KFMW (107.9 FM), known as "Rock 108", 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 radi ...

based in

Waterloo, Iowa Waterloo is a city in and the county seat of Black Hawk County, Iowa, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census the population was 67,314, making it the eighth-largest city in the state. The city is part of the Waterloo – Cedar Fall ...

. 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 ...

format Format may refer to: Printing and visual media * Text formatting, the typesetting of text elements * Paper formats, or paper size standards * Newspaper format, the size of the paper page Computing * File format, particular way that informati ...

. 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 KWWL (channel 7) is a television station licensed to Waterloo, Iowa, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for Eastern Iowa. Owned by Allen Media Broadcasting, KWWL maintains studios on East 5th Street in Waterloo, with news bureaus and a ...

, and for approximately 10 years, KWWL-FM/KFMW programmed an instrumental music format of what was called "

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 m ...

" by some and "

elevator music Elevator music (also known as Muzak, piped music, or lift music) is a type of background music played in rooms where many people come together (that is, with no intention whatsoever to listen to music), and during telephone calls when placed on ...

" by most. The beautiful music format continues until May 1982 when it was flipped to a

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 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. "Top 40" or "conte ...

/ CHR format under their new moniker ''"FM 108"''. 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 US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, prim ...

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 Bahakel Communications, Ltd. is an American communications company based in Charlotte, North Carolina, that is wholly owned and operated by the Bahakel family. The company was founded by Cy Bahakel in 1953, who ran it until his death on April 2 ...

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. Located in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Meckl ...

, in 1996, to Woodward Communications of

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

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 the second-largest city in Iowa, United States and is the county seat of Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River, north of Iowa City and northeast of Des Moines, the state's capital and largest city. It ...

External links

KFMW's official website
FMW Waterloo, Iowa NRG Media radio stations {{Iowa-radio-station-stub