KVCU (1190 AM) is Radio 1190, the University of Colorado’s freeform student station, on a frequency that started out as the original home of KBCO. If you were in Boulder in the 70s or 80s, this dial position is where a lot of Boulder rock began.
History
Brocade Broadcasting began applying in 1969, got a permit for a Boulder daytimer in November 1972 and signed on KADE on November 1, 1973, with middle-of-the-road music and news. When that didn’t pay, a sales manager talked the owners into progressive rock. Two years later, Centennial Wireless bought it for $220,000, and in 1979 it was approved for 5,000 watts.
The owners bought 97.3 FM in 1981 and named it KBCO. The AM took the KBCO name too in 1985. Noble Broadcast Group bought both for $27.25 million in 1987, and Jacor bought Noble in 1996. In mid-1997, Jacor needed to shed a station to buy another FM, so it donated 1190 to CU. The station went silent in January 1998 and came back on November 4, 1998, as KVCU, with student DJs and volunteers.
Recent years
It shut down for a while during COVID in 2020, went off the air in May 2022 for infrastructure work and returned to AM on February 16, 2023. On February 13, 2025, it added a Denver FM translator at 92.9. In the winter of 2025–26, its studios moved from the basement of the University Memorial Center, home for almost 50 years, to the garden level of Carlson Gymnasium.
Call sign timeline
- KADE: 1973 to 1985
- KBCO: 1985 to 1998 (briefly KBLD in June 1994)
- KVCU: 1998 to present
The signal
- 1190 kHz AM, licensed to Boulder, Colorado; FM translator at 92.9 since 2025
- Branding: Radio 1190
- FCC facility ID 48965
Sources
STATION FILE
FROM THE TIMELINE
Moments in KVCU-AM History
KADE becomes KBCO
KADE becomes KBCO: the 1190 AM station in Boulder changed its call letters from KADE to KBCO in 1985 (exact day not yet confirmed).
KVCU Radio 1190 hits the air at CU Boulder
November 4, 1998 — After Jacor donated the old KBCO 1190 AM to the University of Colorado and the station went silent in January, it came back as KVCU, Radio 1190, run by student DJs and volunteers from the basement of the University Memorial Center.
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