Shocker! Palm Springs has the KGAY-est radio station in all of California

Talk about on brand.

Some people have entrance music. The city of Palm Springs has its very own radio station that churns out dance hit after dance hit starting from the disco era in the '70s.

"'I Am What I Am' by Gloria Gaynor. 'You Make Me Feel' by Sylvester. You know, every Donna Summer song," said Chris Shebel, program director of KGAY 106.5, naming a few titles on the station's playlist of about 1,000 hits.

"Palm Springs is an older community and we have a lot of people that fondly remember those days. And so we play music from then to now," he added.

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A rock painted pink in the in the historic Las Palmas mid-century home neighborhood in Palm Springs in 2022.

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George Rose/Getty Images

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Getty Images North America

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LGBTQ getaway

In case you've been living under a rock, Palm Springs is also very gay. A sizable percent of the city's population of nearly 45,000 identify as LGBTQ. Its city council made news in 2017 for having all five elected members belong to the community. The city is home to The Dinah, one of the largest lesbian parties in the world. A mere two-hour drive from L.A., the little desert resort was known as the refuge of Hollywood stars going as far back as the 1920s to dodge the prying eyes of the studios and the media so that they could be themselves.

Palm Springs's centrality in LGBTQ life has continued to evolve.

"In the last decade or so, the drag community has certainly risen. The visibility of the LGBTQ community has continued to gain a foothold throughout the desert," said Brad Fuhr, owner of KGAY.

Fuhr, an advertising and marketing veteran with experience in the print, radio and digital media, bought a house in Palm Springs in 2008 before living there full-time four years later.

Quickly, he saw an opportunity. "The LGBT print magazines were going out of business," he said. "It's no different than the demise of newspapers in general — what we call the 'gay rags.'"

To fill that niche, Fuhr launched the events calendar GayDesertGuide.com for the nine desert cities, including Coachella, La Quinta and Palm Desert that make up Greater Palm Springs in 2012. It included "not only LGBT events," but, he said, "everything that people could want to do."

The start of KGAY

As the guide grew and attracted a devoted readership, Fuhr was hired to manage a new LGBTQ radio station that was launching. He enlisted his longtime friend and a radio veteran to help.

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Courtesy KGAY

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"I moved to Palm Springs to retire," said Shebel, KGAY's program director. "It's one of the few places that older gay people can still walk into a bar and not be shocked and still contribute. In a lot of cities, it's like, 'Go away, we don't want you around.'"

The two sold another idea to the then-owner of the new station. Instead of just public affairs programming, why not lean into something else to better hook their captive LGBTQ audience.

"We had to sell commercial airtime in order to make this thing successful," Fuhr remembered, meaning that listeners have to tune in for local businesses to advertise. "We said, 'Look, we need to do a music radio station.'"

Another order of business: To get a set of choice call letters.

"I literally woke up in the middle of the night one night, and went to the FCC database of call letters, and I said, 'I wonder if KGAY is available.' Well, sure enough, the call letters had been given up by a station up in Oregon," Fuhr said.

On Christmas Day in 2018, KGAY launched on the AM dial as a dance music station, and features short newsmaker interviews and news pieces in its morning broadcasts.

The best call letters in the world

About three years ago, Fuhr became the owner of KGAY and has broadened its terrestrial reach to FM while he continues to operate its livestream and the Gay Desert Guide. Recently, he expanded his portfolio to include a second — non LGBTQ-focused — radio station.

All in all, business is good.

"I don't think we ever fully understood how important the call letters were to creating what is now a national brand for the radio station," said Fuhr, particularly after a recent New York Times article and an appearance on HGTV. "The KGAY call letters are probably some of the best call letters in the world."