Local, progressive country
Tune into 99.3FM: KOKE-FM returns to the airwaves on Sunday
Progressive country fans of old rejoice: KOKE-FM, the award-winning station credited as the catalyst for the music movement that made Austin famous in the 1970s, is returning to the airwaves.
As the Austin-American Statesman is reporting, those iconic call letters will reappear on Sunday after a 25-year hiatus — this time as a locally-owned, commercially-funded platform to showcase artists from around Austin and across the Lone Star State.
Cole, one of Austin's most recognizable radio voices, left KVET-FM in December. He will return to the air on KOKE-FM next Monday at 6 a.m. to re-launch his regular morning show.
This hyper-local approach fills a noticeable gap in broadcasting in the "Live Music Capital of the World," where media giants Clear Channel, Emmis and Entercom Communications have inundated the marketplace with homogenized radio.
KOKE-FM opens with backing from Austin attorney Jason Nassour and several other "strategically picked" Central Texans, plus renewed support from recording artists like Willie Nelson and an all-star cast of radio personalities including Bob Cole and Eric Raines (both formerly of KVET-FM), and weather updates from meteorologist Troy Kimmel.
"We're as close to mom and pop as you can get," Raines told the Austin American Statesman.
If the "Likes" on the station's Facebook page are any indication, listeners should expect to hear tunes from Texas acts like Bob Schneider, Aaron Watson, Randy Rogers Band, Kevin Fowler, Josh Abbott, Dale Watson and, of course, Willie.
Cole, one of Austin's most recognizable radio voices, left KVET-FM in December. He will return to the air on KOKE-FM next Monday at 6 a.m. to re-launch his regular morning show.
"We're not trying to be KASE or KVET," he told the Statesman. "We're going to be a 2012 version of what KOKE was back in the day."
In Austin, tune in to 99.3 FM (or 98.5 FM, where the KOKE-FM will be simulcast) starting Sunday at 8 a.m. for a gospel brunch program, a Sunday tradition noticeably missing from KVET's current programming.