DesMoinesBroadcasting.com

KWDM (FM 93.3)
first Des Moines station on 93.3Mhz

 

George Webber put KWDM 1150 AM on the air in 1948 and operated it until he sold it to some 3M investors in 1959 and the call letters were changed to KWKY.

In 1964 he built a new KWDM on 93.3Mhz. KWDM was the first of a number of call letters to occupy 93.3. They included KWDM, KYNA, KIOA-FM, KMGK, KKXI, KDWZ, back to KIOA-FM and now KIOA. With all of the failed radio stations and format changes on 93.3, some people jokingly suggested that the frequency had a curse on it. If it did, the success of Oldies 93.3, KIOA has since removed it.

George Webber had a large music library and on his stations, he provided a variety of quality music seldom heard elsewhere. Some of the music, international and ethnic in nature, drew a small but loyal audience, but never enough to make the station profitable, even with the revenue from play by play sports. The George Webber programming consisted of block programming of these diverese kinds of music, a talk show done by his wife, Edith Webber called "Listen While you Work," which had also run on the old KWDM 1150 AM and lots of play by play sports. The station left the air in May of 1969, to be put back on the air under new ownership with the KYNA call letters in 1971.

In 1976, the KWDM call letters were adopted by the West Des Moines School District for a low powered station at Valley High School. The KWDM call letters live today on 88.7Mhz.

We have a program schedule brochure from the 93.3 KWDM era.

KWDM 93.3 FM brochure front   inside   back with program schedule. courtesy of Larry Vavroch.

 

 

Russ LavVine's last night on KWDM-FM - comments and audio and KWDM final sign-off April 10, 1069

 

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