host Steve Deace started his broadcast career at WHO.[13]
Until his death in 2013, Jim Zabel remained with WHO as co-host (with Jon Miller of HawkeyeNation) of the Sound Off sports talk show that aired on Saturdays during Hawkeyes seasons, and as co-host of Two Guys Named Jim on Sunday nights with former Iowa State University football coach Jim Walden.
Future United States President Ronald Reagan worked as a sportscaster with WHO from 1932 to 1937.[14] Among his duties were re-creations of Chicago Cubsbaseball games. Reagan received details over a teleprinter for each play and would speak as if he were live from the stadium, improvising details such as facial expressions of players or the color of the sky. This practice was common prior to television.[15]
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