KPIG Radio

KPIG (107.5 FM, "K-PIG") is a radio station located near the city of Santa Cruz, California, USA. Founded in 1988, the studio is based in Watsonville, California and broadcasts to Santa Cruz, Monterey, Counties. It also has radio repeaters on 94.9 MHz FM in San Luis Obispo County (2004), 96.7 MHz FM in Chico, California (2007), 1670 am KNRO-AM, Redding, California (2008) and 1510 kHz AM in the San Francisco Bay Area (2005). The station's logo features a sunglasses-wearing pig in farmer's clothing and a cowboy hat. Its format tends to be Rock, Blues, Folk, Folk/Country and is largely self-determined. In 2001 the station was bought by Mapleton Communications.

KPIG has strong community ties featuring local disc jockeys, local sponsors, local news and commentary, and the Hog Call line, a free community call-in line for leaving recorded announcements that will be played on the air. Much like newspaper classifieds, common "Hog Calls" are regarding items for sale or upcoming community events.

Among its most well known programs are "Cousin Al's Bluegrass Show" on Sunday nights, "Uncle Sherman's Dirty Boogie" on Saturday nights, "Please Stand By" the in-studio live music show, on Sunday mornings. "Please Stand By", hosted by Sleepy John Sandidge, features local and world famous Country, Folk, and Blues acts. The station also hosts several popular music festivals each year including the Humbug Hoedown in December, and is the radio volunteer for the free music festival each October in Golden Gate Park called Hardly Strictly Bluegrass.

KPIG is well known worldwide as well. It was one of the first radio stations in the world to webcast their program, going online on 1995-08-02. Frequently song requests are submitted via e-mail from listeners around the globe. Indirect references to KPIG appear in the songs "I'm Coming Home" by Robert Earl Keen and "Beer Run" (which references the Robert Keen song) by Todd Snider, both of whom are frequently featured on the air and perform at KPIG's events.