KZUM is a radio station

Radio station

Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...

 licensed in Lincoln, Nebraska

Lincoln, Nebraska

The City of Lincoln is the capital and the second-most populous city of the US state of Nebraska. Lincoln is also the county seat of Lancaster County and the home of the University of Nebraska. Lincoln's 2010 Census population was 258,379....

, USA. The station serves the Lincoln area and is currently owned by Sunrise Communications, Inc.. It features a variety of programming, including jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

, folk music

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

, and bluegrass

Bluegrass music

Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...

.

History

In January 1973, several community activists from Lincoln (Ron Kurtenbach

Ron Kurtenbach

Ron Kurtenbach is a Lincoln, Nebraska communist born January 6, 1943. An enthusiastic community activist, he is one of the original group which founded local Lincoln radio station KZUM and the local grocery co-op Open Harvest...

, Tom Gedwillo, Mike Carper, C. Greg Preston and Bill Laughlin) formed Sunrise Communications, a non-profit corporation. Through fund raising and word-of-mouth, the necessary monies for a Federal Communications Commission

Federal Communications Commission

The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...

 (FCC) application were obtained, and filed in early 1974. KZUM first broadcast in 1978 after negotiating over signal interference with an Omaha TV station. Several buildings housed the station until it located to its present studio and offices in The Terminal Building, in the former facilities of (now defunct) commercial station KFMQ. KZUM is also carried on Lincoln's Time Warner Cable

Time Warner Cable

Time Warner Cable is an American cable television company that operates in 28 states and has 31 operating divisions...

 TV system and streamed worldwide @ kzum.org.

Future

KZUM plans to begin a complete renovation of the current studios within the historic Terminal Building

Terminal Building (Lincoln, Nebraska)

The Terminal Building in Lincoln, Nebraska was built in 1916. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986....

in downtown Lincoln. The project will create two broadcast studios in space that is largely unused. The current broadcast studio will be converted into a performance studio for live and pre-recorded artist performances.

As part of the renovation, a complete equipment upgrade will also take place. This will include new studio equipment and a new, digital transmitter. Once the renovation and upgrades are complete, KZUM will broadcast both a digital signal, as well as an analog signal. Plans are to eventually operate with distinct broadcast schedules on each transmitter.

Programming

Several programmers have been with KZUM virtually since its inception including Eric Bachenberg, Jim Anderson and Hardy Holm. Eric's The Exposition Flyer features folk music, Jim hosted Another Blue Monday in the 1980s and 1990s and has had a variety of blues programs under many names over the years, including today's Blues Oasis. Hardy Holm brought local music to the airwaves as well as a popular Beatles show Strawberry Fields.