Early years KXEL signed on the air on July 14, 1942, the first radio station in Waterloo. It was owned by the Josh Higgins Broadcasting Company with its studios in the Waterloo Insurance Building. It was an affiliate of the
NBC Blue Network, carrying its news, sports, dramas and comedies during the "
Golden Age of Radio." (The Blue Network later became
ABC Radio.) In the early days of broadcasting, most stations went on the air with low power, gradually boosting the wattage by applying for increases to the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC). But KXEL was granted 50,000 watts in its early days, in an effort to give a good radio signal to remote sections of Iowa and adjacent states.
FM and TV stations On November 16, 1947, KXEL added a sister station, KXEL-FM. It began broadcasting on 105.7 MHz. It was licensed to the Josh Higgins Broadcasting Company, which also held the license for KXEL. It mostly simulcast the same programming as 1540 AM. But few people owned FM receivers in that era and management saw little opportunity to make the station profitable. KXEL-FM was take off the air in the 1950s. KXEL tried FM radio again in 1962 and that station today is
KOKZ with a
classic hits format. In the early 1950s, KXEL filed for a television license in Waterloo, seeking to go on the air on channel 7. However, Waterloo's other powerhouse radio station, KWWL (now
KPTY) wanted the license as well. KXEL and KWWL went to court and battled it out. KXEL was so sure it would win that it built a new studio large enough to accommodate a television station. This studio was mainly useless because KWWL won the lawsuit and signed on
KWWL-TV on November 29, 1953. Interestingly, KXEL and KPTY today are co-owned.
Changes in ownership On November 9, 1958, the station was acquired by
Cy N. Bahakel, who served as the general manager. As network programming moved from radio to television, KXEL began a
full service radio format of news, sports and
country music. It carried world and national news from ABC Radio, eventually becoming an affiliate of the
ABC Information Network. As FM radio became the preferred band for country music fans, KXEL switched its format. It began airing
adult standards, mostly pop hits of the 1940s and 50s from ABC's "Stardust" satellite network. It later used the "
Timeless" network until it ceased operations in 2010. KXEL also featured
classic country programming before switching to its current news/talk format. Woodward Broadcasting owned the station between 2011 and December 2014 before selling KXEL and its sister stations. Woodward sold to the current owner,
NRG Media LLC, based in Cedar Rapids. ==Programming==