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Iowa KMGO 98.7 Centerville

R

radiorobert

Okay.....so I see that the latest CP for KMGO Centerville to go up to a C0 is due to expire in October.

lol

Any word or plan on if it will be ready or finally die? This has literally been on almost continuous CP since 2006. Nearly 20 years!!

(Is Edwin still around and involved? I assume so.)
 
radiorobert said:
Okay.....so I see that the latest CP for KMGO Centerville to go up to a C0 is due to expire in October.

lol

Any word or plan on if it will be ready or finally die? This has literally been on almost continuous CP since 2006. Nearly 20 years!!

(Is Edwin still around and involved? I assume so.)
Click to expand...
I was in Centerville the last week of April, and heard the TOH IDs for both KMGO and KCOG/K280GY, which ended with "A Brand radio station". So I'd assume he's still there. The station studios are still on the northwest corner of the square. If you walk by them, this message barks out: "You are being recorded!"

I guess the game with that CP is to rimshot Des Moines, which seems optimistic to me. Ottumwa would be a riper target, I'd think, but maybe he's having challenges breaking into Ottumwa ad budgets, and KLBA in Albia is doing the kind of community radio that Brand isn't doing in Centerville.

The local media scene in Centerville is dismal. Local news and events are hard to come by. The daily Iowegian, which had become quite good, was "merged" with the Ottumwa Courier five years ago. There's still a Courier reporter based in Centerville, but the main print vehicle these days is the "Appanoose Weekly", which is a limp thing that mostly focuses on high-school sports. As far as I can tell, KCOG/KMGO has minimal or no local news effort. For TV, Centerville and Appanoose County these days are now in the Des Moines DMA, not Kirksville-Ottumwa. So I don't think KTVO or KYOU have much incentive to cover news in Centerville unless it's of wider regional interest. The Mediacom cable system in Centerville carries KTVO and KYOU only in SD format.
 
It just seems now especially, in this day and age of radio decline anyway and given the distance outside Des Moines, plus competition, this is a fools errand. And he keeps trying but cant even get it on the air.
 
Mark Roberts said:
I was in Centerville the last week of April, and heard the TOH IDs for both KMGO and KCOG/K280GY, which ended with "A Brand radio station". So I'd assume he's still there. The station studios are still on the northwest corner of the square. If you walk by them, this message barks out: "You are being recorded!"

I guess the game with that CP is to rimshot Des Moines, which seems optimistic to me. Ottumwa would be a riper target, I'd think, but maybe he's having challenges breaking into Ottumwa ad budgets, and KLBA in Albia is doing the kind of community radio that Brand isn't doing in Centerville.

The local media scene in Centerville is dismal. Local news and events are hard to come by. The daily Iowegian, which had become quite good, was "merged" with the Ottumwa Courier five years ago. There's still a Courier reporter based in Centerville, but the main print vehicle these days is the "Appanoose Weekly", which is a limp thing that mostly focuses on high-school sports. As far as I can tell, KCOG/KMGO has minimal or no local news effort. For TV, Centerville and Appanoose County these days are now in the Des Moines DMA, not Kirksville-Ottumwa. So I don't think KTVO or KYOU have much incentive to cover news in Centerville unless it's of wider regional interest. The Mediacom cable system in Centerville carries KTVO and KYOU only in SD format.
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KYOU comes into Iowa City but when I used to watch it, I don't remember that many stories from Centerville.
 
radiofan2023 said:
KYOU comes into Iowa City but when I used to watch it, I don't remember that many stories from Centerville.
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KTVO is the station that has a long history in that region. Fun fact: KTVO was originally supposed to go on channel 15 but the move of the city of license to Kirksville opened up channel 3.
 
radiorobert said:
It just seems now especially, in this day and age of radio decline anyway and given the distance outside Des Moines, plus competition, this is a fools errand. And he keeps trying but cant even get it on the air.
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He also sold off KEDB (now KIHC) to Iowa Catholic Radio about a year and a half ago. So what he's got is an AM/FM translator combination and an FM that can be upgraded to class C0. But I don't see a regional play: Ottumwa has its own stations, so do Knoxville-Pella, Albia, and Bloomfield, all with a more local orientation. There's not a lot of pickup to the west of Centerville, and I'm sure the day is long past when KCOG sold time in Unionville, Mo. That C0 may cover a lot of towns, but not much in the way of advertising business that isn't already spoken for.

About 10 years ago, the Daily Iowegian picked up on a rumor that KMGO was going to move to Ottumwa, and it looks like there may have been a booster for KMGO there at one time. Brand denied the rumors at the time. From what I was able to hear in April of this year, KCOG is entirely automated and KMGO seems to be as well. Walking past the station's building on the square, I saw no activity at all in there.
 
Mark Roberts said:
About 10 years ago, the Daily Iowegian picked up on a rumor that KMGO was going to move to Ottumwa, and it looks like there may have been a booster for KMGO there at one time. Brand denied the rumors at the time. From what I was able to hear in April of this year, KCOG is entirely automated and KMGO seems to be as well. Walking past the station's building on the square, I saw no activity at all in there.
Click to expand...

In 2012, KMGO had a studio in Ottumwa next to Appanoose Rapids downtown. That might’ve been before Brand owned it, though.

I couldn’t tell what or how often it used that studio as I was there on a Saturday,
 
Kent said:
In 2012, KMGO had a studio in Ottumwa next to Appanoose Rapids downtown. That might’ve been before Brand owned it, though.

I couldn’t tell what or how often it used that studio as I was there on a Saturday,
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There was an article in the now-closed Daily Iowegian about KMGO's Ottumwa studio, where Brand claimed that to be the main studio for the station, but not for KCOG or, at the time, KEDB. In the article, Brand said the Ottumwa studio had been in operation for the previous five or six years. I have this article in paper form; the OCR text from the scan is attached.

The transition in ownership from Fred and Carolyn Jenkins (plus Carolyn's brother in Sacramento) was very gradual. By this time 2016, the Jenkinses had delegated quite a bit to Brand. Brand now owns KMGO and KCOG; he sold KEDB last year to the people behind Iowa Catholic Radio.
 

Attachments

  • KMGO.Ottumwa.Location.2016.04.22.txt
    8 KB · Views: 7
if you look at the satellite photos of the proposed transmission site, the tower parts (many) are there... not sure what the date was when that happened, but they are there...
 
I used to listen to KMGO when my fiancé lived up in northern MO back in 2020 - 2022. Whoever did their imaging during that time was a beast. I enjoyed listening solely for the imaging elements and the playlist sort of felt like country top 40. There was never any on air talent but a pleasant listening experience I'd say. Now, in 2025, I've tried streaming the station and always have had a hard time getting the stream to work. When it does work, the station doesn't sound nearly as good. A bunch of dead sueges and bland imaging and a more gold focused playlist. Yawn. Also their website is complete garbage. Always has been. Sad for Centerville.
 
Found this from a couple of years ago: KMGO Radio Will Expand Coverage Area With New 1,100 Foot Broadcast Tower | News | Ottumwa Post

Notable quote:

In a public notice currently {in 2023} airing on KMGO, money from the sale {of KEDB to Iowa Catholic Radio for $600,000} will be reinvested and go toward the construction of a new 1,100 foot broadcast tower near Melrose, IA.

Serving Centerville, Ottumwa, Albia and surrounding communities, KMGO will soon provide a clear broadcast signal to more areas including the Des Moines/Ames Metro market.
Click to expand...
 
it looks like KMGO has refiled an app.... but as someone pointed out to me.. they did it under an AUX.. so they will likely have to refile..
 
stan78 said:
it looks like KMGO has refiled an app.... but as someone pointed out to me.. they did it under an AUX.. so they will likely have to refile..
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Perhaps not...KMGO has broadcasted from their aux site for years...since 2016 if my research is correct. That site, and former sister station KEDB, were sold to Iowa Catholic Radio. The thread on KCOG has a little more detail.
 
stan78 said:
it looks like KMGO has refiled an app.... but as someone pointed out to me.. they did it under an AUX.. so they will likely have to refile..
Click to expand...

Which they did today (January 29). Everything else appears the same.
 


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