Text and photos by SCOTT FYBUSH
We’re back at home base after two weeks on the road across America, and while we catch up from a drive to Denver to back (and lots of interesting visits along the way that you’ll see in this space soon), here are a few final looks at the Omaha and Lincoln markets that were omitted from our coverage these last few weeks from our February visits there.
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The drive from Omaha to Lincoln on I-80 is a short one – it’s a wide, straight highway where traffic moves at close to 80 miles per hour, so it’s easy to get from one city to another in under an hour.
Unless, of course, one gets distracted by the tall towers that sit south of 80 – and of course, we did get distracted that way, especially when we had the chance to meet up with Salem’s Mike Shane at the aux site of his KGBI (100.7) near Gretna, off gravel roads a few miles south of 80.
This was once the KGBI main site, before Salem moved the religious station in to the Omaha Crown Point tower farm (we saw its new main facility in this installment a few weeks back), and it remains a fully-functional aux site. It’s also now the main site for NRG Radio’s KOOO (101.9 La Vista), a former Lincoln-market signal that’s moved in to the Omaha market.
The two stations have separate transmitter rooms, but share an antenna at the top of this 1200-foot tower by way of a combiner behind the KGBI transmitter.
Just a couple of miles to the north and west, another tall tower out here is home to the market’s Fox affiliate, KPTM (Channel 42/RF 43) and CW affiliate, KXVO (Channel 15/RF 38); this tower was also home to Omaha’s old KEFM (96.1), which has since moved in to the Crown Point tower farm as iHeart’s KISO.
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On the way back in to Omaha, there’s one more small site to be seen, far away from most of the rest of the market’s towers.
Out Dodge Street (US 6) near the famed Boys Town, a short utility tower holds the antenna for Salem’s K233CO (94.5), the translator for “Answer” talker KOTK (1420) that gives the station’s AM coverage a boost where it needs it, out in the fast-growing western suburbs of Omaha.
Thanks to Salem’s Mike Shane for the tours!
Would you believe new people every day are discovering the Tower Site Calendar?
One person praised its uniqueness, saying, “There are 75 puppy calendars. There’s only one that shows off radio towers.”
Now we have barely a dozen left. And once these are gone, they’re gone. We’re not reprinting.
But for now, you can buy the standard version. Or the signed version. You can add a resealable polyethylene bag if you want to keep the calendar once the year is up. You can add a pen if you want to use the calendar as a planner. And if you never got last year’s calendar and like the pictures, we have that, too.
But our new admirer wasn’t quite right about there being only one radio calendar.
We still have a dozen copies of The Radio Historian’s 2019 calendar, too. You, our loyal customers, were so good about buying our calendar. Wouldn’t you like to have this one, too? It’s full of historic hard-to-find photos.
Check them both out now at the Fybush.com store!
And don’t miss a few more Omaha-Lincoln IDs next Wednesday, over at our sister site, TopHour.com!
Next week: Southern California in Transition
