KMAQ-FM

KMAQ-FM is an American radio station, licensed to operate on FM 95.1 from Maquoketa, Iowa. KMAQ-FM, and its sister AM station KMAQ, simulcast each other for about half the broadcast day. The KMAQ-FM studios are downtown at 129 North Main Street. Both share the same transmitter site, northeast of town on 233rd Road.

KMAQ-FM
Broadcast areaJackson–Jones County, Iowa
Frequency95.1 MHz
Programming
FormatAdult contemporary
Ownership
OwnerMaquoketa Broadcasting Co.
History
First air date
1967
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID39857
ClassA
ERP6,000 watts
HAAT100 meters (330 ft)
Links
Public license information
Websitekmaq.com

KMAQ-FM was established as an adjunct to KMAQ AM in 1967. It allowed the daytime AM radio station to offer programming at night. The frequencies began broadcasting split music programming in the early 1980s.

History

On August 2, 1965, Jackson County Broadcasting Company agreed to sell KMAQ (AM) to Maquoketa Broadcasting Company, owned by KMAQ manager Dennis Voy, who continues ownership of the station today. Voy, who financed the purchase through a loan from his father, was only 26 at the time. The Goetz brothers would go on to form Goetz Broadcasting Company, which grew to the then-FCC-mandated ownership limit of 12 stations, which stretched from Illinois to Michigan. Nathan Goetz died in 2018 at the age of 92.

In the summer of 1966, KMAQ was granted an FM license to operate on 95.3 MHz and signed on the air the following year. The new station allowed KMAQ, a daytime-only AM outlet, to cover sports broadcasts at night.[2] In October 1970, following a fire at a neighboring business that caused some damage to studio equipment,[3] KMAQ moved to its current location at 129 North Main Street in Maquoketa. The station was briefly off the air in 1974 when someone shot at the tower, damaging the transmission line feeding the FM antenna.[4]

In 1971, KMAQ-AM-FM gained a sister station in nearby Savanna, Illinois: WCCI. The station was sold to a new owner five years later.

In the early 1980s, KMAQ split its AM and FM frequencies to offer separate programming, with country music on AM and adult contemporary music on FM.[2][5]

Staff

KMAQ-AM-FM has the distinction of having an all-female sales force, with the exception of its sales manager Leighton Hepker, who first joined the station in 1975 as news director, then becoming sales manager and then ascending to station manager in 1981. After 44 years with KMAQ-AM-FM, Hepker died of cancer January 11, 2019.[6]

References
  1. "Facility Technical Data for KMAQ-FM". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. Geyer, Thomas (September 5, 2008). "Half-century at KMAQ, Maquoketa, Iowa: Station, owner celebrate 50 years on the airwaves". Quad-City Times. p. A9. Retrieved August 12, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. "Downtown Store Gutted In Blaze At Maquoketa". The Times-Democrat. October 27, 1970. p. 1. Retrieved August 12, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Shots Hit Station". Times-Democrat. September 21, 1974. p. 4. Retrieved August 12, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. Moore, Rick (May 6, 1997). "Same spin, different decade". Quad-City Times. p. 1M. Retrieved August 12, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. Leighton Hepker’s obituary; published on maqnews.com on January 16, 2019; retrieved August 12, 2023.

42°5′26″N 90°37′43″W

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