There are radio stations that conduct format changes with countdown clocks, mysterious construction noises, thousands of songs in a row and enough manufactured suspense to make listeners believe Taylor Swift might personally be taking over afternoon drive. Then there is KDRF, where Cumulus Media Albuquerque apparently spent the past month quietly trying on GREG FM, looking at itself in the mirror, walking around the house a little bit and making sure it could still return the thing before finally deciding: “Yeah. We’re keeping Greg.”
So now it’s official-ish.
103.3 eD FM is going full GREG.
And frankly, considering the relationship between Greg Beharrell and this radio station goes back nearly five years, maybe we should have seen this coming.
WAIT. HASN’T GREG ALREADY BEEN LIVING HERE?
YES.
And that’s what makes this story wonderfully weird.
KDRF isn’t introducing Greg Beharrell to Albuquerque.
Greg has basically had a key to the place since 2021.
YEA’s own archives show that Cumulus Albuquerque made an unusually aggressive commitment to Beharrell in December 2021, incorporating his content throughout eD FM’s broadcast day while also making him the station’s imaging voice.
Even then, this wasn’t conventional syndication.
It wasn’t:
“Here’s Greg from 7 to midnight. Thanks for listening.”
The idea was to weave Beharrell’s bizarre, self-aware personality into the fabric of an Adult Hits station that was already built around musical unpredictability.
So if you’ve listened to eD and thought:
“Who is this lunatic talking between Journey and Alanis Morissette?”
Congratulations.
You’ve already met management.
BUT GREG FM IS SOMETHING DIFFERENT
YEA Media Group formally launched the complete GREG FM concept in March.
The company describes it as a 24/7 Adult Hits/Adult Variety format built around Beharrell’s personality, developed over several years with veteran programmer and consultant Mike McVay involved in the project. Musically, YEA identified artists including Journey, P!nk, U2, Joan Jett, Sugar Ray and Alanis Morissette as examples of the format’s range.
And if you just read those artists and thought:
“What format is THAT?”
Exactly.
That’s kind of the point.
GREG FM lives in the Adult Hits universe, where the traditional promise has essentially been:
We play a lot of different stuff. Please don’t ask too many questions.
But YEA is attempting to solve one of that format’s longtime weaknesses.
Personality.
THE JACK-FM PROBLEM NOBODY LIKES TALKING ABOUT
Adult Hits was revolutionary because it attacked traditional radio architecture.
Smaller libraries?
Nope.
Predictable categories?
Nope.
DJs talking endlessly about absolutely nothing?
DEFINITELY NOPE.
The format’s irreverence and enormous musical breadth made it feel radically different when the Jack-style explosion swept American radio.
But somewhere along the way, the absence of traditional personalities became both part of the format’s identity and one of its limitations.
Because Spotify exists now.
Apple Music exists.
Pandora exists.
Every human being carrying a smartphone possesses the technological ability to create a playlist containing U2, Prince, Weezer, Aerosmith and Sugar Ray.
So in 2026, “WE PLAY LOTS OF SONGS” isn’t exactly proprietary technology.
GREG FM’s answer is almost absurdly simple:
PUT A HUMAN BEING BACK INTO IT.
Except the human being is Greg Beharrell.
So perhaps “human being” requires an asterisk.
AND GREG IS NOT A NORMAL RADIO HOST
If you’ve never heard Beharrell, explaining his show is difficult.
He’s not doing traditional morning-show benchmarks.
He’s not screaming over callers.
He’s not reading “Three Things You Need to Know Before You Go.”
He’s not telling you Jennifer Aniston has revealed the ONE FOOD she refuses to eat after 7 p.m.
Thank God.
Greg’s entire presentation is built around absurdity, misdirection, awkwardness, listener interaction and the persistent feeling that either he understands radio at an extraordinarily sophisticated level or someone accidentally left the studio unlocked.
Probably both.
YEA itself markets his regular syndicated program around the combination of personality and a station’s existing music, with content designed to fit inside music-intensive formats rather than overwhelm them.
GREG FM takes that concept and removes the daypart boundary.
Greg isn’t visiting.
GREG IS THE BUILDING.
AND KDRF MAY BE THE PERFECT LABORATORY
Here’s where the move starts making serious programming sense.
Cumulus currently categorizes KDRF as Adult Hits in its own station directory.
And listen to what’s actually coming out of the station.
A recent sequence on KDRF included:
Jimmy Eat World.
Ozzy Osbourne.
Heart.
Sugar Ray.
U2.
The Lumineers.
Bon Jovi.
Alanis Morissette.
Bob Seger.
Aerosmith.
Prince.
Weezer.
Bryan Adams.
