Religious leaders heard on KNWS include David Jeremiah, Alistair Begg, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, Rick Warren and Chuck Swindoll.

But 1090 AM is a clear channel frequency reserved for stations in Little Rock, Baltimore and Tijuana.

The station became KBOK on April 27, 1950, with the new call letters making their on-air debut on May 8.

[3] At that time, Waterloo Broadcasting sought to move the station to 1280 kHz, using a new tower site, but eventually requested that the construction permit be canceled.

In January 1953, it was announced that the Northwestern Schools would acquire KBOK, converting it to a noncommercial Christian format.