KBOB (AM)

KBOB is a radio station licensed to Davenport, Iowa, and airs a classic country format. The station's frequency is 1170 kHz, and broadcasts at a power of 1 kW. Its transmitters are located near Coyne Center, Illinois.^[1]

KBOB is owned by Townsquare Media, with studios located at 1229 Brady Street in Davenport, Iowa (along with the co-located KJOC, WXLP, KBEA-FM and KQCS).

History of 1170 kHz

For Quad Cities-area baby boomers, the Davenport allocation for 1170 kHz represented good times and the best rock 'n' roll music in the area.

The station signed on in July 1946 as KSTT, but it wasn't until the mid-1950s—when it began playing the then-new Top 40/contemporary hit radio genre—that the station really took off in popularity. Disc jockeys made liberal use of listener requests and call-in contests. If there was a live broadcast or news happening in the Quad Cities, listeners were sure to spot the "Big Red" mobile news cruiser. KSTT also polled listeners on their favorite current songs, which disc jockeys then presented in a weekly countdown program. Quad-City area servicemen in Vietnam had tapes of KSTT programming sent to them.

The station, which was located along East River Drive in downtown Davenport, had a large window in its studio, where motorists could see their favorite on-air disc jockeys broadcasting. Listeners today remember such radio personalities as Jay Gregory, Mike Kenneally, Michelle Coleman, Tom Clay, Bill Young, Greg Garron, Mark Stevens, Lou Gutenberger, Bobby Rich, Ruth and Fred, Spike O'Dell and Jim O'Hara, each of them presenting the current Top 40 hits in an entertaining way. Members of the station's award-winning news department included News Director Jerry Reid and reporters Dave Douglas (Tom Hosmanek), Gary Hummel, Paulee Lipsman, David McAlary, and Fred Manfra.

"KSTT listeners became participants as well as listeners, calling Ruth and Fred on the Phone Show, phoning in news tips, (and) requesting songs," one history of the station stated. "They attended KSTT-sponsored hootenannys and hops, ball games and picnics, concerts and Good Guy-A-Go-Go dances. And they entered contests." Dick Orkins infamous Chickenman and Toothfairy episodes were heard daily.

For many years, KSTT remained the top-rated station in the Quad Cities market. But by the late 1970s, with FM radio stations gaining in popularity (particularly KIIK 104), KSTT's audience started to shrink. In the mid-1980s (1984) KSTT changed its call letters to KKZX, known to listeners as 11KZX and took one last-ditch effort at "Top 40" music and had mild success, that lasted until early 1986. After Guy Gannett Broadcasting sold the station as well as its sister station 97X to Goodrich Broadcasting, the station returned to its legendary KSTT call letters but began programming Golden Oldies—music from the 1950s through early 1970s. It worked for a while, but the resurgence was temporary.

1989-2014: Rock, sports, talk and oldies

Beginning in January 1989, KSTT was doing some simulcasting with its sister FM station, WXLP (aka 97X, a rock-oriented station). By February 1992, 1170 AM's format was largely sports and sports talk, and in March 1993, the station's call letters were switched to reflect its format: KJOC.

During its 10-year run as a sports station, KJOC received most of its programming from ESPN Radio, and was the Quad-Cities outlet for Chicago-area professional sports—including the Bears, Bulls, Cubs and White Sox. For most of the 1990s, KJOC also provided coverage of local sports.

In April 2003, KJOC adopted a talk radio format.^[2] Branding itself, "Super Talk 1170," KJOC's flagship program was "The O'Reilly Factor" hosted by Bill O'Reilly. Chicago-area sports remained a fixure on the station.

On August 20, 2008, KJOC switched to an oldies format, getting most of its programming from ABC Radio Networks' "True Oldies Channel." The sports lineup continued to feature Chicago-area and Iowa State University sports.^[3]

On February 20, 2012; the station "KUUL 101.3" KUUL switched to a Top-40 from their oldies format, which temporarily left KJOC as the lone oldies station in the Quad Cities; shortly after KUUL's switch, WYEC-FM ("Rewind 93.9") began emphasizing its oldies format, which it had adopted some time earlier. KJOC's "True Oldies Channel" service focused on 1960s and 1970s music, while WYEC largely played music from the 1970s and 1980s plus some from the 1960s.

New owners and more format switches

On August 30, 2013, a deal was announced in which Townsquare Media would acquire 53 Cumulus Media stations, including KJOC, for $238 million. The deal is part of Cumulus' acquisition of Dial Global; Townsquare and Dial Global are both controlled by Oaktree Capital Management.^[4][5] The transaction was consummated effective November 14, 2013.

The format switched back to sports – a format last at 1170 AM 11 years earlier – on May 1, 2014, once again getting network programming from ESPN Radio.^[6][7]

Starting on June 16, 2014, sister station KQCS (93.5 FM) began simulcasting KJOC's AM signal, as part of a planned format change – from hot adult contemporary to sports – at that frequency. ^[8] The call letters were switched to KBOB (the letters formerly held by the station's sister frequency at 104.9 FM) on July 1, but initially continued to duplicate the sports talk format.

On September 8, a new classic country music format debuted at 1170 AM, with programming from Westwood One. The station was slated to begin carrying reports from the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network by mid-September. Initial plans were to continue carrying Iowa State University sports events and local high school sports, as the station has done in the past; Chicago Cubs games were to remain at 1170 AM until the 2015 season, at which time they were to begin being carried on 93.5 FM.^[9] It was the first time 1170 AM carried a country music format full time, and marked the first-time local agriculture reports were available on a Quad Cities radio station since 2004.

In January 2015, it was announced that KBOB would become the radio broadcaster for the Quad Cities River Bandits; a Class-A Minor League Baseball team which is the Midwest League affiliate of the Houston Astros.^{[10] 1}AM 1170 had been the play-by-play broadcaster for the ²Quad Cities River Bandits from 1988 to 1996 before losing the broadcast rights to cross-market competitor WKBF in 1997. 2015 marks the first time AM 1170 would be the play-by-play broadcaster for the Quad Cities River Bandits in 19 years.

Notes

• 1. AM 1170 held the callsign KSTT from 1988 to 1992 and the callsign KJOC from 1993 to 1996.
• 2. The Quad Cities River Bandits were known as the Quad City Angels from 1988 to 1991 and the Quad City River Bandits from 1992 to 1996.

References

• Anderson, Frederick I, editor. "Joined By a River: Quad Cities." Lee Enterprises, 1982. ISBN 0-910847-00-2

External links

• Cumulus Quad Cities market
• An example of a KSTT survey from January 1972
• Another KSTT survey, this one from November 1974
• Query the FCC's AM station database for KBOB
• Radio-Locator Information on KBOB
• Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for KBOB