Letter to our listeners

This is an open letter to our listeners, viewers, and the people of North Iowa. You may have heard about more radio people being let go last month by iHeart Media, a huge conglomeration of over 1,000 radio stations across the country. This company, like a lot of the huge media companies, have centralized a lot of operations, looking for efficiencies, talking about serving the listeners better. As you may know, bigger isn’t always better. Corporations are beholden to their shareholders, who want return on their investments. 

Here at KIOW and B103, we’re the opposite of efficient. We’re local. When the weather is bad, AJ Taylor and Jared Allen are all over things, sitting with you through the storms, letting you know what you need to know right now. 

We cover local sports for our local teams, Forest City, West Hancock, Lake Mills, Garner-Hayfield-Ventura, North Iowa, and Belmond-Klemme. We do video streams for these schools, as well as good old fashioned radio coverage. Josiah Kleveland, AJ, Zarren Egesdal, Melvin Balsley, John Lentz, Jenna Gerdes, and more working night after night to bring you the sights and sounds of our kids. iHeart doesn’t care about that. Shareholders don’t care about that.

When the school boards, the city councils, Boards of Supervisors meet, who covers them? AJ. He attends many meetings, and listens to others to find out what’s happening that affects us here in North Iowa, and brings that sound, that information to you. 

Mark Skaar is here weekday mornings at 3 AM, getting ready to inform us on what’s going on in our world, and our backyards. Jared and AJ entertain, and highlight local events. We enjoy working with our local groups, to help improve the quality of life right here. 

What is the most popular audio these days? Radio. More than Satellite, more than Pandora, more than Spotify. Why, do you ask? Local information. Good local radio is still the best way to inform yourself about what’s happening in our area. We’re going to keep pounding the pavement, attending the County Fairs, the ballgames, the meetings, and town celebrations. All of these are part of the spice of life in Iowa, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Are we perfect? No. We are working everyday to inform, entertain, and improve life right here. And, we’re not going anywhere. We love where we live, and we live where we love. Things are full speed ahead at KIOW and B103, and we’re glad you’re part of our success. Like Dory says in Finding Nemo “Just Keep Swimming!” We will, and we hope you’ll continue to join us on KIOW, B103, and all our video streams. 

Karl Wooldridge

Station Manager

KIOW/B103 Radio

Forest City/Britt, IA