Construction to house the new station began in December, 1948 at 1030 West Third Street, with the hope of being on the air by Spring, 1949. However, the big blizzard of January, 1949 severely handicapped the completion of the building.

Feeling the need that a local radio station was even greater due to the blizzard and its effects, it was decided not to delay the start of operations until spring. Securing the use of a small building, installation of radio equipment began as soon as workmen could break through the snow drifts.

KCOW Radio went on the air at 6:30am, Tuesday, February 15, 1949.

The first board of directors were Hans Jaggers, president; Walter Metz, Sr.; vice-president, Wharton Cover, Sec/Treas. T.C. Gregory, Harry McKibbin & Don Berman.

The call letters KCOW tell a story by themselves. KCOW is situated in cow country at the edge of the Nebraska Sandhills.

The station was located at 1030 West Third Street for six years. The current location of the Alliance Lumber Company. In 1955, Sandhills Broadcasting, Inc. purchased a tract of land west of Alliance on 10th Street. The studio was moved to its present location at 1210 West 10th Street.

The managers in succession were Charles Bilyue, Gene Ackerly, Jim Ballas, Don Gill, Jack Everton, Jim Kamerzell, Rich Epp and Mike Garwood. The station’s first Sales Manager was Arnold Kuhn, longtime publisher of the Hemingford Ledger newspaper.

In 1966, KLOE Radio, Inc., a Kansas based corporation, purchased Sandhills Broadcasting. The sale was made so amicably and smoothly that not even an inventory was taken. A handshake secured the sale, which was made over a dinner meeting in the Drake Hotel restaurant in downtown Alliance.

From 1949 to 1975, KCOW was a non-directional, 1,000 watt, daytime station, with the exception of night ball games and special events.

As KCOW has grown, new equipment has been added and the facilities updated and expanded. On October 1, 1985, a new FM station, KAAQ 105.9 Mhz, was added to the KCOW broadcast facilities.

KAAQ covered western Nebraska, and reached into northern Colorado, and eastern Wyoming with 100,000 watts of power.

Six years later, KQSK, 97.5 Mhz FM Radio in Chadron, NE was purchased. On August 14, 1991, Double Q Country was formed. KAAQ and KQSK simulcast country music to a four state region. The KQSK studio is located at 331 Main Street in downtown Chadron.

The stations began offering streaming audio of Chadron State College Sports on the internet in 1999.

The company was renamed Eagle Communications, Inc. on October 6, 1992. Ten years later, on October 1, 2002, the employees of Eagle Communications, Inc. And it’s subsidiary, Eagle Radio, Inc. acquired majority ownership of the company, officially making KCOW/Double Q Country employee owned radio stations.

Eagle Radio, Inc. owns 23 radio stations in Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri.