When Fritz Jünker came to Central Iowa and launched the Des Moines Music Coalition, a grassroots effort to develop a thriving live music scene, he gave himself an ultimatum: If his efforts were not being supported after 18 months, he’d pack up and leave town.

The first year was tough, he said. There were times he and other DMMC board members and volunteers felt they were beating their heads against a wall and getting nothing done. But after seeing the progress over the past year – a compilation CD, an indie music festival, changes at local radio stations, the formation of a citywide music commission – he says he’s staying put, at least for now.

“I wanted the organization to be sustainable, first and foremost, and I wanted it to have some accomplishments under its belt,” he said. “All of that has occurred.”

Jünker, executive director and founder of the DMMC, said the mission of the organization – creating a vibrant live music economy – is beginning to resonate within the community, in part because of the content of the message, but largely because of the backing he has received from a faithful corps of volunteers.

“Originally, it was just me with a megaphone, screaming,” he said. “Later, I could drop the megaphone because there was a huge room of people saying the same thing.”

One year ago, Jünker talked to the Des Moines Business Record and voiced concern, frustration, even anger over the current state of the Greater Des Moines music industry, his barbs aimed squarely at corporate radio conglomerates.

Today, he remains highly charged and passionate about the mission of the DMMC. But much of the anger has subsided.

“I have much less to be pissed off about,” Jünker said.

The non-profit DMMC has added a number of notches to its belt over the past year. The group has hosted several town hall meetings, continued with its DMMC Presents series of concerts and, more recently, hosted its first Gross Domestic Product live music event, “the one we’ve always wanted to do and fought to put on,” Jünker said. The event drew nearly 1,200 people and 14 local indie rock bands, most of which had never before played in front of an audience that large.

“We felt like it could work and should work and we had our hopes tied up in it,” said DMMC Associate Director Scott Kubie. “When we looked at it honestly, we thought, ‘Well, it might not work.’ But it was a great feeling that night not being able to walk through the lobby.”

In conjunction with GDP, the coalition released its first compilation CD, “Hear We Go,” featuring songs by 18 local bands. Jünker calls it “the best compilation that’s ever come out of this city.”

But for evidence of even greater progress, he looks to the local radio industry.

“They were enemy No. 1,” he said. “I started out as a pretty vocal and aggressive critic of commercial radio, maybe said some things that weren’t so nice but at the time I felt needed to be said. I didn’t believe they cared, and they proved me wrong.”

All three major radio conglomerates with stations in Central Iowa – Saga Communications Inc., Citadel Broadcasting Corp. and Clear Channel Communications Inc. – have made efforts to promote the local music industry, something Jünker never thought would happen.

Last year, representatives from each company served as panelists in a town hall forum that allowed local musicians, music fans, venue owners, promoters and other interested parties to discuss the state of local radio, the biggest concern being the homogenization of the airwaves.

Terry Peters, vice president for Citadel Broadcasting’s Urbandale-based operations and one of the panelists, called the event a lightning rod.

“One of the things that came up that night was that all of us are in the radio business, and although live music is an offshoot of that, the radio stations are out there programming and selling advertising,” he said. “It’s really not our responsibility to go out and fund bands to come into Des Moines to play.”

That event has led to ongoing discussions between DMMC supporters and local radio representatives, and Jünker and Peters said further success has come through the willingness and ability on the part of the DMMC and its supporters and the local radio industry to meet halfway.

“They put one foot in to test the waters and now they’re slowly putting the other foot in and wading out,” Kubie said of the local radio stations. “I don’t think we expected there to be a seminar and wham, there’s local music every other song. That’s not commercially viable for some stations. Some people still want to hear Christina Aguilera.”

Clear Channel has incorporated songs by several regional artists into its regular rotation on Ames-based 105.1 KCCQ. Citadel recently hosted the Big Country Bash in Water Works Park, featuring nationally known country acts such as Neal McCoy and Jo Dee Messina.

In addition, four local bands were invited to perform on a secondary stage in front of the 13,000 in attendance.

“These local bands rarely, if ever, get a chance to play a venue like that,” Peters said. He said Citadel is in talks with a production company that is interested in sponsoring a second stage for its next big event in Greater Des Moines: Summer Jam on July 23. “The second stage was so successful at the Country Bash,” Peters said

With relationships already established and progress visible, Jünker said 2006 could mark an even greater turning point in achieving the DMMC’s mission of creating a vibrant music economy. “I think this year could really show a dramatic increase in exposure for our venues and artists,” he said.

But making headway in the radio industry is only one step toward reaching the “holy grail” of the DMMC: opening a mid-sized live music venue, one with a 750- to 1,000-person capacity – larger than the House of Bricks or Vaudeville Mews, but smaller than the Val-Air Ballroom or Hoyt Sherman Place.

“We need something sized between those two so bands can grow their fan base and move progressively up the ladder,” Jünker said. “Without solving that bottleneck, we’re going to have a hard time being what we should be.”

Another of the DMMC’s major goals is to create a large, weekend-long summer music festival. The organization envisions several stages throughout downtown with nightly performances by major national headliners, as well as music seminars and festivals. Jünker hopes the eventual product is an event resembling the South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, or the Bonnarroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn.

“The reason we know this will work is because there’s a gap in this region of the Midwest for a festival like that,” he said. “We want to put a major national event here in Des Moines that’s nationally recognized, that can grow as our city grows.”

The jumping-off point was the March GDP event, which Jünker said legitimized the mission of the Des Moines Music Coalition. “I think it solidified in music fans’ minds that there really is a scene in Des Moines. It was an important event.”

The coalition will stage another GDP event this fall, likely targeting a different genre. Jünker believes two mid-sized live music events, a summer music festival, forums, small performances and DJ spotlight events are a responsible amount of work to put on the shoulders of a young organization. “We bit off maybe a little more than we could chew last year, and we’ve settled into a reality of what we can do at this point.”

Jünker believes the DMMC will be able to host a modest summer music festival in 2007 and, in 2008, roll out the event he and other organizers have been dreaming about.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to seeing all those dreams become reality is receiving adequate funding. To date, 2006 has been a lean year for the organization. Though many corporate donors have contributed funds for events such as the GDP concert and projects such as the compilation CD, the DMMC is trying to find a single major donor that could provide significant funding toward a summer festival.

“We’ve known all along that we needed to prove ourselves,” Jünker said. “We needed to prove that we could responsibly manage our budget, that we could do the events that we said we were going to do, and we believe now that we’ve proven ourselves and we’re interested in going after some larger contributions and really setting up the future of this organization in doing so.”

Funding became available in 2005 to make Jünker the executive director of the organization. Now, funding is in place to make Kubie a part-time staff member. Significant efforts have been dedicated toward securing the long-term viability of the organization and priming the group to tackle some of its larger objectives.

“We’re pretty proud that we’re still standing,” Kubie said. “Coming in August, the DMMC is going to be rocking and rolling.”