Sign Of The Times For KGAY
• It was Christmas Day 2018 when radio veteran and LGBTQ media entrepreneur Brad Fuhr helped launch KGAY 106.5/Palm Springs, serving California’s Coachella Valley, home to the highest concentration of LGBTQ+ residents in the U.S. Three years later, Fuhr bought KGAY-AM 1270/Thousand Palms, CA and translator K293CL @ 106.5, combining those broadcast assets with Fuhr’s well-established digital and social brand, Gay Desert Guide. Piloting KGAY’s programming is major market veteran Chris Shebel as Brand Manager/afternoon talent, and John Taylor handles morning drive. Pictured, (l-r): Fuhr, Shebel & Taylor
Sure, semi-impressive press coverage in RAMP is awesome and all, but it’s an entirely different animal when the New York Freaking Times decides to profile your station! Apparently Times staff writer Erik Piepenburg was looking to visit Palm Springs for the first time around Christmas. Fuhr says Piepenburg was doing some pre-travel research online and stumbled across GayDesertGuide.LGBT and KGAY! The result is a terrific in-depth profile of KGAY — accurately portrayed as a true labor of love for its small but fiercely dedicated crew.
As Piepenburg’s piece describes the station, “KGAY serves primarily the clubby slice of the queer music pie. There’s no Barbra or Bikini Kill, no American songbook showstoppers or lesbian breakup ballads. There’s no rap or country, although it does play Lil Nas X and dance versions of songs by Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette and other country divas. Shebel said the station mirrors the tastes of its core audience: gay men of Gen X age and older who enjoy Rihanna and Lady Gaga but still worship Donna Summer and Crystal Waters.”
Now that KGAY’s story is out into the known universe, RAMP reached out to an elated Fuhr, who told us, “It’s been a long journey since I started running Sunday morning church services on my hometown radio station to ownership, and now recognition in the New York Times for the unique format we’ve created. Little did Chris Shebel and I know when we met that we would be entertaining and advocating for the LGBTQ+ communities that KGAY serves. Chris and John have beautifully integrated themselves into the Palm Springs community, and we’ve taken a page from the radio playbook that many have forgotten: Local content, serving the community, and great music all conspire to create a winning station.” [Photo credit: Michelle Groskopf for The New York Times]
