A Salute to Small Market Hometown Radio

By | August 19, 2013

For me, one of the big benefits of taking a cross country road trip is being able to listen to local radio along the way. Used to be, every town had a station that was live, local, and sounded different than every other station.

This is by no means a complete list. But here are some of the ones that I’ve personally heard and enjoyed over the past month:

KMZU-FM 100.7 “The Farm” – Carrolton, Missouri
KMMO-FM 102.9 – Marshall, Missouri
KPRM-AM 870 & KDKK-FM 97.5 – Park Rapids, Minnesota
WJMC-FM 96.1 – Rice Lake, Wisconsin
KSJB-AM 600 – Jamestown, North Dakota
KCHK-AM 1350 & FM 95.5 – New Prague, Minnesota
KFMW-FM 107.9 – Waterloo, Iowa
KWMT-AM 540 – Fort Dodge, Iowa
KTOE-AM 1420 – Mankato, Minnesota

Now, with syndication, satellite programming, and voice tracking, most stations sound the same and lose my interest after a few minutes. But there are a few that are still doing it the old-fashioned way and serving their local communities like we used to do. If you happen to be one of these broadcasters, you’re one of my heroes!

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