Cambria-based radio station to change name, format

A North Coast radio station will change operators and format as soon as Monday, Aug. 27.

Cambria-based KTEA 103.5-FM will now be known as KMGQ, or “K-Magic,” because that’s how listeners feel about the North Coast, said veteran broadcaster Joe Benson.

KTEA owner Jim Kampschroer for nearly nine years has broadcast an “adult standard” format, with music primarily from the 1940s to the ’60s, which tends to appeal to an older audience.

Benson and Chuck Contrares of Post Rock Communications will lease the station and switch to a “light rock, adult contemporary” weekday format offering hit music from the 1970s and ’80s that appeals mostly to listeners in their 30s through 50s or early 60s.

KMGQ will have a split format, with a more uptempo, contemporary playbook during the week and a blend on the weekends, featuring music from the ’50s through ’70s, and on Saturday and Sunday late afternoons the “American Top 40” shows with Casey Kasem.

Benson also plans to add more local news, increase community involvement and add promotions and giveaways. But some things will remain the same, including coverage of Coast Union High School football games.

The station’s 6-kilowatt signal, broadcast from the former site of an Air Force station south of Cambria, reaches south past Los Osos and inland to the western fringes of San Luis Obispo and Atascadero.

Benson — who has lived and worked in the North County for 26 years, most notably on KPRL and the Country News — said he also plans to expand the station’s coverage to the North County area within about three months.

KPYG-FM broadcasts from the same Cambria site, but its programming originates in the KPIG studio in Freedom, near Watsonville in Monterey County.

This story was originally published August 24, 2012 at 3:31 PM with the headline "Cambria-based radio station to change name, format."