KLQL (101.1 FM, "K101") is a

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

broadcasting a "Real"

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

format, featuring country music from the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and today, serving Luverne, Rock Rapids, and

Worthington Worthington may refer to: People * Worthington (surname) * Worthington family, a British noble family Businesses * Worthington Brewery, also known as Worthington's * Worthington Corporation, founded as a pump manufacturer in 1845, later a dive ...

, with rimshot coverage in the

Sioux Falls Sioux Falls () is the most populous city in the U.S. state of South Dakota and the 130th-most populous city in the United States. It is the county seat of Minnehaha County and also extends into Lincoln County to the south, which continues up t ...

area. The station is currently owned by

Alpha Media Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἄλφα, ''álpha'', or ell, άλφα, álfa) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter aleph , which ...

Founding and early history

KLQL was initially licensed to the six founders of Luverne's AM radio station,

KQAD KQAD (800 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Soft AC format. Licensed to Luverne, Minnesota, United States, the station serves the Luverne and Rock Rapids areas. The station is currently owned by Alpha Media out of Portland, Oregon. The stat ...

, as its FM sibling. KQAD-FM first broadcast at 100.9 MHz and with a power of 6,000 watts. In 1982, KQAD-FM's ownership group (Paul Hedberg,

Al McIntosh Alan Cunningham McIntosh (October 7, 1905 – July 23, 1979) was editor of thCounty Star-Herald''of Luverne, Minnesota. He was president of thMinnesota Newspaper Associationin 1949. The association now recognizes individuals who have provided ex ...

, Mort Skewes, Warren Schoon, Rollie Swanson, and Dominic Lippi) learned that they could substantially increase the station's power and range with a slight move up the dial from 100.9 to 101.1 MHz. In his autobiography Paul Hedberg explains the reasoning behind this change: "since FM was surging in popularity we decided to go ahead with this upgrade. We submitted the application for a construction permit to effect the change, and it was granted in late 1982. A new 500-foot tower was built north of Luverne, just west of the community of Hardwick. A 12-bay antenna with a 20 kW Gates transmitter delivered our new 100,000-watt signal, and this more than doubled KQAD-FM’s coverage. With this new power and frequency we decided to separate the stations’ programming. We switched our FM to a country and western format, and changed the call letters to KLQL-FM. We wanted to emphasize our new format with a cowboy boot in the logo: KLQL was going to be K101."Hedberg, ''The Time of My LIfe'', 101.

References

External links

Country radio stations in the United States Radio stations in Minnesota {{Minnesota-radio-station-stub