KMAQ-FM

KMAQ-FM
Maquoketa, Iowa; United States;
Broadcast area	Jackson–Jones County, Iowa
Frequency	95.1 MHz
Programming
Format	Adult contemporary
Ownership
Owner	Maquoketa Broadcasting Co.
History
First air date	1967
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	39857
Class	A
ERP	6,000 watts
HAAT	100 meters (330 ft)
Links
Public license information	Public file; LMS;
Website	kmaq.com

KMAQ-FM is an American radio station, licensed to operate on 95.1 MHz from Maquoketa, Iowa. KMAQ-FM, and its sister AM station KMAQ, simulcast each other for about half the broadcast day. ^{[citation needed]} 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 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 continued ownership of the station until his retirement in 2024. 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 stations to offer separate programming, with country music on AM and adult contemporary music on FM.^[2]^[5]

In the summer of 2023, Voy announced plans to sell the stations, retire and was scheduled to have his final broadcast that August 25. He had been with the radio station since its beginnings in August 1958, some 65 years earlier.^[6] In July 2024, Coloff Media announced the purchase of KMAQ-AM-FM from Voy. The stations vowed to continue coverage of area events and sports and to retain all current employees through its transition in ownership.^[7]

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.^{[citation needed]} After 44 years with KMAQ-AM-FM, Hepker died of cancer January 11, 2019.^[8]

References

^ "Facility Technical Data for KMAQ-FM". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
^ ^a ^b 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.
^ "Downtown Store Gutted In Blaze At Maquoketa". The Times-Democrat. October 27, 1970. p. 1. Retrieved August 12, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "Shots Hit Station". Times-Democrat. September 21, 1974. p. 4. Retrieved August 12, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^ Moore, Rick (May 6, 1997). "Same spin, different decade". Quad-City Times. p. 1M. Retrieved August 12, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^ Staff report, "Voy will sign off Aug. 26," Maquoketa Sentinel-Press, August 15, 2023. Accessed 07-10-2024. [1]
^ Huckstadt, Tate, "KMAQ sold to Iowa-based Coloff Media," Maquoketa Sentinel-Press, July 9, 2024. Accessed 07-10-2024. [2]
^ Leighton Hepker’s obituary; published on maqnews.com on January 16, 2019; retrieved August 12, 2023.