This article is about the radio station. For the television station that formerly used the callsign WMT-TV, see KGAN.

WMT (600 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It broadcasts a news/talk radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. The studios are co-located with former sister station KGAN-TV channel 2, near the intersection of Collins Road (Iowa Highway 100) and Old Marion Road NE in Cedar Rapids, in a building known as "Broadcast Park."

By day, WMT is powered at 5,000 watts non-directional. But at night, to protect other stations on 600 AM from interference, WMT uses a directional antenna with a three-tower array. Its transmitter is on Radio Road near Marion.[2] The station's signal reaches most of Iowa and portions of neighboring states during daylight hours. WMT is a Class B station broadcasting on a Regional AM frequency.

History

Waterloo Morning Tribune and Des Moines Register

WMT is the oldest radio station in Cedar Rapids. It signed on the air on July 30, 1922. It was founded by Douglas "Tex" Perham and its original call sign was WJAM. (Until the January 1923 adoption of the Mississippi River as the dividing line, Iowa was one of the states normally assigned "W" call letters.)

In 1928, Harry Shaw purchased WJAM and moved the station from Cedar Rapids to Waterloo, renaming it WMT (for the now-defunct Waterloo Morning Tribune newspaper that he owned). WMT was an affiliate of the NBC Blue Network. It carried its dramas, comedies, news and sports during the "Golden Age of Radio."[3]

Shaw sold the station to the Cowles family, owners of the Des Moines Register, in October 1934. WMT moved back to Cedar Rapids the next year, occupying the studios of the defunct KWCR radio after KWCR's frequency was taken over by KSO in Des Moines, another Cowles station. (WMT continued to operate a secondary studio in Waterloo until 1947.) The Cowleses sold WMT to Delaware-based American Broadcasting Stations in 1944.

WMT-TV, the first television station in Cedar Rapids, signed on at channel 2 on September 30, 1953. On February 27, 1963, WMT-FM (now KKSY-FM) debuted at 96.5 MHz with the same song, "Don't Send Me Posies When It's Shoesies That I Need," that was played on the AM station's inaugural broadcast 41 years earlier.

Changes in ownership

Former WMT logo, still seen on building in Broadcast Park

Ownership of the WMT stations was passed on to Orion Broadcasting of Louisville, Kentucky, in 1968. In 1981, Cosmos Broadcasting of Greenville, South Carolina, purchased WMT-AM-FM. The company had also planned to purchase WMT-TV, but the television station was sold to Guy Gannett Communications because of ownership restrictions at the time. The TV station changed its call letters to KGAN. (WMT and KGAN continue to broadcast from the same building on Collins Road, known as "Broadcast Park"; however, WMT now gets its weather reports from KCRG-TV.)

An ownership group that included former Iowa governor Robert D. Ray and sportscaster Forrest "Frosty" Mitchell purchased WMT on October 1, 1986. On January 1, 1996, Palmer Communications (owners of WHO radio in Des Moines) acquired WMT. WHO and WMT were later sold to Jacor Broadcasting, which was eventually acquired by Clear Channel Communications. In 2014, Clear Channel changed its name to iHeartMedia, Inc.

News/Talk

WMT logo when simulcasting on 95.7 FM

WMT has always maintained at full service staff of newscasters, agriculture reporters and sportscasters. From the 1950s to the 80s, it played middle of the road music. It was also affiliated with CBS Radio News for world and national coverage. By the 1990s, it had eliminated all music programming and became a talk radio station. In the early 2010s, it switched its network to Fox News Radio.

Beginning January 2, 2012, WMT began simulcasting on KWMG Anamosa at 95.7 MHz, to give WMT listeners the option to hear the station on FM. The simulcast ended on August 18, 2014.[4] FM 95.7 is now KOSY-FM, airing a Top 40 - CHR format.

Personalities and programming

WMT airs a mix of local shows and nationally syndicated programs. Weekdays begin with The Morning Show with Doug Wagner, also heard on sister station WOC 1420 AM in the Quad Cities. WMT shares three shows with co-owned WHO in Des Moines: Need To Know with Jeff Angelo, an agricultural program called The Big Show with Bob Quinn and Andy Petersen, and The Simon Conway Show in afternoon drive time. Syndicated programs include The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, The Sean Hannity Show, The Ramsey Show with Dave Ramsey, America in the Morning with John Trout and Coast to Coast AM with George Noory.

On the weekend, WMT originates and syndicates The My Car Geek Hour with Jay Cassill as well as The Iowa Lawn and Garden Show with Doug Wagner. The weekend schedule also has shows on health, money, religion, law and technology, as well as some brokered programming. Weekend syndicated shows include Our American Stories with Lee Habeeb, Bill Handel on the Law, The Kim Komando Show, Armstrong & Getty, The Weekend with Michael Brown and Markley, Van Camp & Robbins.

WMT has been a longtime home for University of Iowa Hawkeyes football and basketball games. Play-by-play announcers over the years included Lawson "Tait" Cummins (a former sportswriter with The Gazette), Ron Gonder, Frosty Mitchell, and Gary Dolphin.

References

  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WMT". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^ Radio-Locator.com/WMT
  3. ^ Broadcasting Yearbook 1935 page 30. Retrieved Aug. 6, 2023.
  4. ^ "Northpine.com". January 2, 2012.
  • Kueter, Dale (1995-06-17). "Owners of WHO Gain 2nd High-Profile Station". The Gazette. p. 1A. (Retrieved on 2006-08-01 via Newsbank.)
  • Stein, Jeff (2004). Making Waves: The People and Places of Iowa Broadcasting. Cedar Rapids, Iowa: WDG Communications. ISBN 0-9718323-1-5.

External links