KOEZ (104.1 FM) is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

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 a soft adult contemporary music

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 Music genre, genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas and holiday season, Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or in the case of Christmas ...

for part of November and December. Licensed to

Ames, Iowa Ames () is a city in Story County, Iowa, United States, located approximately north of Des Moines, Iowa, Des Moines in central Iowa. It is the home of Iowa State University (ISU). According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Ames ha ...

, the station serves the

Des Moines metropolitan area The Des Moines metropolitan area, officially known as the Des Moines–West Des Moines, IA Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is located at the confluence of the Des Moines River and the Raccoon River. Des Moines serves as the capital and larges ...

. The station is owned by Saga Communications, and operates as part of its Des Moines Radio Group. The station's studios are located on Locust Street in Des Moines, while its transmitter is located near Woodward.

History

The station

signed on A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio broadcasting, radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonw ...

the air on . The original

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

was KLFM. It was owned by Paul D. Lunde and was branded as "KLFM Stereo - Ames; Central Iowa's first 24-hour FM station." It aired a beautiful music format with ABC FM Radio Network news at 15 minutes after the hour. Robert and Norma Bunce were the owners of Bunce Broadcasting Corporation. Bob started his broadcasting career as a disc jockey with KCBC and later bought the station in 1968. Robert sold KCBC in 1975 and purchased KLFM in Ames. The station call letters were changed to KEZT, known as Lite 104. He sold KEZT in 1997. In 1981, it became KEZT with a contemporary EZ format programmed by KalaMusic. A new 1,000 foot tall tower was constructed and KEZT-FM became one of the top rated Arbitron stations in Des Moines. In 1997, the station was purchased by Saga Communications, was rebranded as "Lite 104.1 KLTI," and the studios were moved to their current location at 1416 Locust Street in Des Moines. On March 3, 2014, the station rebranded as "More 104", and moved away from Soft AC to a more upbeat adult contemporary format. The

was changed to KMYR. After the Christmas season in 2017, KMYR adjusted back to soft AC and rebranded slightly to "More 104.1." On September 30, 2019, KMYR changed call letters to KOEZ. On October 18, after stunting through the 17th with all-

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship have had a significant, lasting impact on the music industry, and his songwriting partnership with l ...

music (as an eventually-postponed June 2020 concert during his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour, to be held at Wells Fargo Arena, had been announced that day), the station rebranded as “104.1 EZ FM”.More Is EZ In Des Moines
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Christmas music

Each holiday season since 1998, KOEZ drops its regular music format and plays

for several weeks leading up to Christmas Day. The station traditionally flips to Christmas music prior to Thanksgiving. Currently, KOEZ is the only commercially-licensed non-religious station in the Des Moines market to devote its entire

playlist A playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player, either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs that can be played once or in a loop. ...

to the holiday format. Other stations in the Des Moines market attempted to compete with KOEZ in playing the Christmas format. KPTL (now KXNO-FM) in 2013 and KMXD (now KDRB) in 2004, both owned by Clear Channel Communications (now

iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., or 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 founded by ...

) flipped to all-Christmas music for a single year but did not continue in subsequent years.

Logos

Image:KLTI-FM logo.gif, Former logo of KLTI "Lite 104.1" File:KMYR 1041 logo.png, Former logo of KMYR "More 104.1"

References

External links

* {{Saga Communications OEZ (FM) Radio stations established in 1967 Soft adult contemporary radio stations in the United States 1967 establishments in Iowa