KUOM (770 AM) – branded Radio K – is a daytime-only non-commercial educational college/alternative rock radio station licensed to serve Minneapolis, Minnesota. KUOM covers the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, and extends its reach with three low-power broadcast relay stations and one full-power repeater that also allow KUOM's programming to be heard 24 hours a day. Owned by the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, the station is operated by both faculty and students. The KUOM studios are located at the Rarig Center on the University of Minnesota campus, while the station transmitter is in Falcon Heights. Besides a standard analog transmission, KUOM is also available online. KUOM's AM signal operates with a non-directional antenna located on the St. Paul/Falcon Heights campus. Due to its 770 kHz frequency located low on the band combined with the region's flat terrain and excellent soil conductivity, the station's AM coverage is comparable to that of a full-power FM station, thus 770 can be heard throughout the Twin Cities area, with grade B coverage in St. Cloud and Mankato. However, the AM is licensed to operate during daylight hours only in order to protect WABC in New York at night. The hours of operation vary from month to month, reflecting local sunrise and sunset times, with the day's sign on and signoff changing from month to month; signoff, for example, ranges from 4:30 p.m. in winter to 9:00 p.m. in summer. KUOM's first broadcasting station license, as WLB, was granted on January 13, 1922. This was Minnesota's first broadcast station license, making KUOM one of the oldest radio stations in the United States. In addition, the university traces its radio activities back more than 100 years, starting with experimental work in 1912, followed by radiotelegraph broadcasts begun in 1920, and radiotelephone broadcasts of market reports inaugurated in February 1921, making KUOM one of the oldest surviving radio stations in North America. History WX2 and 9XI Originally called "wireless telegraphy," radio experimentation at the University of Minnesota began in 1912, conducted by Professor Franklin Springer, using spark transmitters that could only send the dots-and-dashes of Morse code. In January 1916, it was reported that as a "first in the northwest," the College of Engineering was planning to transmit the progress of that night's basketball game between the University of Minnesota and the visiting University of Iowa team. In late 1919, following the end of World War I,