KUOA

KUOA (1290 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Siloam Springs, Arkansas. It serves Northwest Arkansas, including Fayetteville and Bentonville. KUOA simulcasts the sports radio format heard on co-owned 99.5 KAKS and is owned by Hog Radio, Inc. The two stations are known as "ESPN Northwest Arkansas." They carry Arkansas-based sports shows in morning drive time and during the afternoon. A nationally syndicated sports show hosted by Dan Le Batard is heard in late mornings and ESPN Radio is carried nights and weekends.
KUOA has a daytime power of 5,000 watts. But to protect other stations on AM 1290, it greatly reduces power at night to 31 watts. It uses a non-directional antenna. The transmitter is off West University Street in Siloam Springs, near the Arkansas-Oklahoma border. Programming is also heard on FM translator 95.3 K237GR in Johnson.
History.
On April 12, 1923, the station signed on the air. It originally was a [[daytimer]], required to go off the air at sunset, when radio waves travel farther. The original frequency was 1260 [[kilocycle]]s, moving to AM 1290 with the enactment in 1941 of the [[North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement]] (NARBA).
The station was acquired by [[John Brown University]] in 1933. It was run as a [[Christian radio]] station, carrying religious programs and [[Southern Gospel]] music. In 1947, it added an FM station at 105.7, using the [[call sign]] KUOA-FM. The two stations were [[network affiliate]]s of the [[Mutual Broadcasting System]]. The FM station was later sold to separate owners and is now [[KMCK-FM]], a [[contemporary hit radio|Top 40]] station.
In 2005, the university sold the AM radio station to longtime Northwest Arkansas broadcaster Dewey Johnson. But he retired due to health problems. The station was sold later that year to Galen O. Gilbert, a former JBU student who had owned radio stations in Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. Gilbert started a [[classic country]] format on the station.
The station was sold in August 2008 to longtime Arkansas broadcaster Jay Bunyard, and became an all-[[sports radio]] station known as "The Hog". Paired with a brand new Fayetteville-licensed FM translator at 105.3 FM, the radio station aired live and local programming throughout the day, and focused mainly on [[Arkansas Razorbacks]] athletics.
In 2010, Bunyard purchased [[FM 99.5]] [[KAKS]], and The Hog was [[simulcast]] on its 25,000 watt signal. On December 13, 2012, KUOA split from its simulcast with sports-formatted [[KAKS]] 99.5 FM and changed to a [[talk radio]] format, branded as "AM 1290 The Mouth".
On January 1, 2015, the talk programming was discontinued. KUOA resumed simulcasting sports-formatted KAKS 99.5 FM.
KUOA began airing its programming on [[FM translator]] K249EV 97.7 MHz, licensed to [[Johnson, Arkansas]]. In November 2016, the translator moved its frequency to 95.3 FM, as K237GR.
External links.
[[Category:Radio stations in Arkansas|UOA]]
[[Category:Radio stations established in 1984]]