KOLT (1320 AM) was a radio station in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, United States, which operated from 1930 to 2019.
The station was credited with pioneering local news broadcasting on the radio in Nebraska, beginning in the 1930s.
[2][6] After a major blizzard paralyzed the region in 1949, KOLT remained on the air as one of the few sources of communication standing,[2] and it chartered an aircraft that searched for stranded motorists and rescued a couple who had been stuck in their car for four days.
[2] In February 1945, Hilliard applied to the FCC to move KGKY to 1320 kHz with 1,000 watts, of which the commission approved the next year.
The move was delayed enough that the heat had been turned off in the old studio, forcing announcers to deal with cold temperatures while on the air.
[16] In January 1989, a Scotts Bluff County judge ruled that the owners had to pay a mortgage on the property or it would be foreclosed upon.
The owner of KNEB and KNEB-FM petitioned to deny the request, telling the FCC that the local advertising market could not sustain the return of KOLT and asking, "Why resurrect a dead dog?
"[17] The FCC granted Tracy the waiver, and the station returned to the air in May 1992, adopting much the same format it had prior to 1989: country music with regular local news and farm features, as well as The Rush Limbaugh Show and Talknet.
[18] The creation of the first effective cluster of two AM and one FM stations, shortly before radio ownership rules were liberalized, also attracted national attention: Tracy told Radio & Records that the addition of the new country-and-talk station brought new advertising dollars into his operation.
[22] KOLT remained a talk radio outlet as of 2019, with Limbaugh and Sean Hannity among its major programs.
KOAQ, which broadcast a classic country format, was consolidated with a subchannel of KNEB-FM and moved to KHYY.
The Nebraska Rural Radio Association vowed to find buyers for KETT and 1320 (now with the KOAQ call sign) or surrender their facilities.