The station was first licensed, as WAAW, on April 19, 1922, and
debuted the same day, making it among the first radio stations in Nebraska, and the oldest surviving one. The call letters were randomly assigned from a sequential roster of available call signs. Also, until the January 1923 adoption of the Mississippi River as the dividing line, radio stations in Nebraska received call letters starting with "W" rather than "K". The station broadcast agricultural reports and crop prices. On November 11, 1928, as part of a major allocation implemented by the
Federal Radio Commission's
General Order 40, WAAW was assigned to 660 kHz, restricted to daytime-only operation. In 1939, the station call letters were changed to KOWH. In 1946, KOWH put one of the first FM stations on the air in Omaha, KOAD (later
KTGL). By the 1950s, the owner was Mid Continent Broadcasting. In an advertisement in the 1950 edition of
Broadcasting Yearbook, KOWH stated it was "The Toast of The Midwest". It claimed a broadcast area of in diameter, and offered advertisers "more coverage". It touted 660 AM as a "clear channel frequency", neglecting to note that a New York City station was the frequency's dominant station, thus KOWH had to
sign off at night. KOWH played an important role in U.S. radio programming history. In May 1952, the station became what is considered the first
Top 40 station. It was owned and operated by radio pioneer
Todd Storz, who crafted a radio format that played the top hits every couple of hours, using high-energy
disc jockeys, aimed at young listeners. KOWH's success encouraged the spread of Top 40 stations across the country. As contemporary music listening switched to the FM band, KOWH carried a
country music format, and later an
urban adult contemporary format. On the first day of 1960, the station's call sign was changed to KMEO, which was switched to KOZN in 1968, then back to KOWH in 1971. In April 1979, KOWH became a
Christian radio station, and changed its call sign to KCRO in August of that year. In 2005, the station was bought for $3.1 million by the
Salem Media Group. In July 2018, Hickory Radio agreed to purchase KCRO, co-owned
talk radio station
KOTK, and two translators from Salem Media. The purchase was consummated on October 31, 2018, at a price of $1.375 million. ==Former logos==