KGYM (1600 AM) 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 ...

broadcasting in

Cedar Rapids, Iowa Cedar Rapids is a city in Linn County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. The population was 137,710 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Iowa, second-most populous city in Iowa. The city lies o ...

. The station is owned by KZIA, Inc., which also owns KZIA (102.9 FM). It is Cedar Rapids' second-oldest radio station, after WMT. KGYM does not broadcast a digital HD signal on its AM frequency of 1600 kHz, but it can be heard in HD on KZIA-HD3.

History

KGYM signed on as KCRG on December 20, 1947, under the ownership of the Cedar Rapids Gazette Company (later known as Gazette Communications). The Gazette Company had launched Cedar Rapids' first FM station, KCRK-FM 96.1, a month earlier, and had applied for a construction permit for a television station on channel 9 that year. (KCRK-FM signed off in 1954, as FM radio was still in its infancy and the station proved to be unprofitable.) In 1953, the Gazette Company consolidated its interests with the Cedar Rapids Television Company, another group interested in the channel 9 license, and in October 1953, the call letters of the radio and television stations were changed to KCRI. After the Gazette Company bought out the Cedar Rapids Television Company's stock on August 27, 1954, the KCRG call letters were restored to both the AM and TV stations. KCRG was formerly 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 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

station until late 1984, when it switched to a big band/

adult standards Adult standards (also sometimes known as the nostalgia or Big Band format) is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations. Adult standards started in the 1950s and is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly tho ...

format. The station returned back to adult contemporary in January 1987, but flipped to

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as for a radio format playing this music. Since 2 ...

two years later in 1989. In October 1992, KCRG flipped to

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

. KCRG adopted a

news/talk Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, interviews ...

format on September 6, 1994. By 2000, the station had moved to its current sports talk format, but continued to simulcast

KCRG-TV KCRG-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States, serving Eastern Iowa as an affiliate of American Broadcasting Company, ABC, MyNetworkTV, and The CW. Owned by Gray Media, the station has studios on Seco ...

's newscasts and ABC's '' World News Tonight'' for radio listeners. KCRG adopted the nickname "The Zone" in 2003. On July 10, 2006, Gazette Communications announced that KCRG was being sold to owners of another local broadcaster, KZIA, subject to FCC approval. The sale was finalized on October 31, 2006, and the call letters were changed to KGYM as a result of the sale. After the acquisition, KGYM ended its

simulcasting Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of 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, simultaneously) ...

of KCRG-TV's newscasts, and KGYM's studios moved from downtown Cedar Rapids to KZIA's studios on the city's southwest side.

Programming

KGYM currently broadcasts

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternatively branded platform-agnostically as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the banner "SportsRadio ESPN". The netw ...

programming along with

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricult ...

sports, college basketball and the NFL from

Westwood One Westwood One, Inc. is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming. The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1976. The co ...

, the

IndyCar Series The IndyCar Series, officially known as the NTT IndyCar Series for sponsorship reasons, is the highest class of American open-wheel car racing in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices of various sanctioning bodies sinc ...

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The team is named afte ...

baseball on 107.5 FM and area high school football and basketball games. It also carried Cedar Rapids Kernels games before sharing rights with KMRY, another Cedar Rapids radio station, during the 2006 season. Kernels games moved exclusively to KMRY starting in 2007. Local talk shows include ''The Gym Class'' hosted by KGYM sports director Scott Unash and former Cedar Rapids Gazette sports editor Mark Dukes, and ''The Todd Brommelkamp Show'' hosted by Voice of the Hawkeyes magazine editor Todd Brommelkamp. "Spencer on Sports" was added in early 2022, hosted by Spencer Wagen.

Translators

References

External links

FCC History Cards for KGYMKGYM website
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kgym Sports radio stations in the United States GYM (AM) Mass media in Cedar Rapids, Iowa Radio stations established in 1947 1947 establishments in Iowa ESPN Radio stations