| KOUU | |
| City: | Pocatello, Idaho |
| Branding: | Country Classics 1290 AM/96.5 FM |
| Airdate: | November 21, 1956[1] |
| Frequency: | 1290 kHz |
| Translator: | see below |
| Format: | Classic Country |
| Power: | 50,000 watts day 24 watts night |
| Class: | D |
| Facility Id: | 28255 |
| Coordinates: | 42.9578°N -112.4294°W |
| Former Callsigns: | KYTE (1956–1962) KSNN (1962–1978) KISU (1978–1981) KZBQ (1981–1995) |
| Affiliations: | ABC Radio |
| Owner: | Idaho Wireless Corporation |
| Website: | countryclassicsidaho.com |
| Licensing Authority: | FCC |
KOUU (1290 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a classic country music format, as well as local high school sports events.[2] Licensed to Pocatello, Idaho, United States, the station is currently owned by Idaho Wireless Corporation and features programming from ABC Radio.[3]
The station went on the air as KYTE on November 21, 1956. J. Ronald Bayton, the original owner of the independent, music-minded KYTE, sold the station a year later for $60,000 to Thomas R. and A. H. Becker of Newport, Oregon.[4]
Further changes came during 1961 and 1962, when KYTE moved from its original base to a new downtown studio,[5] reopened after a month's silence under new management,[6] and changed its call letters to KSNN on February 26, 1962. The new managers, Tommy Thompson and Daniel C. Libeg, also acquired the station itself: in 1965, Libeg bought out Thompson's share in KSNN.[7]
After a vandalism attempt in April 1967 in which someone shot out the tower lights with a .22-caliber rifle,[8] the station sought approval to move its transmitter site[9] as part of a $100,000 expansion that also included new studio facilities and the construction of an FM station at 93.7 MHz, KSNN-FM.[10] The new offices opened in September 1968,[11] while the FM outlet launched in 1969. KSNN also was hit with a lawsuit from the Associated Press in July 1969 for failure to pay a wire service bill.[12]
While the AM and FM outlets simulcast for the latter's first years in operation, the two stations split the simulcast in 1977, with the FM continuing to offer a Top 40 format while the AM flipped to oldies.[13]
In March 1978, KSNN-AM-FM was sold to the KSNN Broadcasting Company, composed primarily of three businessmen from Hutchinson, Kansas, for $159,000.[14] The new ownership changed the call letters of the AM station to KISU on May 1. A format change in April 1981 resulted in new KZBQ call letters, allowing the television station at Idaho State University to pick up the KISU-TV calls later that year.[15]
KZBQ was acquired by its current owners, Idaho Wireless, in 1985 for $325,000; by this time, it ran an adult contemporary format.[16]
On January 23, 1995, the station changed its call sign to the current KOUU, call letters that had resided on the then-unbuilt 104.1 station at American Falls which became KORR.[17]
Three translators are listed as associated with the KOUU license: