KCIZ

"KCIZ" (1650 AM) is a non-commercial, unlicensed radio station serving the community of Mora, Minnesota and its immediate surroundings. The station broadcasts a classic rock format during the day, playing "lighter" selections in the morning and "harder" ones in the afternoon; it also airs community-oriented talk programming and other local interest shows at night and on weekends. The station is owned by the Mora public school district, and is operated by the school's Career Center. The on-air personalities and other station workers are often high school students, who either are volunteering in their free time, or are enrolled in a School to Work class and are spending time working at the station as a form of on-the-job training.
Although KCIZ does air some public service announcements and solicits donations from time to time, its programming is otherwise commercial-free. Support for the station comes mainly from grants, as well as from private donations and program underwriting.
History
KCIZ began its life in early 2007 with a completely different home, format, and call letters - at that time it was a student-run project at a youth center in Mora, and was to be a Top 40 station with the self-assigned call letters KRAP (pronounced on-air as "K-Rap"). The station spent its first several months operating under this arrangement, and served as little more than a hobby for its youthful operators. Things went on in this fashion for a while, until the center's management decided that housing a radio station did not fit with their mission, or their budget. The kids (and their adult advisors) were encouraged to seek a new home for the station. Since all involved wanted to see the station succeed, the format and call letters were changed in preparation for the move, and the process of finding a new host organization began shortly thereafter.
After several informal meetings and a brief presentation to the school board in April of 2008, it was confirmed that Mora Public Schools would assume responsibility and ownership of the station, and that a move to the High School was imminent. Construction of a new antenna at the school began immediately, and KCIZ signed on from its new location for the first time in early June. By August the antenna at the youth center had been dismantled, and by the end of October the station was finally able to vacate its old studios.
KCIZ's Debut
To make the station more appealing to potential host organizations, it was decided in July of 2007 that major format and branding changes were needed. The station's volunteer engineer (who, at that time, was the only person involved with radio background) was tapped to help create a new image for 1650.
A week before the Kanabec County Fair, during the Tuesday afternoon drive, the station bid farewell to its old format and re-emerged as "MusicRadio 16" KCIZ. The new format leaned towards oldies rock from the '70s and '80s, but also attempted to mix in some more current rock selections throughout the day. The station was able to retain most of its volunteer airstaff, and also added its first morning show, the short-lived "Cassie & Kelsey's Morning Mess". The "MusicRadio" format also introduced KCIZ's tradition of "Freeform Fridays", which were instituted to appease the youthful (and, since the format change, somewhat bored) air talent.
"MusicRadio 16" aimed to put itself on the map by doing an unusually long remote broadcast - 18 hours a day, 2 days in a row - from the Kanabec County Fair. All airstaff reported to the station's booth at the Fair during those two days, and did their regular shows right out in the middle of the festivities. This helped to promote the new format and raise awareness of the station's presence, which up to then was virtually unknown.
Evolution
The station's makeover was instrumental in making the move to Mora High School possible, but the changes were by no means over. After the school took over, the transition from semi-freeform to full-fledged classic rock continued on, eventually leading to the creation of a 2,000 song playlist, song rotation, and yet another name and slogan - "16/KCIZ, The Rock of Mora".
KCIZ would operate using local automation for much of the summer and fall of 2008, to allow the new studio construction to be completed and to provide time to train staff and recruit new students to participate. By early 2009, things were finally settling down, and the process of replacing daytime automation with live shows began.
The school also wanted to see KCIZ grow beyond its extremely limited signal and hours of operation. Streaming, which had always been critical to the station's success, was improved to support more listeners and better audio quality. The school also began carrying KCIZ's audio on its regional cable channel. Paperwork needed to apply for an LPFM license was completed, and alliances were formed with other local groups to add more local content for evenings and weekends, and to discuss future construction of translators in neighboring towns.
Today
Today, KCIZ is still largely run and maintained by high-school aged students. Most of the shows are created by teenagers - shows that air between 7 AM and 4 PM are live, while shows that fall between 4 PM and 11 PM are recorded earlier in the day. Many of the station's traditional programming features, such as the "Psycho Deli" lunchtime request program, "Children's Hour" afternoon hard rock show, and the self-explanatory "Freeform Friday", are still in place.
Because of the station's severely limited reach, a dayparting strategy has been implemented. The strategy assumes that students are not listening between the hours of 8 AM and 3 PM weekdays, and so caters to downtown office workers by playing "softer" selections during that time. Programming that appeals to students, including "harder" rock tunes, is saved for the afternoon, evening, and early morning hours.
The station has also become the new home of Terry Nord's locally-produced "Nord Country" show, which features classic country and western music - a former staple of Pine City radio station WCMP before ownership changes there left the show without a timeslot. New episodes premiere at noon on Saturdays, with encore presentations nightly at 11 PM.
Future plans include the addition of play-by-play sports coverage, and a wider variety of locally-produced programs from various community groups during the weekends.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu