From the Round Table: An ode to easy listening

The following is a personal topic inspired by a 25-year anniversary:

It was a dream come true for me on Feb. 23, 1983, when my tiny radio station in Columbia signed on after some four years of planning and petitioning.

Filling the vacant 101.7 MHz spot on area FM dials; KARO offered a mixture of continuous easy-listening music with news on the hour from the CBS Radio Network. KARO was an early adopter of compact discs and was one of the first CBS network affiliates in the nation to install its own satellite receiving system. KARO did well enough in the ratings and provided our dozens of advertisers with plenty of success stories that led them to support our efforts while ensuring the eventual success of the fledgling enterprise.

Change is a constant in broadcasting, and that brought on the controversial introduction of adult-contemporary music in March 1986. KARO became K102, and now it’s KPLA. Behind the scenes, I was wrapped up with plenty of activity, striving to upgrade the station’s geographic coverage. I have memories of maps spread all over the place and frequent trips to Washington, D.C., to huddle with attorneys and consultants and occasionally even visit the very sanctum of the Federal Communications Commission.

I was surprised to learn about the August 1958 federal ukase that stripped Columbia of its two regional-coverage FM allotments—94.5 and, ironically 101.5 MHz—that had been set aside since 1947 in the rules and regulations of the FCC. When a new table of allotments was released in 1963, Columbia was downgraded to having two frequencies for which 3,000 watts was the maximum permitted power—not the 50,000 to 100,000 watts on frequencies set aside for much smaller cities such as Marshall, Lebanon, Hannibal and Carrollton.

Well before KARO went on the air at 101.7, occupying the third federally designated FM frequency I petitioned the FCC for in 1979, my obsession was to secure a regional-coverage frequency for my Columbia station. Federally designated as a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) since 1972, Columbia-Boone County was the only MSA in the nation that did not have a commercial, regional-coverage FM station licensed to it.

KPLA’s first upgrade in February 1992 moved the station over to 101.5 MHz just as the FCC had planned for back in 1947. Continuous activity on various fronts led to a second, even broader upgrade that was accomplished in January 1998, concurrent with the construction of Boone County’s tallest structure, KPLA’s 1,049-foot broadcast tower in northeast Columbia. This added elevation pushes KPLA even further as the station’s format and personalities promote and define Columbia and Boone County across several dozen neighboring counties.

It’s been a great ride for me with hundreds and hundreds of my co-workers, my business partners and the unseen audience of listeners and advertisers whom I hope we’ve touched and helped in one way or another. Our company was proud to be local.

If there’s a personal regret, it’s the disappearance of easy-listening music on the radio. Battered, ridiculed and hounded off the airwaves, easy-listening music is still that balm of sound that soothes the soul, calm one’s nerves and helps us relax. Legions of listeners loved KARO, and our advertisers gave us a great ride. I knew easy listening would be replaced by more upbeat music, and now it is gone. Someday, perhaps in a different mode using an alternative delivery system, easy-listening music will again be available—like virtually everything else that sooner or later ends up being “re-invented” for a reprise performance.