KOIL

The original KOIL first signed on the air on July 10, 1925. It 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 location moved to Omaha in 1937.

KOIL was one of the stations that participated in the first CBS network radio broadcast on September 18, 1927.[3] Its network affiliation switched to NBC December 1, 1931.[4]

The station was purchased by salesman and promoter Don Burden in 1953, who later put a Top 40 format on KOIL. The station became part of Burden's Star Stations.

As a result of a Federal Communications Commission investigation into improprieties involving Burden and his stations—including alleged 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 in September 1976. The last song played by DJ Gene Shaw as it went off the air on September 2, 1976, was 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.

Three months later, on December 16, 1976, KOIL resumed transmission under new ownership by Omaha businessman Nathan Novak.

In 1993, the KOIL call sign moved to 1180 AM in an exchange with station KKAR. In April 2003 it moved to 1020 AM, replacing KKSC (now KMMQ).[5] The call sign returned to 1180 kHz in January 2009; on June 4, 2012, KOIL was returned to 1290 AM and rebranded as the Mighty 1290 KOIL [6] and now includes live, local weekend programming from local hosts Thor Schrock,[7] Darren Carlson,[8] Sean McGwire[9] and T.J. Bell[10][11]

Announcers who once worked for KOIL include Roger W. Morgan, Gene Okerlund, Gary Michael Ross, Dr. Don Rose,[12] Dick Sainte, and former Shindig! host Jimmy O'Neill; The Real Don Steele, Gary Owens, Kris Eric Stevens, Lyle Dean, Frank "Coffeehead" Allen, Joe Light, Dave Wingert, Sandy Jackson, and Tom Becka.