KASI

KASI (1430 kHz, "News Talk 1430") is a commercial AM radio station in Ames, Iowa, broadcasting a talk radio format. The station is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc., and is licensed to iHM Licenses, LLC. The studios and offices are on Main Street in Ames.

By day, KASI is powered at 1,000 watts non-directional. But to avoid interference at night to other stations on 1430 AM, KASI reduces power to 32 watts. The transmitter is on Martin Street off North Dakota Avenue in Ames. According to the Antenna Structure Registration database, the tower is 124.4 m tall.

Programming
Weekdays begin with a local talk and information show, Mel in the Morning with Mel Crippen. The rest of the schedule is nationally syndicated talk hosts. But because iHeart also owns another talk station heard in Ames, 50,000-watt WHO 1040 Des Moines, KASI avoids duplicating WHO's programming. Syndicated weekday programs include Armstrong & Getty, The Ramsey Show with Dave Ramsey, The Jesse Kelly Show, Red Eye Radio, America in the Morning and Markley, Van Camp & Robbins.

Syndicated programs on weekends include At Home with Gary Sullivan, Rich DeMuro on Tech, Bill Handel on the Law, The Pet Show with Warren Eckstein, America at Night with Rich Valdes, Big Billy Kinder Outdoors and repeats of weekday shows. Most hours begin with an update from Fox News Radio. KASI and sister station KCYZ 105.1 FM carry Iowa State Cyclones college football and men's basketball games.

History
KASI signed on the air on October 1948. The station was assigned the KASI call letters by the Federal Communications Commission. It originally was a daytimer, required to go off the air at night. The owner was the Ames Broadcasting Company with studios at 328 1/2 Main Street. Ames Broadcasting was owned by a woman, a rare event in that era. Betty Baudler Horras started as a bookkeeper before moving up to station management.

Ames Broadcasting also applied for an FM construction permit to put a station on the air at 95.5 MHz. The company proposed that it would have a power of 45,000 watts. But KASI-FM was never built. Then in 1968, Ames Broadcasting did get an FM station on the air, KCCQ at 107.1 MHz. It had an automated Top 40 format. Today that station is co-owned KCYZ at 105.1, airing a Hot AC format.

In January 2016, KASI applied for an FM translator to rebroadcast the AM signal at 94.1 MHz. That application has been approved by the FCC as of February 2016. But it so far is unbuilt.