KOIL

A Midwest broadcasting legend, Omaha's heritage Top 40 station "The Mighty 1290" and "The Rock of the Midwest" signed on the air July 10, 1925.

Originally owned by the Mona Motor Oil Company, a subsidiary of the Monarch Manufacturing Company, the "OIL" in KOIL was therefore a marketing tie-in. Its twin towers were located high on a bluff known as "KOIL Point" in Fairmont Park in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Known as "The Radio Station On The Hill", KOIL was the second station licensed to the Omaha/Council Bluffs area. In the summer of 1937, KOIL moved all programming across the Missouri River to Omaha, with studios occupying two floors in the upper ranks of the National Bank Building.

When the FCC began to enforce duopoly rules in the early 50s, Central States Broadcasting retained KFOR, KFAB was sold to the May Broadcasting Company, and KOIL was transferred to the Union Holding Company, a cooperative group.

The Union Holding Company began to have serious financial problems because none of the primary advertisers in Omaha would advertise on KOIL -- they felt the money was being sent out of town and put into the pockets of the owners. The owners then brought in an extremely talented sales and promotion genius from Pocatello, Idaho -- Don W. Burden.

In 1952, after examining the station's records and sales history, Burden drove to Lincoln and gained an audience with Charles Stuart. Burden made the pitch that because the Union Holding Company had not made their note payments for the past four months, he - Burden -- would buy the station if the Stuarts would call in their note. Stuart and Burden shook hands, Burden paid Stuart $5,000 as a down payment (all the cash he had to his name) and at the age of 25 Burden bought KOIL for $185,000 on a ten year note. Thus, Don Burden's "Star Stations" were born on January 1, 1953.

In the 50s Burden moved the KOIL studios to 511 South 17th Street in the Aquila Court office building in downtown Omaha.

Don Burden had promotion in his blood, and he had a 24-hour radio station at his command. KOIL soon was overtaking Todd Storz' groundbreaking KOWH - American radios' first home of "Top 40 Radio" -- because of Storz' restricted broadcast hours. Burden stole many of the "name" announcers from Todd Storz' KOWH. The competition between KOWH and KOIL became very intense. (Check the audio files section of this page for the story of how Todd Storz caused KOIL to lose the legendary Gary Owens to KIMN in Denver!) Eventually, by the early 60s, KOWH threw in the towel and changed formats. (Storz still did just fine with other properties, including KOMA in Oklahoma City, WHB in Kansas City, WQAY in Miami, and WDGY in Minneapolis among others.) Meanwhile, Burden's properties soon included KISN in Portland and WIFE in Indianapolis, plus numerous promotional companies.


The Real Don Steele in 1962.

In 1959, Burden had inaugurated KOIL-FM at 96.1 in Omaha - his first step onto the FM band. Initially, the FM simply re-broadcast the AM signal. As few people had FM receivers at the time, the FM was merely there to save for future use. Quite often during this period, the morning announcer would neglect to turn on the FM transmitter, which was seldom ever noticed (except by Burden!) In 1966, like many FMs of the era, KOIL-FM began broadcasting "beautiful music" programming with a completely automated system. Burden figured the kids had the AM and adults had the FM - just the opposite of the way it eventually turned out! In the 70s the FM call letters were changed to KEFM.

In 1966, the AM transmitting towers were moved to 66th and Harrison in the southern part of Omaha. In the fall of 1968, KOIL and Star Stations corporate headquarters moved to 8901 Indian Hills Drive.

This broadcasting palace was state-of-the-art and quite an impressive building, costing $1,5 million and even winning a beautification award in 1969. The three-level building housed studios, engineering suites, sales offices, an indoor garage, and on the second floor, Star Stations national headquarters. During its heyday, it was popular to "cruise the KOIL parking lot" with hopes of seeing one of the Good Guys in person. You could walk right up to the glass-walled studios and watch the deejays in action. And some very brave souls even "streaked" KOIL during that craze in the 70s.

KOIL's promotions in the 1960s were legendary. Each Halloween, children across the metro area would ask "Is this a KOIL trick or treat house?" At Easter time, the station staged a gigantic Easter Egg Hunt.

The KOIL Good Guy basketball team took on any and all schools and charitable organizations. All summer long the Good Guys would broadcast from the "KOIL Pool" (otherwise known as a sound effects tape.) And every Christmas the "KOIL Carol Tree" stood in the parking lot of a mall, with its lighted ornaments flashing to the sounds of - what else? - the Mighty 1290. Cars would actually park in the lot, tune in KOIL, and watch the synchronized lights flash on the tree.

