KRNI
Radio station in Mason City, Iowa / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
KRNI (1010 AM) is a radio station licensed to Mason City, Iowa, United States. The station is owned by Iowa Public Radio, Inc., and carries the network's "News and Information" service.
Frequency | 1010 kHz |
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Programming | |
Format | News |
Network | Iowa Public Radio (News and Information) |
Ownership | |
Owner | Iowa Public Radio, Inc. |
History | |
First air date | March 1, 1948 (1948-03-01) |
Former call signs |
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Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
Facility ID | 69035 |
Class | D |
Power | 760 watts day 16 watts night |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Webcast | Listen live |
Website | Iowa Public Radio |
KRNI was established as KSMN, the second local station in Mason City, in 1948. KSMN provided news and, ultimately, country music until it was switched to a simulcast of KLSS (106.1 FM), the FM station previously started by KSMN, in 1985. When the owners of KLSS-AM-FM acquired another AM station in 1990, this station was divested and donated to the University of Northern Iowa, who converted it into a public radio station as a simulcast of its main station, KUNI. It remained a public radio station after Iowa's state universities merged their radio operations into IPR in 2004.
KRNI operates from a single-tower facility east of Mason City. It operates at 750 watts during the day. Even with its modest power, the region's flat land and near-perfect ground conductivity allow KRNI to provide at least secondary coverage to most of north-central Iowa and parts of southern Minnesota. At night, the station greatly reduces power to 16 watts in order to protect two Canadian clear-channel stations on 1010 AM, CFRB in Toronto and CBR in Calgary, rendering it all but unlistenable even in Mason City.