The Way Radio was meant to be

WMKV 89.3 Reading, Ohio is situated just North of the Cincinnati border. At a mere 410 watts and a HAAT of 72 meters their contour is small and strongly effected by topography. It would not be a station of note except that They are the first FM educational public radio station in America to be licensed to a retirement community.

WMKV operates from the campus of Maple Knoll Village, one of the nation's top-rated retirement communities. Their program focuses on big band music and talk programs focused on retirees and older adults. their studio boasts a 12,000 song library focused largely on pre-1940s material. They even have their own 15-piece WMKV band. Their staff includes a number of "retired" DJs including Bill Myers from local AM powerhouse WLW-AM
They went on air in 1995, and began winning national and international awards for programming shortly thereafter. As recently as 2004 they were profiled in a front-page Los Angeles Times piece. They were also written up in RW online recently.

Interestingly enough about two-thirds of their listeners are online. In a situation where a radio station covers a small area it's impressive enough that they have about 30,000 listeners. It's even more impressive that they double that over on webcast. It's a lesson that can be taught to those small and often over looked college stations, that proper focus, and organization can do amazing things for any radio station, anywhere. http://www.wmkvfm.org/