Even with its modest power, the region's flat land and near-perfect ground conductivity allow KRNI to provide at least secondary coverage to most of north-central Iowa and parts of southern Minnesota.
The Mohawk Broadcasting Company, led by Robert Carson, incorporated in 1947[2] and filed for and received a construction permit from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to build a new radio station on 1010 kHz, to operate with 1,000 watts during daytime hours only, on October 30.
[6] The station suffered a devastating fire to its transmitter site, causing $35,000 in damage, on the night of January 29, 1951; the heat was so intense that the keys melted off typewriters and the entire plant was a total loss, though the studios were not, having previously been moved to the Weir building in downtown Mason City.
[12] Warren then sold the company to Red Blanchard and Harry Campbell in 1959 for $140,000; by this time, KSMN had additional studios in Hampton and Clear Lake.
The sale was made because of the increasing demands on Blanchard as an entertainer, with more public appearances and a planned color television broadcast of the Barn Dance.
[23] It was donated to the University of Northern Iowa, which at the time had been providing a rebroadcast service of KHKE in Cedar Falls in the Mason City area via a low-powered translator.
[25] The transmitter, cited as having 10 years of service life remaining when Hedberg donated the facility to UNI,[24] was replaced in 1999 using federal grant monies.