History

KROE-AM was started by Sam Rosenthal on March 18, 1961. The station operated in a mobile home out in the country on what was fondly called "dump road."

KROE Studio in 2002

Kim Love purchased KROE in November, 1974. By the 1980's the station had grown from a 1,000 watt station to a 5,000 watt station, and had moved to a new 3000+ square foot building. A sister station, KROE-FM at 94.9MHz was also added. This station would later become KZWY.

Eventually, the informal "dump road" became the formal "KROE Lane." KROE's musical programming changed from a western format to a more contemporary adult sound. Music was put on the air by live DJ's manually playing records.

KROE Studio, in the 1990's

In the spring of 1983, the music moved to a less-scratchy reel-to-reel medium, but the station still featured live DJ's and news. Programming highlights included Joe Skatula's "Polka Party" featuring polka music and stories delivered in Polish. Another popular program was the "Make Believe Ballroom," with 40's big band sounds. The Polka Party ended in the mid 90's, and the Big Band show moved to KWYO in 1998. However, other long-time programs are still on the air on KROE, including Swap Shop, and the public affairs call-in program, Public Pulse.

In the early and mid 90's KROE changed to a satellite-delivered country format, but still retained the local touch of live DJ's, news and local talk during key hours of the day, as well as live coverage of local sporting events.

In the late 90's the station switched to a new state-of-the-art computer-based "voice tracking" system, which allowed the station to have local announcers on the air 24 hours a day, but didn't require a DJ to be stuck in the studio for the entire duration of their show. In 1997, Kim Love's Lovcom, Inc. acquired KWYO-FM. That station was given a new life as KYTI. The country music moved from KROE to the new KYTI-FM, and KROE became Sheridan's "Good Times and Great Oldies" station.

On July 1st 2004, KROE officially became Sheridan's home for "More Stimulating Talk Radio," bringing the popular local talk programs together with the best nationally syndicated talkers. The newscast schedule was increased to include local news at the bottom of most hours. Today, KROE is the number one place to get local information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

In the mid 90's KROE converted to the AudioVAULT digital automation system