Tommy Tutone.
Green Day.
Queen and David Bowie.
‘Til Tuesday.
Matchbox Twenty.
George Michael.
Live.
WHAT IN THE FORMAT WHEEL OF FORTUNE IS HAPPENING HERE?
Exactly what an Adult Hits station is supposed to do.
KDRF’s live player confirms that enormous stylistic spread is already part of the station’s current musical product.
So GREG FM isn’t asking eD to become something completely foreign.
It’s taking the station’s existing musical promiscuity and wrapping a stronger personality architecture around it.
That’s potentially a very natural evolution.
FROM “PLAYING STUFF” TO ACTUALLY HAVING A CHARACTER
This is the bigger programming lesson.
A station can have variety without having identity.
Those are not the same thing.
You can play 1,200 songs and still give listeners absolutely no emotional reason to care about your radio station.
Library size is not a personality.
Greg potentially gives this product one.
And that’s where this experiment gets interesting beyond Albuquerque.
Adult Hits has spent two decades proving there is consumer appetite for broad libraries, unpredictability and anti-radio radio.
But what happens when you preserve that freedom while injecting a distinctive human character into the entire station?
Not merely a morning show.
Not afternoons.
Not nights.
THE ENTIRE DAMN THING.
That’s GREG FM’s bet.
THE SOFT LAUNCH MAKES THIS EVEN MORE GREG
Apparently Cumulus Albuquerque didn’t immediately throw a parade.
The format was allowed to settle into KDRF before the relationship became something everybody was prepared to put on the family Christmas card.
And honestly?
THAT MAY BE THE MOST GREG BEHARRELL WAY POSSIBLE TO LAUNCH GREG BEHARRELL.
No giant countdown.
No fake goodbye.
No construction noises.
No “103 HOURS COMMERCIAL FREE.”
Just gradually allow Greg to consume the radio station until somebody finally notices eD has become approximately 78% Greg by body weight.
Then issue the announcement.
Perfect.
DON’T EXPECT THE MUSIC TO START MAKING SENSE
YEA’s description of GREG FM intentionally straddles Adult Hits and Adult Variety, and the musical examples make clear this isn’t supposed to be a tightly fenced format.
Good.
Because eD’s current playlist suggests fences would only confuse everybody.
Journey can live next to P!nk.
Joan Jett can coexist with Sugar Ray.
Weezer can run into Bryan Adams.
Ozzy can wander through the hallway.
George Michael can show up later.
Nobody asks questions.
THIS IS A SAFE SPACE.
Except possibly for the music scheduler.
We should check on them.
BUT HERE’S THE PART RADIO SHOULD ACTUALLY WATCH
Strip away the Greg jokes and there’s a legitimate industry experiment happening.
Radio keeps talking about personality.
We keep saying personalities differentiate terrestrial radio from streaming services.
We keep telling ourselves that companionship is one of broadcasting’s competitive advantages.
Then we build formats specifically designed to eliminate the personality.
THAT’S A LITTLE WEIRD.
GREG FM challenges that contradiction.
It asks whether the enormous playlist and irreverent presentation of Adult Hits can coexist with a recognizable host whose personality becomes as fundamental to the brand as the music.
If it works, that’s bigger than KDRF.
Because there are Adult Hits stations all over America facing the same fundamental question:
What do you offer that someone’s shuffle button doesn’t?
“More songs” isn’t enough anymore.
Maybe personality is.
ALBUQUERQUE, GREG HAS THE RADIO STATION NOW
So here we are.
A relationship that began years ago with Greg’s voice and content scattered throughout eD FM has reached its logical—or completely illogical—conclusion.
YEA built an entire 24/7 format around Greg Beharrell.
Cumulus had an Adult Hits station already marinated in Greg Beharrell.
Somebody eventually looked at both things and apparently said:
WHY ARE WE PRETENDING THESE ARE DIFFERENT PRODUCTS?
And thus, Greg.
All day.
Every day.
Journey.
Alanis.
U2.
Sugar Ray.
Some completely ridiculous conversation.
Another song.
Greg again.
Repeat until transmitter failure.
The eD name and website are still visible, and KDRF’s own site currently lists its on-air personality simply as “eD” from midnight to midnight, so the digital furniture hasn’t necessarily caught up with every aspect of the programming evolution yet.
But underneath that familiar eD exterior, the personality equation has changed.
And perhaps that is the funniest part.
After more than 20 years of Albuquerque knowing this station as eD FM, the guy increasingly controlling the room isn’t named Ed at all.
His name is Greg.
God help Albuquerque.
Actually…
God help Greg.
He has to work 24 hours a day now.
— On The Dial
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