KOIL was the bridge to the "Big Time" for numerous DJs before their careers really took off. The Mighty 1290 could brag of jocks such as Gary Owens, the future Kris Erik Stevens (as Johnny Mitchell-see above survey!), Gary Gears, even WCW Wrestling announcer "Mean Gene" Okerlund! News talents Lyle Dean and Fred Winston once shared the same facilities before their Pittsburgh and Chicago breaks came. News Director Bob Benson became ABC Radio news director. Jimmy O'Neill of TV's "Shindig" was a KOIL Good Guy, as was L.A. personality "The Real" Don Steele. KOIL deejay Mike McCormick went on to become program director at radio legend WLS in Chicago.

Steve Brown, now of KKAR in Omaha - coincidentally on 1290 after later swapping frequencies with sister station KOIL -- joined Star Stations in 1959 as an announcer and in 1960 became National Program Director for the group. Word has it that it was Brown who first introduced the Beatles and Beach Boys. For years it was Brown's deep resonant voice that was heard on many KOIL promos.

Roger W. Morgan, today heading nationally syndicated radio programs, was THE morning deejay to wake up with in the 60s. His "Morganizing" - where he phoned and played a gag on an unsuspecting person - was talked about in classrooms and around water coolers all over town.

Morgan was given the assignment of traveling to London to interview Paul McCartney during the "Paul is dead" crisis in 1969. Morgan eventually made his way to Paul's farm in Scotland where he, rightly assumed to be an intruder, was nearly picked off by a .22 caliber at the hands of one very testy Mr. McCartney!

KOIL reportedly enjoyed 30 to 40 shares in the mid 60s, with KFAB, KOOO, WOW and KBON being other significant players in Omaha. KOIL enjoyed up to a remarkable 80 or better share with teens in the evenings!

By the late 60s, KOIL's dominance faded a bit due to additional teen-oriented competition from KFNF in Shenandoah, Iowa and KRCB in neighboring Council Bluffs. When KRCB added a simulcast on KRCB-FM, the first indication of a change was in the wind for rock and roll radio's future. By the early 70s, WOW-FM became KFMX and also began catering to the younger audience.

Don Burden had a reputation as an excellent broadcaster, but at the same time had earned plenty of enemies in the business. Certain parties may have helped turn him in to the FCC concerning allegations of misconduct. The case involved news coverage of a gubernatorial race in Oregon in 1966, the 1964 U.S. Senate race in Indiana, as well as alleged misconduct over a long period on other issues. The FCC said that newscasts were improperly used to publicize the campaigns of certain politicians. After investigations went on for several years, the FCC held that serious misconduct had occurred in the operations of the stations and that Burden was intimately involved in and had knowledge of the misconduct. Don Burden was forced to surrender all of his licenses. After 51 years, KOIL the Mighty 1290 went dark on September 2, 1976.

A number of KOIL air personalities surfaced on former rival KRCB. Jimmy O'Neill, Kevin Kassera, Chuck Shramek, Brian Jordan, and even former KOIL General Manager Steve Shepard drove across the river to Council Bluffs to try to resurrect the old sound, coincidentally in the city where KOIL began. KRCB even attempted to acquire the then-silent 1290 frequency (a big step up from their daytime, low-power frequency).

In December 1976 KOIL came back to life under an interim license awarded to Omaha businessman Nathan Novak. The station certainly didn't throw in the towel to the FMs when it came to Rock & Roll radio. KOIL's format evolved as the 80s came along. In 1980 it made the subtle switch to "Contemporary Hits," shifting again in 1982 to "Adult Contemporary," with each of these format skewing to certain core audiences as opposed to Top 40's wider appeal in the previous years. In early 1988 KOIL again switched, this time to "Classic Rock" for a very short period. Late 1988 brought still another format change to "Oldies" as the station was purchased by Valley Communications (owned in part by former KOIL jock Bob Dean).

During this period, KOIL's studios moved about the city, from the Harrison Street location where the studios and transmitter shared limited space, to the Twin Tower Condominiums on Farnam, to an industrial area in northwest Omaha, and to the lower level of an architectural firm in downtown Omaha.

KOIL came to suffer the same fate as many other great local rock & roll AM stations. It has been a satellite oldies station, adult standards and all sports. KOIL is now owned by Mitchell Broadcasting, whose group of stations is operated under a local management agreement with Waitt Broadcasting. In 1993 it exchanged frequencies with another Mitchell property, talk outlet KKAR, moving to 1180AM. The move gave KKAR a better signal and changed KOIL's official city of license to Bellevue, Nebraska.

KOIL currently resides at 1180 AM and is now a "Radio Disney" affiliate.