By day, the station transmits with 5,000 watts. To protect other stations on AM 790, it reduces power at night to 1,000 watts and uses a directional antenna after sunset. Programming is also heard on a 250-watt FMtranslator station, K243BX, on 96.5 MHz.[3]
The station was first licensed in 1926. It originally broadcast from Seattle using the call sign KVOS, and was owned by Lou Kessler.[4] The station moved to Bellingham a year later, making it the second oldest Washington radio station north of Seattle, after KRKO in Everett.[5] In 1928, Aberdeen businessman Rogan Jones bought the station.[6]
In 1933, Jones began airing news bulletins from the Associated Press under the moniker "Newspaper of the Air". The AP obtained a restraining order, but federal judge John Clyde Bowen refused to grant a permanent injunction, saying that news reports belong to the public.[7] Bowen's decision was reversed on appeal, prompting Jones to appeal to the Supreme Court. In 1936, the Supreme Court threw out the restraining order on the grounds that since the AP was a nonprofit organization, it could not incur damages.[8] The case established that radio (and later, television) stations had the same right to news reports as newspapers.[6]
The station broadcast on several different frequencies during its early years. In 1935, it was located on 1200 kilocycles, transmitting with 100 watts, the only radio station between Everett and Vancouver.[9] In 1941, the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA) established new frequencies for many of the early radio stations. KVOS moved to its current frequency of 790 kHz, with 250 watts.[10]
TV and FM stations
In 1953, Jones signed on the area's first television station, KVOS-TV. He sold it in 1962, but kept the radio station. Due to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules at the time regarding separately owned stations not sharing the same call letters, the TV station remained KVOS-TV, while the radio station changed its call sign to the current KGMI. In March 1960, Jones added an FM station on 92.9 MHz, KGMI-FM, which is now KISM.
Jones remained the owner until his death in 1972. In 1998, Saga Communications purchased KGMI and KISM for $9.8 million.[11]
