On October 29, 1946, Commercial Associates, Inc., filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to build a new radio station on 620 kHz in Sioux City. The FCC granted the application on April 28, 1947,[3] In late 1948, Dietrich Dirks, former stockholder and manager of station KTRI, acquired control of the new station,[4] and KCOM began broadcasting on May 1, 1949 from studios in the Insurance Exchange Building.[5] It focused on news, sports, music, and farm features.[6] Dirks also applied in 1952 for television channel 4,[7]KSCJ also applied, and in December 1953, the two stations agreed to combine their bids in order to bypass a lengthy comparative hearing,[8] with the added wrinkle that the KCOM Broadcasting Company would not only sell half of its shares to KSCJ but would sell off KCOM.[9]
In October 1954, the Siouxland Broadcasting Company, controlled by the Johns family, acquired KCOM.[3] William F. Johns managed WOSHinOshkosh, Wisconsin.[10] To emphasize the format, the new owners changed the call letters on January 1, 1955, to KMNS—"Music, News and Sports".[1] Three years, Johns sold the station to James Stuart of Lincoln, Nebraska, for $175,000.[11]
Stuart expanded by purchasing FM station KDVR (97.9 FM) in 1974 and relaunching it as KSEZ "Stereo 98" with an easy listening format.[12] Five years later, Stuart sold both stations to Sentry Broadcasting, a division of Wisconsin-based Sentry Insurance, for $1.8 million.[13] The format changed from Top 40 to country music in 1982.[14] In 1984, Sentry embarked on a $200,000 rehabilitation of the transmission facility in Dakota City, adding modern-day equipment, preparing for potential AM stereo deployment, and also laying the groundwork for a possible power increase to 2,500 watts.[15] Two years later, it sold the pair to Sage Broadcasting of Stamford, Connecticut; at the same time, it sold off three of its six other broadcasting operations.[16] Sage retained the pair for three years, selling to Legend Communications in 1989;[17] the stations were then sold to Chesterman Communications in 1992 after a previous attempt by the same buyer to purchase them the year before fell through.[18][19]
After the enactment of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which relaxed limits on radio station ownership, Chesterman and the Cardinal Communications cluster of KGLI and KWSL combined operations.[20] The station added sports programming at night, initially from ESPN Radio, in 1998.[21] By the end of the decade, KMNS had shifted to a full-on news/talk format, mostly relying on local news and syndicated national talk shows.[22]
Clear Channel, predecessor to iHeartMedia, acquired the Sioux City cluster from Radioworks (the former Chesterman Communications) for $12 million in 2000.[23] Fox Sports programming moved to KMNS in 2005 as part of a refocusing of KMNS and KWSL, which resulted in the flip of KWSL to a Spanish-language format.[24]
^ ab"KCOM to Become KMNS on Saturday". Sioux City Journal. Sioux City, Iowa. December 31, 1954. p. 6. Archived from the original on April 16, 2022. Retrieved April 16, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
^"TV Proposal At Sioux City". Des Moines Tribune. Des Moines, Iowa. Associated Press. December 28, 1953. p. 15. Archived from the original on April 16, 2022. Retrieved April 16, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Sale of KCOM Before F. C. C."Sioux City Journal. Sioux City, Iowa. November 11, 1954. p. 4. Archived from the original on April 16, 2022. Retrieved April 16, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Nebraskan Buys KMNS". Sioux City Journal. Sioux City, Iowa. April 29, 1958. p. 8. Archived from the original on April 16, 2022. Retrieved April 16, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Station Begins Program". Sioux City Journal. Sioux City, Iowa. July 18, 1974. p. 13. Archived from the original on April 16, 2022. Retrieved April 16, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
^"My turn". Sioux City Journal. Sioux City, Iowa. July 21, 1984. p. 3. Archived from the original on April 16, 2022. Retrieved April 16, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Connecticut company buys KMNS and KSEZ". Sioux City Journal. Sioux City, Iowa. April 12, 1986. p. A3. Archived from the original on April 16, 2022. Retrieved April 16, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Radio station sale awaits FCC OK". Sioux City Journal. Sioux City, Iowa. October 26, 1989. p. A3. Archived from the original on April 16, 2022. Retrieved April 16, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Transactions"(PDF). Radio & Records. May 22, 1992. p. 8. Archived(PDF) from the original on 2022-03-05. Retrieved 2022-04-16.
^"Chesterman buys radio stations". Sioux City Journal. Sioux City, Iowa. December 8, 1991. p. B2. Archived from the original on April 16, 2022. Retrieved April 16, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Two rival radio stations to merge". Sioux City Journal. Sioux City, Iowa. February 29, 1996. p. A8. Retrieved April 16, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Format Changes & Updates"(PDF). M Street Journal. October 21, 1998. p. 2. Archived(PDF) from the original on November 4, 2021. Retrieved April 16, 2022.
