KKDM founder J. Michael McKoy began spinning records at a local skating rink when he was just 14. Now, he heads the No. 1 alternative radio station in the nation and is preparing for an even more incredible mission.

“I’m gonna get Pearl Jam here,” he said. “I don’t know what it’s going to take, but that’s a mission for me.”

McKoy said KKDM’s main goal on the ISU campus is to bring in more shows.

“We try to bring as many shows as we can to the Central Iowa area,” McKoy said.

“We’re really proud of the Smashing Pumpkins and Garbage show,” he added. “We’re really proud of the Blues Traveler and Wallflowers show. Those shows would not have been able to come to Ames prior to us being on the air.”

McKoy said KKDM gets artists to come to Ames by giving them a high number of spins, the radio term for the number of times a song gets played on the air. He added that the higher the number of spins, the higher the record sales.

“When [Pearl Jam’s] No Code first came out, every hour we were playing cuts from it,” McKoy explained. “And believe me, I’m communicating with their record company on a daily basis how many times I’m spinning the record. Then we watch the sales.”

McKoy said getting a band here also depends on how early the station begins playing their music. He used 311 as an example and said the station’s first show was with 311 at the Drake Fieldhouse in Des Moines.

“We were on 311 before 311 was doing anything out of Omaha,” he said. “A lot of times it’s early relationship. Gravity Kills is the same way for us.”

McKoy knows all about early relationship. Since his arrival in Des Moines, he has virtually dominated Central Iowa radio working for a half dozen stations, including KIOA, Q102 and KJJY.

“The story goes that I got out of college and came over to Des Moines to go to Drake University law school,” McKoy said. “And I gave my parents this line, ‘oh I just want to take a semester off or just take a year off, I promise I’ll go back to school.'”

Fortunately for central Iowa, McKoy quickly fell in love with broadcasting and never went back to school.

Although he has found many mentors in the business, McKoy gives credit to J.D. Hatfield for getting him started on the management side. Hatfield and McKoy’s partnership dates back to a morning show they did together on KJJY.

McKoy said KKDM was originally going to be a talk radio station for 18-34-year-olds with music at night and on the weekends. He began by putting out a research study to search for the kind of music the station would play.

“When we got the research study back, 67 percent of the females and 63 percent of the males said they would listen to an alternative radio station full time,” he explained. “Well, when you put a perceptive study on the market, if you can get anything over 20 to 25 percent, you grab it. When we saw those numbers, we just stopped cold in our tracks.”

KKDM went on the air in September of 1995 and quickly topped central Iowa’s rating system.

“It was about 60 days after we went on the air that we figured out if we did a good job at it, people were gonna listen,” McKoy said. “It was time for alternative music to come to central Iowa, without a doubt.”

Once changing the idea of the station, McKoy did research on what kind of alternative music that age group would listen to. He listed the different kinds of alternative as hip-hop, adult contemporary, pop and rock.

“If it’s new music, it’s probably alternative,” he said. “If it’s not country and it’s not classic rock or jazz, then it’s alternative.”

McKoy said the station studies the popularity of music by playing hooks of songs and listing the artists. “The hooks are the part of a song that you remember,” he said. “And that’s how we determine the music that we play.”

KKDM tests 600-700 records every six or seven months to determine the music they add, don’t add or stop playing. McKoy said they have an 18 to 34-year-old age-based group. “If I had to pick a gender and an age, it’s a 27-year-old female,” he said.

Since the station has been on the air, KKDM has become the number one station in the age group of 18 to 49, so their fan base is actually greater than they set out for.

Despite being older than their targeted age group, McKoy said he, like most people, enjoys 80 percent of the music KKDM plays. “I think Marilyn Manson ought to be hanged,” he added.

He said that because he is at the station all day, the music can get old fast. “But, when we’re sick of it, [listeners] are just starting to love it,” he explained. “Even if we love the song, after a while the wear-out effect takes its toll.”

McKoy said he has always gone with the attitude of never paying attention to his competitors.

“The example I give to this is a runner who’s trying to make the world record in the 100 yard dash,” he explained.

“He or she doesn’t try to be this far ahead of number two. They give everything they have and they go for a time.

“I don’t try to be one point better than number two, I just go to the wall and give it 110 percent.

“I know that we’ve shaken up the market, but I’m not concerned about those people. This is a bloodless war so I don’t have sleepless nights,” he said.

McKoy explained how in Des Moines, there is no higher level of show business than radio or television.

“You become more well-known because you are the people going out to the super-market openings,” he explained. “You don’t have the sports or other types of figures.

“Radio is show business,” he said. “It is a business where you, the listener, expect a certain level of professionalism. Whether it’s fame or whatever, there’s a certain level of responsibility that comes with it.”

McKoy said his favorite thing is voice recognition when he is talking somewhere in public.

“I don’t search for fame but when you reach certain levels, that’s a responsibility that you take on,” he said. “It’s not really a benefit I don’t think.”

McKoy said that whatever happens, he will always continue announcing.

“Announcing is where my heart is,” he said. “When I’m all done, with the ownership and the money and all the stuff that needs to be done to support my family, I just want to go back and talk on the radio.”

“I want to go live somewhere that I really enjoy living and I want to do a talk show,” McKoy said. He said the show would be controversial and he would talk about important issues.