KALA 88.5

KALA 88.5 is the non-commercial radio station of St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa, in the Quad Cities area. It is a public-radio style service built around jazz, with a variety of other music and information programming. According to published station information, the schedule includes jazz, blues, R&B and hip hop, Latino and Spanish-language programming, oldies, gospel, and locally produced and syndicated public service segments.

The station is owned by St. Ambrose University and works as a broadcast learning lab for its communication students while serving the wider community with music, news and information. It signed on in November 1967 and broadcasts at 88.5 MHz from the Galvin Fine Arts Center, with a 10,000-watt signal reaching eastern Iowa and western Illinois and a translator at 106.1 FM in the metro Quad Cities. The university also runs a separate student-programmed online station called The Stinger.

Programming is mainly in English, with some Spanish-language shows. As a non-commercial university station it carries no regular advertising, though it may announce underwriting and campus events. The stream on RadioKite identifies itself as KALA HD1 and is delivered as MP3 at 96 kbps stereo, which gives clear sound while keeping data use modest. It plays in your browser without installing anything, and you can add it to your favourites.