KPIG

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KPIG-FM
KPIG logo
City of license KPIG-FM: Freedom, California
KPIG: Piedmont, California
KPYG: Cayucos, California
Broadcast area KPIG-FM: Monterey, Salinas, Santa Cruz, California
KPIG: San Francisco Bay Area
KPYG: San Luis Obispo, California
Branding KPIG
Slogan Live Free-range DJs 24/7
Frequency KPIG-FM: 107.5 MHz
KPIG: 1510 kHz
KPYG: 94.9 MHz
First air date KPIG-FM: 1987
KPIG: 1947
KPYG: 1984
Format Freeform Rock, Blues, Folk, Folk/Country
ERP KPIG-FM: 5,400 watts
KPIG: 8,000 watts (day), 230 watts (night)
KPYG: 25,000 watts
HAAT KPIG-FM: 103 m
KPYG: 100 m
Class KPIG-FM: A
KPIG: B
KPYG: B1
Callsign meaning Swine
Owner Mapleton Communications
Website www.kpig.com

KPIG is a radio station located near the city of Santa Cruz, California, USA. Founded in 1988, the studio is based in Watsonville, California and broadcasts to Santa Cruz, Monterey, Counties on 107.5 MHz FM. It also has radio repeaters on 94.9 MHz FM in San Luis Obispo County (2004), 96.7 MHz FM in Chico, California (2007), 1670 am KNRO-AM, Redding, California (2008) and 1510 kHz AM in the San Francisco Bay Area (2005). The station's logo features a sunglasses-wearing pig in farmer's clothing and a cowboy hat. Its format tends to be Rock, Blues, Folk, Folk/Country and is largely self-determined. In 2001 the station was bought by Mapleton Communications.

KPIG has strong community ties featuring local disc jockeys, local sponsors, local news and commentary, and the Hog Call line, a free community call-in line for leaving recorded announcements that will be played on the air. Much like newspaper classifieds, common "Hog Calls" are regarding items for sale or upcoming community events.

Among its most well known programs are "Cousin Al's Bluegrass Show" on Sunday nights, "Uncle Sherman's Dirty Boogie" on Saturday nights, "Please Stand By" the in-studio live music show, on Sunday mornings. "Please Stand By", hosted by Sleepy John Sandidge, features local and world famous Country, Folk, and Blues acts. The station also hosts several popular music festivals each year including the Humbug Hoedown in December, and is the radio volunteer for the free music festival each October in Golden Gate Park called Hardly Strictly Bluegrass.

KPIG is well known worldwide as well. It was one of the first radio stations in the world to webcast their program, going online on 1995-08-02. Frequently song requests are submitted via e-mail from listeners around the globe. Indirect references to KPIG appear in the songs "I'm Coming Home" by Robert Earl Keen and "Beer Run" (which references the Robert Keen song) by Todd Snider, both of whom are frequently featured on the air and perform at KPIG's events.

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[edit] KFAT

KPIG's predecessor was KFAT, broadcasting out of Gilroy, California from 1976 to 1982. Much of KPIG's founding staff and current on-air personalities worked at KFAT. KFAT specialized in true Country and Folk as well as many off-beat oddities. Archived tapes of broadcasts are still streamed from the KFAT web site.

[edit] Related information

Program Director, Laura Ellen Hopper(d: May 2007), had produced a side-project webcast, the Cowboy Cultural Society web site and stream [1] that plays contemporary and classic Cowboy music.

Former morning disc jockey Dallas Dobro is also the regular mainstage Master of Ceremonies at the twice-annual Strawberry Music Festival in Camp Mather, Yosemite, California. Dobro left the station in 2006 and now resides and works in radio in Petaluma, Californa.

"Wild" Bill Goldsmith, KPIG's former webmaster, and the person who first put its program on the web, founded Radio Paradise, a webcast of "Eclectic Online Rock".

[edit] National syndication

Effective 2007-12-31, radio format syndication firm Dial Global will offer KPIG's programming to other stations across the United States via satellite distribution. KPIG's programming will be offered to stations as either a primary format, or via a station's HD Radio subchannel. [2] The format will make KPIG one of the country's only terrestrial-based superstations.

[edit] External links


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