Monday, June 04, 2007

Speak To Me With Your Sweet Voice

KFMGKFMG lives.

While that is meaningless for anybody reading this who isn't from Des Moines, it is quite a significant statement for those of us here. "Des Moines radio sucks." When I was working at KDRK, Drake University's "Best Radio on Television," that was our t-shirt slogan. At the time, KFMG was literally just about the only bright spot in a market overdosing on Eddie Money, Huey Lewis, AC/DC, and oldies. Unless it was a smash hit, no station other than KFMG would play new music. My former station ("my" meaning I worked there) KKDM 107dot5 changed that to some extent. We injected a bit of life into the stale market albeit temporarily. Eventually, as always seems to happen in the post-consolidation world, KFMG went away, KKDM was bought out by - gack - Clear Channel and was promptly switched to Top 40, and Napster and eventually iTunes and satellite radio were my saviors. Still, all that lacked any community perspective.

Now, KFMG lives. It's not the powerhouse it once was, broadcasting at a measly 100 watts from downtown Des Moines, but it's progress in a retro sort of way. I haven't had the opportunity to check out the new KFMG much (at 99.1 FM by the way), but I plan to, and I'm thrilled for Ron and Mark and everybody else who has lived and breathed KFMG as a way of life. Yes, it's meant that much to some people, and it should. This is community radio at it's finest, and you're likely to discover a brilliant new song when you tune in, which is really what it comes down to.

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