The University of Northwestern-St. Paul’s “Life 107.1” (KNWI Osceola-Des Moines) has upgraded to 100kW, culminating a years-long effort to improve its signal to the capital city.
KNWI had previously transmitted with 30kW/193m (class C2) from a tower near Osceola. It has moved to a tower near Lorimor, on property owned by Roy Klobnak Ministries, using 100kW/299m (class C1).
Des Moines had previously been just outside of KNWI’s main coverage area and is now just within the circle. 107.1 is prevented from getting any closer to Des Moines because of the existence of KKDM/107.5 (Des Moines).
The change comes after a years-long “Operation Strong Tower” fundraising effort. To make way for KNWI’s upgrade, KDSN-FM (Denison) moved from 107.1 to 104.9 last year.
With the upgrade, “Life 107.1” says a simulcast on KNWM/96.1 (Madrid-Ames) and K264CD/100.7 (Des Moines) has ended. On Tuesday evening, a listener reported hearing Christmas music on 96.1 with announcements advising listeners to tune to 107.1 while 100.7 was carrying teaching and preaching programming.