KVGC 1340 AM, The Voice of the Gold Country

The coverage and updates this station provided during the Butte Fire was outstanding. This is the only form of emergency information available in this area and we are fortunate to have it. Thanks KVGC

I can’t believe that we don’t have any Five Star Reviews. If I could I’d give KVGC Six Stars I would. Heck if I could give them Ten Stars I would.
What these folks have accomplished her in Amador County is truly amazing!
I’m an FCC Licensed Amateur Radio Operator (Extra Class) and I’m totally blown away by what this local Jackson family has accomplished at a time when small locally owned AM Broadcast Stations are largely a thing of the past.
I strongly believe that anyone who thinks local ownership of communication media still matters needs to support KVGC in any way they can.
Back when I was in High School (I graduated in 1965) I listened to AM Broadcast Radio Stations nearly every evening. I was a Ham Radio operator and I had an Automobile Radio Receiver next to my bed and I listened late into the night to stations from many hundreds of miles away. The radio operated on 6 volts as I recall so I needed a really big power supply to drive it since it normally worked off the car battery, but that wasn’t a problem for guys like me.
I understand that the owner of KVGC has been in the broadcast industry more or less forever and I’d like to congratulate him and his family for creating their station here in Jackson. I’d say that it is a gift of love to the community and I’m so very happy to discover this station.
Everyone with an AM broadcast receiver can receive the station and I strongly encourage you to tune in. The station is also accessible via the Internet although I have yet to try it.
Anyway, this station takes me right back to my boyhood and I’m so happy to have discovered it.
Robert

I listen to the station when I’m driving thru Jackson, CA; sometimes I play the Internet app which is GREAT! The local commercials are a little hokey, but interesting to hear about small local businesses that I might not have heard of.
On rare occasions, I also enjoy listening to Hawaiian music in the background — Maui station KPOA has an Internet app as well (but that station has multi-​repeating local ads interspersed with some great Hawaiian background music).
Anyway, local AM radio isn’t dead; one can listen to a local station just about anywhere in the world with an Internet connection! —
UPDATE: I just found out that Maui station KPOA charges $ 5/​month for Internet streaming — outrageous!!! It was formerly free. KVGC is still free, however, to stream!

Disclaimer– I work in radio broadcasting and have been a broadcaster for over 25 years.
Yes, KVGC sounds very amateur and «low budget», however, all other broadcast outlets have abandoned the gold country for the more lucrative valley corridor markets so this is all we have left. Their AM signal is tiny and not real clear at night, but you can still listen if not near any noisy fluorescent lights or computers.
As for the oldies, what the heck? I like the music! The format sounds like an iPod on «shuffle», and the music takes some occasional wild swings in tempo or genre, but so what? It’s fun. And, actually, the music is just a filler between the live or local content. This is how small town radio used to sound before corporate ownership started gobbling up all the radio stations to turn them into clones of one another. Some of you youngsters may not know what radio sounded like before that, but it was great. It was local, every station was different, and you got to know the people on the other end of your radio by their personality.
KVGC is sorta like KNGT used to be. It worked then, and it works now. Heck, I still remember the 80’s when KNGT used to go «off the air» after the Dr. Demento show every night, and they left the carrier on, then suddenly audio would appear when «The Coach» came in the next morning and started playing stuff! Ahhh… Those were the days…
For the record, I have offered to do some voice work for KVGC, and not even charge them. My offers for some free professional voicework have always gone unanswered. So, it appears that they like sounding as if high school 2.0 GPA graduates are running the studio. I’d still do voicework if they asked, but I finally just stopped offering.
So, good work Jim. Keep it up! We need you.

This venerable local institution has been around a long time, and now is an AM station. They are currently the best source of online local news in Amador County and anybody looking for news here would be wise to go to their website to get it. Unfortunately we have a useless partisan (far right) local TV station and our newspaper is only once a week, and plans to charge for its online service so KVGC literally IS the voice of the gold country and seems to be increasing in importance and relevance, and is also adding innovative programming.
It’s neat that they broadcast from Main Street in Jackson. I confess I do get tired of some of the oldies that they play over and over but am seeing some improvement even in the music area, and broadcasting the old radio shows is turning out to be a lot of fun. BUT they really DO need to get the amateur readers off the air, the too slow or halting talkers, mispronouncing of words, that sort of thing… it’s embarrassing.