Text has been updated to correct name spellings of Dan Nezgoda and Doug Ducote.
ScarboroughRadio will throw the switch soon on a new Class A 3.5 kW FM station in eastern Colorado.
KFII, broadcasting on 92.3 and licensed to the small town of Hugo, is the product of the FCC’s Auction 109 in 2021.
Owner Scott Scarborough began his career in radio in 1975 at AM station KWJB(now KJAA) in Globe, Ariz., and has worked as a DJ, news reporter and air personality. An important influence was Jay Stone, his old program director at KUPD(FM), Tempe, Ariz., “the best top 40 PD I ever knew.”
Scarborough said the new station is in rural country “but we have thousands of daily potential listeners who travel along Interstate 70 between Denver and Goodland, Kan. The format will consist of local community public service, school news and weather. The whole mix of ‘at least 50 minutes of music per hour’ will feature the widest selections of the 1970s and ’80s.”
He said the project “is 100% self-funded and has been a pay-as-it-goes plan.”
KFII is using a four-bay Nicom BKG-77 antenna array on a short tower atop a grain elevator along I-70 north of Hugo.
“The station is purely old school,” Scarborough said. “It will sign on with a used Armstrong FM-3500T tube transmitter — which has an exciter, IPA and high-power system in the same cabinet — an Optimod 8100, DJBRadio’s Button Box Pro software, Barix AoiP, Autogram AC-6 console and a Sage EAS.”
Scarborough said engineers Kit Haskins, Doug Ducote, Chris Hall and Dan Nezgoda were important contributors to the project. He also thanked John Davis of Wheatstone; Randy Pugsley; Ron Paley of DJB Radio; Jay Brentlinger and Robert Leembruggen of Orban Legacy Parts & Service; and Lew Jones and JJ McKay of Local Radio Networks.
After some final tech details are worked out he hopes KFII will go live in May.