FCC Approves Upgrade for Des Moines-Area Christian FM

The FCC has approved an upgrade that will improve the Des Moines signal of Contemporary Christian station “Life 107.1” (KNWI Osceola).

KNWI and the commercial formats that preceded it have long targeted listeners in Des Moines, though the station’s 30kW/193m (class C2) facility does not deliver a city-grade (70 dbu) or protected (60 dbu) signal to the capital city. It’s owned by the University of Northwestern-St. Paul.

Now, the station has received a construction permit to upgrade to 100kW/299m (class C1) from a new tower near Lorimar. With the change, KNWI will retain its current coverage area while improving its signal to Des Moines and areas west of the city.

107.1 can’t move any closer than that to Des Moines because it’s only two steps on the dial away from KKDM/107.5.

The new facility will still not deliver a city-grade signal to Des Moines, but the city will be within its 60 dbu contour. That means it will generally be receivable on most radios in the city, but still a bit weaker than other stations.

To upgrade KNWI, UNW Media Holdings bought KDSN-FM/107.1 (Denison) and applied to move KDSN-FM to 104.9, where it will retain its 6kW signal and current coverage area. The KDSN-FM and KNWI moves were granted simultaneously on August 9.

(UNW also bought KDSN/1530 and sold the combo to Crawford County Broadcasting after the KDSN-FM frequency change application was filed.)

KNWI has always been unusual among Northwestern’s stations in that it isn’t a major core-market signal like the university’s longtime stations in Waterloo, Madison, Minneapolis, Fargo, and Sioux Falls and its recently-added stations in Omaha and Kansas City. (Also unusual about Des Moines is that it hasn’t had a core 100kW Christian station since KDMI-FM/97.3 went Country in 1993.)

KNWI’s programming is simulcast on KNWM/96.1 (Madrid), which rimshots Des Moines and Ames. Though the two station’s signals will have more overlap after the upgrade, KNWM will still have a stronger signal to Ames.