Exactly one year after it went off the air, Connoisseur Media has returned the license of KLMS/1480 (Lincoln).
KLMS submitted a cancellation application on Dec. 10. The FCC canceled KLMS’ license and deleted its callsign the next day.
KLMS had most recently originated an Adult Contemporary format called “Mix 103.3” for translator K277CA/103.3. As previously reported, the “Mix 103.3” format began originating on the HD2 signal of Alpha’s KFRX/106.3 when KLMS went silent.
KLMS was licensed for 1kW day and 750 Watts night from an eight-tower array on the east side of Lincoln, using different directional antenna patterns day and night.
According to FCC records and Broadcasting Yearbooks, Howard Shuman’s Lincoln Broadcasting first signed on KLMS in 1949. The debut came a few years after KFAB/1110 moved from Lincoln to Omaha, briefly leaving KFOR/1240 as Lincoln’s only station until KLIN/1400 signed on in 1947 followed by KLMS.
KLMS was initially an independent station but by 1958 was listed as an affiliate of the Mutual Broadcasting System, then one of America’s largest radio networks.
A Wikipedia entry details a series of formats that aired on KLMS over the decades, mostly AC, Oldies, and Sports.
KLMS changed its callsign to KFMQ and then KMEM in the 1990s before returning to KLMS in recent decades. It was sold in 1974 to Telegraph-Herald Inc. which changed its name to Woodward Communications in 1981, and changed hands several more times in the 1980s and 1990s.
KLMS is actually the second Lincoln AM station to return its license: the former KHAT/1530 went silent in the 1990s.
The return of KLMS’ license is the latest in a recent trend that has also seen the permanent shutdown of AM stations in places including Davenport, Iowa and the Twin Cities suburbs. Several companies have taken other AM stations off the air this year but have not yet reached the one-year deadline to resume broadcasting.
This article has been updated to reflect that Alpha Media became part of Connoisseur Media, though KLMS was still officially licensed to Alpha 3E Licensee LLC.