City Cedar Rapids, Iowa Frequency 1600 kHz | Broadcast area Cedar Rapids, Iowa First air date December 20, 1947 | |
Branding 1600 The Gym / "106.3 South Gym" (Iowa City) / "107.5 North Gym" (Cedar Rapids) Repeater(s) 102.9-3 KZIA-HD3
106.3 K292FZ (Iowa City),
107.5 K245AE (Cedar Rapids) | ||
KGYM (1600 AM) is a radio station broadcasting in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The station is owned by KZIA, Inc., which also owns KZIA (102.9 FM). It is Cedar Rapids' second-oldest radio station, after WMT.
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KGYM does not broadcast a digital HD signal on its AM frequency of 1600 kHz, but it can be heard in HD on KZIA HD3.
History
KGYM signed on as KCRG on December 20, 1947, under the ownership of the Cedar Rapids Gazette Company (later known as Gazette Communications). The Gazette Company had launched Cedar Rapids' first FM station, KCRK-FM 96.1, a month earlier and had applied for a construction permit for a television station on channel 9 that year. (KCRK-FM signed off in 1954 as FM radio was still in its infancy and the station proved to be unprofitable.) In 1953 the Gazette Company consolidated its interests with the Cedar Rapids Television Company, another group interested in the channel 9 license, and in October 1953 the call letters of the radio and television stations were changed to KCRI. After the Gazette Company bought out the Cedar Rapids Television Company's stock on August 27, 1954, the KCRG call letters were restored to both the AM and TV stations.
During the early 1990s KCRG was a country music station, and it later adopted a news/talk format. By 2000 the station had moved to its current sports talk format but continued to simulcast KCRG-TV's newscasts and ABC's World News Tonight for radio listeners. KCRG radio adopted the nickname "The Zone" in 2003.
On July 10, 2006, Gazette Communications announced that KCRG was being sold to owners of another local broadcaster, KZIA FM 102.9, subject to FCC approval. The sale was finalized on October 31, 2006, and the call letters were changed to KGYM as a result of the sale. After the acquisition, KGYM ended its simulcasting of KCRG-TV's newscasts, and KGYM's studios moved from downtown Cedar Rapids to KZIA's studios on the city's southwest side.
Programming
KGYM currently broadcasts ESPN Radio programming along with Iowa State University sports, college basketball and the NFL from Westwood One, the IndyCar Series, Minnesota Twins baseball on 107.5 FM and area high school football and basketball games. It also carried Cedar Rapids Kernels games before sharing rights with KMRY, another Cedar Rapids radio station, during the 2006 season. Kernels games moved exclusively to KMRY starting in 2007.
Local talk shows include The Gym Class hosted by KGYM sports director Scott Unash and former Cedar Rapids Gazette sports editor Mark Dukes and The Afternoon Players Club hosted by Former KZIA in Eastern Iowa Night Ryde Host, Tyler Ryder and Voice of the Hawkeyes magazine editor Todd Brommelkamp.