Omaha Radio: FCC Searching For Mystery Operator

Operator Unknown

The ghost station of Omaha is a mysterious radio signal at 1490 AM — seemingly without owners, advertisers or disc jockeys — that plays a continuous loop of Buddy Holly, Petula Clark and Bobby Darin, like a 1960s malt-shop jukebox stuffed with an endless supply of coins.

According to omaha.com, nobody seems to know much about it. The Federal Communications Commission admitted it was stumped in papers filed last month.

The station operates under the call letters KOMJ. The FCC said in its filing that the station is owned by Cochise Broadcasting, in Jackson, Wyo. The agency said it could find no phone number for the company.

“On August 1, 2013, an agent from the Kansas City Office attempted to inspect station KOMJ's main studio, while the station was on the air,” the FCC enforcement report reads. “The station's web-page contains no main studio address and only lists a local phone number, which transfers to voice mail for stations located in the state of Arizona. The station's address of record is a mail box in the state of Wyoming.”

The saga took another twist when the FCC dug deeper into the studio location. The agency said it found an unnamed attorney who served as contact person for the station. The attorney, filings say, said the main studio is at 10714 Mockingbird Dr., Omaha.

The FCC sent an inspector; however, the agent from the Kansas City office was unable to located any main studio for KOMJ.

“This location is the main studio for the Journal Broadcast Group stations in Omaha,” according to the inspector's report. “The staff for the Journal Broadcast Group stations stated that station KOMJ's main studio was not located at 10714 Mockingbird Dr. and that no one associated with station KOMJ worked at the location.”  Journal Broadcast Group sold to Cochise Broadcasting in 2007. The FCC said in its report, leases space at the Journal Broadcast studios, but does not broadcast from there.

Lack of a studio and lack of an address for the licensee operating on FCC-regulated airwaves is frowned upon, according to the report.  “Every permittee or licensee of an AM, FM, TV or Class A TV station in the commercial broadcast services shall maintain a public inspection file,” the FCC enforcement action reads. “The file shall be available for public inspection at any time during regular business hours.”

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Tom's Take: A Google search for Cochise Broadcastings led to radiolineup.com which indicated Chochise owns 37-stations in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska.  But no contact info was noted. Another Google search led to the station's skimpy website. A contact page gave a contact phone number. I placed a call and it led to VM saying you have reach KCDQ and to directed me to leave a name& number.   KCDQ is an FM radio station broadcasting at 95.3 MHz. licensed to Douglas, AZ. The station airs adult contemporary programming according to radiolineup.com.  I would suggest the FCC trace the phone number I found.