KOH Radio Then and Now

Various locations – Reno, Nevada

Radio came to Reno in fits and starts. The University of Nevada’s School of Electrical Engineering attempted to get their own station going during the 1921-22 school year.

Call letters KOJ were assigned in the Spring of 1922.

But the school wasn’t actually ready to proceed and by that July, the university no longer had a license. Later that year, there were KDZK (Nevada Machinery and Electric Company) at the Majestic Theatre and KFAS (Hadley S Beedle and Dr. D. H. Cordano). KFFR was at Sparks High School in 1923 but there was no local radio in Reno by 1924. In the Spring of 1928, listeners relied on regional stations as far away as Denver.

That July, the local broadcasting question was posed to readers.

Enter mobile broadcaster, Jay Peters. In the Spring of 1928, the Albuquerque Journal reported Peters’ portable station KGGM would be broadcasting during the C. C. Pyle cross-country marathon in a Graham school bus. The Federal Radio Commission banned portable stations that summer so Peters made arrangements to set up a permanent location in Albuquerque. KGGM began broadcasting from the mezzanine of the Franciscan Hotel that August.

Leaving W. E. Whitmore and A. R. Riedling to operate the station in Albuquerque, Jay Peters made his way to Reno.

Space was leased by the newly formed Jay Peters, Inc. in the basement of the Elks’ Home at 50 N Sierra Street.

Broadcast station KOH was granted a construction permit in September of 1928.

A transmitter was installed at Blanchfield Field southwest of Plumas Street and Urban Road.

To operate a radio station, one needs programming. Prior to securing network affiliation, KOH was on its own and began appealing to the community for talent.

The first official KOH broadcast was scheduled for November 11, 1928, which was Armistice Day.

However, the station needed to make sure everything worked properly so test broadcasts were conducted followed by a singing competition on October 30.

Everything went so well, KOH was able to broadcast election returns live from the Gazette offices. Church services were broadcast on the fourth Sunday of each month. Listeners could also set their watches to the radio, as KOH gave the correct time each hour.

There’s a lot going on in this photo from April of 1929. I haven’t been able to locate the name of the announcer but he had bottles of whiskey and sparkling wine stashed on top of the equipment in the basement window.

The Elks Home was demolished after the gas explosions at First and Sierra on February 5, 1957. The site is currently occupied by The Palladio apartments and retail shops. Here’s how it looks today:

Peters leased a third of the Otto Steinheimer building at 440 N Virginia in the Summer of 1930.

This allowed the station to remove the transmitter from the old municipal airport (Blanchfield Field) and install two new 100-foot towers on the building. KOH moved to its new location that October.

The former site of the airport, which was known by several names, is now the Washoe County Golf Course and Reno Tennis Center. A marker on Plumas Street commemorates the site.

Peters sold KOH to the McClatchy Company in February of 1931, right after becoming a CBS affiliate. Joy True became the station’s general manager at that time and was also responsible for the Bee Engraving Company, which was part of the Sacramento Bee.

Former Reno resident and heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey is pictured at the KOH microphone, possibly prior to a fight at Race Track Arena in 1931.

True resigned as general manager when she remarried in July of 1937. Her replacement was Wallie Warren.

In September of 1939, McClatchy announced plans to build a new transmitter on a 20-acre site northeast of what is now Sparks Boulevard and E Prater Way. Their FCC application requested a power increase from 500 to 1,000 watts and a frequency change from 1380 to 630 kilocycles. After initially being denied, the application was finally approved that December. A new studio building projected to cost $20,000 was also in the works, as was a change from CBS to NBC effective January 1, 1940.

The former KOH studio at 440 N Virginia Street is shown here in the 1980s.

This is the building as of May 2026:

The new KOH studio building was constructed at 143 Stevenson Street. This air-conditioned facility included two studios, a control room, and staff offices. Members of the public were invited to inspect the new building, which opened August 23, 1940.

Announcer and technician Bryan Wright, who had joined KOH in 1937, is shown here in the Stevenson studio.

Chief transmitter engineer Tom Boland, shown here cueing up a record, left Reno to become an experimental engineer with Boston’s Submarine Signal Co. in October of 1944.

Merrill Inch was hired to manage KOH in November of 1947.

In the Spring of 1964, KOH obtained a variance from Washoe County to build a new studio and office space at the transmission site on E Prater Way. The transmitter building was also expanded as part of that project. The old facility on Stevenson was vacated by the Spring of 1965 and later housed the Nevada Thrift Shop. It was demolished in the 1970s to make way for a new Greyhound bus station. That building was also demolished in late 2018 to early 2019. It is now an empty lot.

KOH, which had broadcast all sorts of entertainment since 1928, switched to an all-news format in 1975. They did continue with sports broadcasts, however.

In February of 1982, a public hearing was scheduled to discuss McClatchy’s plans to develop the 20 acres so that about half would be office buildings surrounding the studio and the other half would be a mix of townhomes and shopping. This would require the two towers to be moved. The name for the project would be McClatchy Corner. In October of that year, McClatchy sold KOH in a confusing move which can only be explained by FCC rules. Sierra-Pacific, Price, Klein…you get the idea.

So McClatchy Corner wasn’t really a thing but the development did eventually materialize with the studio and transmitter towers both being relocated. Olympic Broadcasters, Inc. acquired the station in the Summer of 1990. KOH began operating in an office park on Delucchi Lane.

Olympic sold the KOH call letters and programming to Citadel Communications, Inc. in the Spring of 1994 but not the station itself. Space was acquired at 595 E Plumb Lane for this new operation. As part of the deal, Citadel wanted to increase its power to 50,000 watts and that meant losing the familiar three-letter call. The new KKOH moved to 780 on the dial but has continued being advertised as KOH.

Citadel Broadcasting Corporation was reorganized as Citadel Broadcasting Company in 2010 and it then merged with Cumulus Media, Inc. An application to transfer the KKOH license was submitted in the Spring of 2011.

KKOH continues to operate at 595 E Plumb Lane.

Terrestrial radio was a vital part of everyday life for the majority of the twentieth century. The stations hanging in there today have adapted to the digital age while keeping on-air personalities who are connected to their communities. KOH seems to have found its niche in the talk format and is going strong after nearly 100 years.

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