KRNA

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KRNA
City of license Iowa City, Iowa, United States
Broadcast area Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States
Branding Real Rock 94.1
Slogan Eastern Iowa's Real Rock
First air date October 4, 1974
Frequency 94.1 (MHz)
Format Active rock
ERP 100,000 watts
Class C1
Owner Cumulus Media
Website www.krna.com

KRNA is a radio station licensed to Iowa City, Iowa, with studios in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and a transmitter located west of Oxford, Iowa. The station currently has an active rock format.

[edit] History

In 1971, a group of University of Iowa students that included Elliot Keller and Rob Norton formed a company known as Communicators Inc. of Iowa that aimed "to put together a radio station with a major market sound in what was basically a small-to-medium market."[1] At the time, FM radio stations in Iowa were primarily used for beautiful music formats or repeater signals for co-owned AM stations while popular music was played on AM stations. By 1974, Communicators Inc. of Iowa had been renamed KRNA, Inc., and the company was granted FCC approval to begin broadcasting. KRNA began broadcasting at 93.5 FM on October 4, 1974. (KRNA later moved to 93.9 FM before moving to its present 94.1 FM in 1991.) By January 1975, Arbitron telephone surveys showed that nearly half of local radio listeners were turned into KRNA. As part of its "major market sound", KRNA pre-recorded its commercial announcements during a time when most commercials were read live on the air, and it also broadcast 24 hours a day while other radio stations signed off during the overnight hours for equipment maintenance.[2]

In 1994, KRNA purchased the former KQCR radio (102.9 FM) in Cedar Rapids to create the area's first radio duopoly. After reformatting it as country music station KXMX, Norton and Keller agreed to sell KRNA and KXMX to Capstar Broadcasting in 1998. While the KRNA sale was successful, Capstar terminated the agreement to buy KXMX.[3] (Norton and Keller kept KXMX, renaming it KZIA and changing the station's format to contemporary hits.) AMFM, Inc., acquired Capstar in 1999, and Clear Channel Communications acquired AMFM in 2000; however, KRNA was sold to Cumulus Media that year since Clear Channel already owned a group of stations in eastern Iowa.[4] Today, KRNA broadcasts from the APAC building in downtown Cedar Rapids with Cumulus-owned stations KHAK and KDAT.

In 2004 KRNA's format shifted from classic rock to active rock, adopting the nickname "Real Rock 94.1". That year, former KFMW morning DJ's Lou Waters and Scott Steele became the station's morning-drive disc jockeys. Lou and Scott were replaced by Davenport-based DJ's Greg Dwyer and Bill Michaels in January 2007. Dwyer and Michaels joined KRNA as the result of a non-compete clause that prevented them from working at any station in the Quad Cities market for six months after their contract with Clear Channel Communications expired at the end of 2006. Dwyer and Michaels, who had previously worked with WXLP and KCQQ radio in the Quad Cities, are expected to join Cumulus-owned WXLP after the non-compete clause expires on July 1, 2007. Clear Channel sued Dwyer and Michaels in February, claiming that KRNA was audible in the Quad Cities area and the duo was actively promoting the show in the Quad Cities. On March 1, 2007, a Scott County judge ruled that Dwyer and Michaels did not violate the clause since Arbitron did not consider the Quad Cities part of KRNA's market area.[5]

For many years, KRNA was known for distributing free posters of the Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball team at live remote broadcasts. This tradition began in the late 1970s, and while the posters are now sold by the University of Iowa athletic department, they continue to be printed under the sponsorship of Norton and Keller's current station, KZIA.[6]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Stein, Jeff (2004). Making Waves: The People and Places of Iowa Broadcasting. Cedar Rapids, Iowa: WDG Communications, 109. ISBN 0-9718323-1-5. 
  2. ^ Stein, 111.
  3. ^ Ford, George C. "KRNA buy OK'd after KXMX deal nixed", The Gazette, 1998-06-09, p. 8B.
  4. ^ Muller, Lyle. "Dial spins on radio station ownership", The Gazette, 2000-03-12, p. B1.
  5. ^ Radio Online. "Judge Rules for Dwyer & Michaels in Non-Compete Case", 2007-03-02.
  6. ^ Stein, 54.

[edit] External links

Radio stations in the Cedar Rapids market (Arbitron #213)

By frequency: (FM) 88.3 | 89.1 | 90.9 | 91.7 | 92.3 | 94.1 | 96.5 | 98.1 | 99.7 | 100.1 | 100.7 | 101.9 | 102.9 | 104.5 | 105.7 | 106.1 | 107.1 | 107.9

(AM) 600 | 800 | 910 | 1040 | 1360 | 1380 | 1450 | 1540 | 1600 | 1630

By callsign: | KBEA | KCCK | KCII | KCJJ | KDAT | KFMW | KGYM | KHAK | KKHQ | KKRQ | KMJM | KMRY | KNWS | KOKZ | KRNA | KRQN | KSUI | KUNI | KWOF | KXEL | KXIC | KZIA | WHO | WMT-FM | WMT (AM) | WSUI


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