KOZN

KOZN has local sports programming Monday through Friday from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Weekdays begin with Mornings with Sharp and Handley followed by The Connor Happer Show in middays, Unsportsmanlike Conduct, hosted by John Bishop and Josh Peterson, in afternoon drive time, and After Hours with Jimmie Allen in early evenings. Other local shows includeThe Creighton Athletics Hour hosted by Jimmie Allen, ''Severe Reaction with Mike'l Severe'', and pre and postgame shows for Nebraska Cornhuskers football and Creighton University basketball and baseball. NRG Media owns two sports stations in the Omaha radio market: KOZN 1620 and KZOT 1180. KOZN features mostly local sports talk shows with Fox Sports Radio heard late nights and weekends. KZOT airs mostly CBS Sports Radio programming. KOZN carries Westwood One NFL Football and NCAA Basketball, as well as some Kansas City Royals baseball games. KOZN originates and produces all game broadcasts of the NCAA Men's College World Series, held each June in Omaha, and distributed nationally by Westwood One. Play by play is provided by eight-time Nebraska Sportscaster of the Year Kevin Kugler. ==History==

KOZN originated as the AM expanded band "twin" of an existing station on the standard AM dial. On March 17, 1997 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that 88 stations had been given permission to move to newly available "Expanded Band" transmitting frequencies, ranging from 1610 to 1700 kHz. KOIL (now KZOT) in Bellevue was authorized to move from 1180 to 1620 kHz. An application to construct the expanded band station, also located in Bellevue, was filed by Mitchell Broadcasting on June 16, 1997, which was assigned the call letters KAZP on January 9, 1998. This station on 1620 AM began broadcasting September 1999, and its call letters were changed to KOZN on October 3, 2001. The original morning team of John Desjardins and Mike Steele, aka "Louie & The Animal" was called The Cage. It was replaced by the Bruno-Golic Morning Show when the station debuted the ESPN Radio full-time lineup. Unsportsmanlike Conduct began with Kevin Kugler and Bob Bruce in 2000, and has been on the air continually since. As of February 1, 2011, 1620 The Zone discontinued its affiliation with ESPN Radio, switching to Fox Sports Radio. ESPN programming is now heard nights and weekends on KXSP 590 AM in Omaha. From 2012 to 2025, the station operated a sister outlet, KZOT, which primarily carried the Infinity Sports Network lineup, as well as Creighton Bluejays baseball, women's basketball, and women's volleyball, and Omaha Storm Chasers baseball. ==References==