KALISPELL — Turn the dial to KOFI 1180 AM and you’ll soon find out the latest happenings in Flathead County.
“KOFI in 1955, the second radio station in the Flathead Valley, we’re 60s, 70s and 80s, we do a lot of sports, of course, we have the Griz,” said KOFI 1180 co-owner Dave Rae.
Rae said the AM station has a loyal following of listeners in the Flathead Valley, “Oh yeah we have a lot of local news, and we do have talk shows and nighttime talk as well.”
People who were listening around 2 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024, were caught by surprise as KOFI went off the air.
“Yeah, the building which houses our transmitter, and all of our equipment caught on fire, we believe it’s electrical or equipment and it totally destroyed the building which put KOFI down,” said Rae.
Thankfully nobody was inside the transmitter building off Steel Bridge Road in Kalispell when it caught fire, but lost was a 50,000-watt transmitter that sends their signal across northwest Montana.
“We didn’t lose any of our towers, we have two towers, so those are safe, we just got to get the new equipment in here and get it up and running.”
Engineers at the radio station were able to get the station back on air by Monday, Nov. 11, on a short-term low-power fix.
They’ve ordered a new 1,000-watt transmitter that should be operational in a few weeks and will be sustainable until a new 50,000-watt transmitter arrives.
“We have pretty good insurance, and we are just waiting for an insurance adjuster now to get ahold of us, and we can’t do anything with the building or anything to that point until the adjuster gets here," Rae told MTN.
Rae said the station has been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from the extended radio family.
“We’ve had other radio stations from around the state call us up and say hey what can we do, if there’s anything let us know, we’ve even had other radio stations in the state say I have equipment what do you need.”
Rae said Flathead listeners can help the station by keeping that dial turned to 1180 AM.
“We just need you to keep listening and support us, we need your support now more than ever, and soon we will be back up with more power on KOFI."
