KPLM
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| City | Palm Springs, California |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Palm Springs, California |
| Branding | The Big 106 |
| Slogan | Today's Best Country |
| Frequency | 106.1 MHz |
| First air date | 1974 (as KPAL) |
| Format | Country |
| ERP | 50,000 watts |
| HAAT | 121 meters |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 54360 |
| Callsign meaning | K-PaLM, as in "Palm Springs" |
| Former callsigns | KPAL (1974-1979) |
| Owner | RM Broadcasting |
| Webcast | website = thebig106.com |
KPLM is one of four Class B FM radio stations serving the Palm Springs, California, area and one of only two 50 kW stations. The others are 1960s country formatted 42 kW KDES Palm Springs at 98.5 MHz; contemporary album-oriented rock-formatted 26.5 kW KCLB Coachella at 93.7 MHz and beautiful music 50 kW KWXY-FM Cathedral City at 98.5 MHz. KPLM broadcasts at 106.1 MHz.
The station then called KPAL was founded in 1974 by Los Angeles radio personality Magnificent Montague, whose trademark shout, "Burn!" was expanded to "Burn, baby, burn" during the 1965 Watts riots. The construction permit for the station was the first issued to an African-American in four decades. Call sign "KPLM" became available in 1979 when a local television station was purchased by Esquire magazine. Today, that same TV station retains the call letters of KESQ-TV although Esquire no longer owns it.
KPLM was an easy listening station through the first years of its existence. By the early 1980s, Montague sold his interest in the station which soon featured legendary Los Angeles radio personality Al Lohman in the weekday morning drive slot. A change was made to a contemporary country music format on January 5, 1994 giving KPLM an exclusive audience; no other FM country music station was on the air in the area at that time. After signing off the old format with "What A Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong, the new format's first three songs were "Don't Rock the Jukebox" by Alan Jackson, "Friends in Low Places" by Garth Brooks and "Achy Breaky Heart" by Billy Ray Cyrus.
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