It was part of one of the many former Citadel clusters that Cumulus got almost 15 years ago. And was an expanded band station that replaced a former AM in KKSO, which was on 1390, back in ‘98.Was this station part of a cluster that Cumulus bought? I can't think of anyone that would buy a really really high band AM this century unless it had a translator that could go farther than the 25 mile rule and the ground conductivity of the AM signal let you go farther.
Originally KCBC, one of a set of AM stations established in Des Moines in the last half of the 1940s...the others were KWKY and KIOA...and never particularly successful. Reputedly, it had a difficult directional pattern (same pattern day and night), which was why it got an expanded-band allocation. The 1975 NRC pattern book (at worldradiohistory.com) shows a pattern with four nulls with the main lobe pointing west and a secondary lobe to the north-northeast, along two other minor lobes.It was part of one of the many former Citadel clusters that Cumulus got almost 15 years ago. And was an expanded band station that replaced a former AM in KKSO, which was on 1390, back in ‘98.