A History of KLQP-FM, Q-92      Written by: Maynard Meyer

Back in the late 70’s I got the urge to build a radio station, I was working at KMRS radio in Morris at the time. I considered some possible locations where communities were currently underserved by other stations, and it had to be somewhere where a new frequency could be assigned under the guidelines of the Federal Communications Commission. After looking at some possibilities I settled on Madison, Minnesota.

The nearest radio stations were 50 miles north and south in Morris and Marshall…30 miles east and west in Ortonville and Montevideo. It looked like the perfect spot, and I knew that the folks who lived in that area were always coming up with promotions and ways to have fun. It was the perfect spot for a new radio station!

I did the paperwork and applied for the license which was about a two-year process. I also had to find a couple of partners. The original investors turned out to be my father, the late Julian Meyer of Benson, the late Ron Overlander (longtime station manager at the Benson radio station where I got my first job in radio) and his son, Terry Overlander who I had known since second grade in Benson.  I bought out Terry’s shares in April of 2020 and became sole owner of the station.

Once the construction permit for the station was obtained from the FCC it was time to get down to business. We acquired 3 acres of land just north of Madison on which to build a 300-foot tower. We also had to obtain permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to build a tower. Once the paperwork was complete, Tim’s Tower Service out of the St. Cloud are put it up. We also had to have a building put up at the tower site to house the transmitter which creates the signal which is sent to the antenna located at the top of the tower. We rented a space on Madison’s main street to house our studio. Our first location was on the east side of Madison’s main street just a block north of highway 75. We later relocated to a mobile home at our tower site which we used for a studio, then moved to house on highway 75 where Casey’s General Store is now located. We finally settled in our present location, the former Sears catalog store building at 623 West 3rd Street. We purchased quite a bit of used studio equipment. We had to buy mixing consoles, microphones, turntables, tape recorders and a variety of other gear. We also had to acquire a music library, which consisted of 33 rpm and 45 rpm records at the time. Contracts had to be signed with music licensing organizations including ASCAP, BMI and SESAC for the rights to play the music. It all eventually came together.

We came on the air around 3:00 PM on January 31, 1983, with 3,000 watts of power. Our first studio was located downtown on the corner across the street from what is now the Wittnebel Construction building on main street.

We later operated from studios in a mobile home at our tower site just north of town and from studios located in a small house where Casey’s General Store is now located. We finally settled in our current location, the former Sears building, on West 3rd Street. In 1996 we applied for a power increase and improved out coverage by going to 25,000 watts.  In recent years we also added live streaming to our list of services so we may be heard anywhere in the world where the internet is available.  Many of our programs are also recorded and put on our website as podcasts so they may be listened to at any time after they have been broadcast.