KMXG (96.1 FM, "Mix 96") is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

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 ...

licensed A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

Clinton, Iowa Clinton is a city in and the county seat of Clinton County, Iowa, United States. The population was 24,469 as of 2020. Clinton, along with DeWitt (also located in Clinton County), was named in honor of the sixth governor of New York, DeWitt Cl ...

, and serving the

Quad Cities The Quad Cities is a region of cities (originally four, see History) in the U.S. states of Iowa and Illinois: Davenport and Bettendorf in southeastern Iowa, and Rock Island, Moline and East Moline in northwestern Illinois. These cities are t ...

area of

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

and

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. It broadcasts an

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

, switching to

Christmas music Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or, in the case of carols or songs, may employ lyrics whose subject ma ...

from mid-November until the

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

holidays. KMXG is owned by

iHeartMedia, Inc. iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...

, with

studio A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design ...

s and offices in

Davenport, Iowa Davenport is a city in and the county seat of Scott County, Iowa, United States. Located along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state, it is the largest of the Quad Cities, a metropolitan area with a population of 384,324 and a ...

, along with co-owned

KUUL-FM KUUL (101.3 FM, "101-3 KISS FM") is an American commercial Top 40 (CHR) radio station serving the Quad Cities area. They are owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. with studios located in Davenport, Iowa, and a transmitter located near Port Byron, Illinois ...

WLLR-FM WLLR-FM (103.7 MHz) is a radio station licensed to Davenport, Iowa, United States, whose format is modern country music. The station broadcasts at a power of 100 kW. WLLR is owned by iHeartMedia, with studios located in Davenport. Its trans ...

, KCQQ-FM, WFXN and WOC. The station has an

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would hav ...

(ERP) of 100,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

s, and their

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which i ...

is located off 225th Street in rural LeClaire in Scott County.

History

Early history (1947–1986)

KMXG originally had studios in Clinton and was co-owned with

KROS KROS (1340 AM) is a commercial radio station serving the Clinton, Iowa area. The station primarily broadcasts a Variety format featuring oldies, sports and news. KROS is licensed to KROS Broadcasting, Inc. and is a CBS news affiliate. History P ...

1340 AM 1340 kHz is defined as a Class C (local) frequency in the coterminous United States and such stations on this frequency are limited to 1,000 watts. U.S. stations outside the coterminous United States (Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, & the U.S. V ...

. At that time, 96.1 had the call letters KROS-FM and later KSAY. During its run as KROS-FM, the station

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...

the AM signal initially, and later aired a

beautiful music Beautiful music (sometimes abbreviated as BM, B/EZ or BM/EZ for "beautiful music/easy listening") is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in North American radio from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Easy listening, elevator musi ...

format, with quarter hour sweeps of instrumental

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

s of popular songs. During its years in Clinton, KSAY operated as a religious station serving primarily the Gateway area (Clinton and Jackson counties in Iowa; Whiteside and Carroll in Illinois) from 1974 until 1986. During this time, a February 1985 fire that struck the building where the studios for KSAY and KROS were located knocked the station off the air for several days; when the station returned to the air in a new studio, the first program was a two-hour show devoted to the fire and volunteers that helped get KROS-KSAY back on the air.

Adult contemporary era (1986–present)

Upon 96.1 FM's move to the Quad Cities, the station was known as KLIO-FM (K-Lite) and formatted adult contemporary music. The call letters changed several years later to KMJC ("Magic 96") in November 1989 before adopting the current KMXG ("Mix 96") call sign in July 1993. Starting in 2008, during the holiday season, KMXG switches to an all-holiday music format.

Weekend programming

Sometime during the 2000s, KMXG began programming a "retro Saturday" block of music, focusing on hits of the 1980s with some hits from the 1970s and early 1990s mixed in. Syndicated programming added included ''

Backtrax USA ''Backtrax USA'' is a weekly two-hour radio program hosted by former WHTZ (Z100) disc jockey Kid Kelly that premiered in 1992. The original show highlights hit music from the 1980s. Since 2003, ''Backtrax USA'' has also offered a 1990s version of ...

'' (both the 1980s and 1990s versions), ''Retro Pop Reunion'' and '' American Top 40: The 80s''. With the demise of KUUL-FM's oldies format in 2012, several of KUUL's former programs were added to KMXG's weekend lineup, including ''American Top 40: The 70s'', '' Into the 70s with John Landecker'' and ''The 70s with Steve Goddard''. As such, Saturdays are devoted to 1980s and 1990s music, while Sundays feature music of the 1970s. For nearly two years, until format changes to classic hits and adult hits at WYEC and KQCS, respectively, KMXG's weekend programming was the only regularly scheduled classic hits radio programming, featuring music of the 1970s through 1990s, available in the Quad-Cities market. Continuing on Sundays were two three-hour blocks of

smooth jazz Smooth jazz is a genre of commercially-oriented crossover jazz and easy listening music that became dominant in the mid 1970s to the early 1990s. History Smooth jazz is a commercially oriented, crossover jazz which came to prominence in the 19 ...

music: "Jazz Patio" and "Smooth Jazz Sunday Night," both hosted by Art Monroe. Jazz music has been a staple of 96.1 FM since at least its incarnation as KLIO, with different hosts through the years.

References

External links

Mix 96 KMXG official website
{{IHeartMedia Mainstream adult contemporary radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1947 Radio stations in the Quad Cities Clinton, Iowa 1947 establishments in Iowa IHeartMedia radio stations