Rocky Mountain High

From Tom Taylor's NOW column, this little tidbit about a brand new radio format in Colorado...

“K-High 1580” is the new all-marijuana format for Colorado Springs, where new LMA operator Mike Knar’s SoCo Radio vows to “do something different.” The station is owned by Pilgrim Communications, which just changed the call letters from KREL to KHIG (for “K-High”). Mike tells the Colorado Springs Gazette “We didn’t want to lease the station and continue to lose money, so we said, Let’s do something different and give voice to the marijuana industry” – in a state where pot is now legal and “socially acceptable.” Programming includes talk about medical and recreational marijuana, plus alternative medicine, yoga and other compatible subjects. This could a test of whether it’s acceptable to the FCC and other federal authorities for a product that is state-legal but federal-illegal. The Gazette says “Six Springs-area medical marijuana dispensaries have signed on as advertisers.” Lance Venta at Radio Insight adds that the flip from “Fox Sports 1580” to K-High comes as 4-20 is coming up on the calendar – April 20 being a kind of unofficial holiday for marijuana users. The morning lineup includes the “Wake & Bake” show.

I don't want to tell these guys how to sell their station to advertisers, but if they aren't on the phone to the Doritos people already, they are higher than they should be.