KOIL (1290 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station, licensed to Omaha, Nebraska. It airs a talk radio format and is owned by NRG Media, headquartered in Cedar Rapids. The studios are on Dodge Street at 50th Avenue in Midtown Omaha. KOIL is a Class B station powered at 5,000 watts. At night, it uses a directional antenna with a three-tower array to protect other stations on 1290 AM. The transmitter is off Harrison Street, near Big Papillion Creek in Bellevue, Nebraska.

Programming

KOIL's schedule is mostly nationally syndicated talk shows. Weekdays begin with two news magazines, America in the Morning with John Trout and This Morning, America's First News with Gordon Deal. The rest of the weekday schedule includes Brian Kilmeade and Friends, The Sean Hannity Show, The Mark Levin Show, The Chris Plante Show, Ground Zero with Clyde Lewis and America at Night with Rich Valdés. Weekends feature shows on money, health, the law, technology, guns and home repair. Syndicated weekend programs include The Kim Komando Show, Bill Handel on The Law and At Home with Gary Sullivan. KOIL airs live sports including Kansas City Chiefs football and Omaha Lancers junior ice hockey. Most hours begin with an update from ABC News Radio.

History

The original KOIL

The original KOIL first signed on the air on. It was one of the earliest stations in the Omaha area. KOIL was originally owned by the Mona Motor Oil Company (hence the "OIL" in the call letters) and was located in nearby Council Bluffs, Iowa. It broadcast at 1080 AM before moving to 1290 AM. The station's studios moved across the river to Omaha in the early 1930s. KOIL was one of the stations that participated in the first CBS network radio broadcast on September 18, 1927. Its affiliation switched to the NBC Blue Network on December 1, 1931. KOIL carried its schedule of dramas, comedies, news and sports during the "Golden Age of Radio." The station was purchased by salesman and promoter Don Burden in 1953. As network programming moved from radio to television, the station adopted a Top 40 format. KOIL was a popular station for Omaha's teens and young adults. It became part of Burden's Star Stations.

Scandal

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began an investigation in the 1970s into allegations involving Burden and his stations. They included reports of bribes Burden made to officials in charge of renewing the licenses of his stations, supervision of on-air contests, and lack of candor with the FCC. Burden was forced to surrender his radio licenses, and KOIL was ordered to go off the air on September 2, 1976. The last two songs played by DJ Gene Shaw were Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye) by Gladys Knight & The Pips. This was followed by the very last song, Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence." The engineer on duty who turned off the transmitter after 51 years was Don Eliason. On Tom Becka's last segment, he also played the song as he signed off.

A new KOIL and a new license

Three months later, on December 16, 1976, KOIL resumed broadcasting. The station had a new license awarded to Omaha businessman Nathan Novak. In 1993, the KOIL call sign moved to 1180 AM in an exchange with station KKAR (now KZOT). In April 2003, it moved to 1020 AM, replacing KKSC (now KMMQ). The call sign resumed broadcasting on 1180 kHz in January 2009. On June 4, 2012, KOIL was returned to 1290 AM and rebranded as "The Mighty 1290" KOIL.

Past personalities

Announcers who once worked for KOIL include Roger W. Morgan, Gene Okerlund, Gary Michael Ross, Dr. Don Rose, Dick Sainte, and former Shindig! host Jimmy O'Neill. Other personalities to spend time at KOIL include The Real Don Steele, Gary Owens, Kris Erik Stevens, Lyle Dean, Frank "Coffeehead" Allen, Joe Light, Dave Wingert, Sandy Jackson, and Tom Becka.