KFMW (107.9 FM), known as "Rock 108", is a

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting 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 rad ...

licensed to

Waterloo, Iowa Waterloo is a city in and the county seat of Black Hawk County, Iowa, Black Hawk County, Iowa, United States. As of the 2020 United States census the population was 67,314, making it the List of cities in Iowa, eighth-most populous city in the st ...

with studios in Hiawatha, Iowa. The station has an

active rock Active rock is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations across the United States and Canada. Active rock stations play a balance of new hard rock songs with valued classic rock favorites, normally with an emphasis on the harder edge o ...

format. Its signal is transmitted from the AFLAC Tower north of Rowley, Iowa.

History

KFMW came on the air in November 1968 as KWWL-FM and was originally owned by Black Hawk Broadcasting Company of Waterloo. It was one of two radio stations owned by Black Hawk Broadcasting's NBC affiliate, KWWL-TV, and for approximately 10 years, KWWL-FM/KFMW programmed an instrumental music format of what was called " beautiful music" by some and "

elevator music Elevator music (also known as Muzak, piped music, or lift music) is a type of background music played in elevators, in rooms where many people come together for reasons other than listening to music, and during telephone calls when placed on ho ...

" by most. The beautiful music format continued until November 1, 1982, when it was flipped to a

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...

/ CHR format under their new moniker "FM 108".Deb Lorenzen, "Pop music greets 'beautiful music' listeners," ''The Courier'', November 12, 1982. It remained a CHR format until approximately 1992, when it was given its current name, "Rock 108". The station was essentially a

classic rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...

station for a few years, morphed into an

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

format for a time in the mid-1990s, and eventually began an

stance in the late 1990s, which it remains today. The station was sold by Black Hawk Broadcasting to Forward Broadcasting in the early 1980s, sold to Park Broadcasting in the late 1980s, to Bahakel Communications based in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 United ...

, in 1996, to Woodward Communications of

Dubuque, Iowa Dubuque (, ) is a city in Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. The population was 59,667 at the 2020 United States census. The city lies along the Mississippi River at the junction of Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, a region ...

, in 2012, and to NRG Radio, LLC in 2014. KFMW is the #1-ranked rock station in eastern Iowa, serving the Waterloo/ Cedar Falls metropolitan area as well as new owner NRG Radio's home base of

Cedar Rapids Cedar Rapids is a city in Linn County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in u ...

References

External links

KFMW's official website

FMW Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling-Explosion (FMW-E) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded on July 28, 1989, by Atsushi Onita as (FMW). The promotion specializes in hardcore wrestling involving weapons such as barbed wire and fi ...

Waterloo, Iowa NRG Media radio stations Active rock radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1968 1968 establishments in Iowa {{Iowa-radio-station-stub