I am a radio news director who serves as the only source of daily news for two rural Iowa counties. AMA!

Are you over Iowa being the first presidential primary state?

Have you met or interviewed any national politicians?

No, I love the caucus!

I've met all of them. Here, they meet with people in small cafes. It's an intimate setting and I get a lot of face time with them. It's a lot of fun if politics is your thing.

Which one is the most different from his or her image?

If they're meeting with people on the campaign trail, they're only going to show them their image.

Basically, this. They recite the same speech everywhere.

Change it up every couple weeks, maybe. It's like a comic's routine.

Hello fellow radio worker! I'm actually in the same building as the Brownfield Network here in Missouri, about to produce the Iowa WBB game among others. I have to ask a question, so, how's it going on this slow news day?

I have the day off, fortunately!! I hope those working today are making it through okay. Chance of winter storm tonight probably making it easier.

I like Radio Iowa News. Another Learfield product.

I'm in DSM, born in FD. Any interesting local legends or intrigues over there?

Bonnie and Clyde bank robbery, Bonnie and Clyde shootout and Jesse James' train robbery all happened within 10 miles of where I work.

John Wayne was born 20 miles away.

Since you are the only source of news for those people, I'm assuming they do not have internet. Are there many places in Iowa without internet?

Some remote rural places would have trouble getting it.

Hello, Happy Thanksgiving!

Three questions: Is it feasible to have a late night (11-4am) call in talk show to provide contact to insomniacs and share breaking world news?

Which source / news agencies do you use?

How much investment to start am station?

Thank you

Hello, Happy Thanksgiving!

Three questions: Is it feasible to have a late night (11-4am) call in talk show to provide contact to insomniacs and share breaking world news?

Which source / news agencies do you use?

How much investment to start am station?

Thank you

Hi!

Thanks for your message and Happy Thanksgiving to you.

1: It is feasible to do that, but not in my market. You would need to be in a large market with a lot of people (probably top 50) for a show like that to work well and to be able to sell enough ads to pay your salary and beyond. If it's on a 50,000 watt AM station, then at night the show can be heard all around the country and beyond, which increases your audience.

2: All of the news that I produce is local. I don't use any wire services or anything, because none exist for my region. I cultivate all of my own stories by going to a lot of government meetings and meeting with officials. Plus, I always have a scanner on, so if something big happens I know about.

Keeping in contact with business and civil leaders also helps.

As far as national and world news, we have ABC at the top of the hour. Pretty standard.

3: It depends on a lot of things. AM or FM? Size of market? Broadcast power? Cost of real estate? If you want to be well staffed or run on automation?

Several hundred thousand to get started in a small, rural market. Tens of millions to get an established station in a major market.

Can you explain what a wire service is? I thought most news stations found their own local news.

It's an outdated term. AP and Reuters are two well known examples.

Is the Silver Sow Award really coveted?

I've never heard of that.

What's your daily routine?

What's your favourite story from the last year?

What's a question you want to be asked?

What's your daily routine?

What's your favourite story from the last year?

What's a question you want to be asked?

1: It's cliche, but there is really no set routine. I attend the same meetings each week, but whatever happens in the news defines my day.

2: I've done hundreds of stories over the past year. Tough to choose a favorite. One of the most fun was when a local opera house dedicated itself to Norman Lear. He was there in person all day. Reason being, it was the setting of Lear's movie "Cold Turkey", which premiered right before the launch of "All in the Family". Lear's loved Iowa since.

3: I came in with an open mind and no preconceived notions.

Awesome, thanks for responding!

Let me clarify the third question: what's a question you wish people would ask you about your job, but never do?

If I want a raise.

Is the opening of deer hunting season a top news story for you?

It's a big story, not necessarily the lead.

Is there no TV news there?

Des Moines is 45 minutes away. Unless there's a murder here, they stay away and talk about Des Moines stuff.

So you are the only daily source of LOCAL news.

Yes, maybe I wasn't clear enough, but yes.

Do you ever have people calling in to express their views/ask questions on air? If so, what was the funniest/weirdest/cringiest moment you've heard?

We don't really take calls. Not a talk show.

FM station? What else do they play and do you have a sense of how many listeners you have?

There's no way to know listeners in an unrated market. We have several thousand facebook likes and tens of thousands of website views a month. Thousands of people a month listen to our online stream.

We play country music. 1960s-Early 2000s.

And yes, FM!

Which two counties? I used to live in Powesheik. I miss Iowa.

Adair and Guthrie. Rural, but still close to Des Moines. 30-50 miles depending on community. Great balance!

Nice! I am from Greene county myself. Good part of Iowa.

Jefferson?

Would you care to share some of the funny/interesting/scandalous stories that you have reported on? It would be interesting to hear some of the local flavor!

For the recent November election, we revealed that a local candidate had illicit relations with two 12-year-old boys several years back. That story got picked up by TV stations.

Male or female? The candidate, not the boys.....

Male.

How long do you think the medium you use is a viable business option in rural Iowa?

Can't put a timeline on it, but we are not going anywhere anytime soon. To critics, radio has been "dying" for 30 years.

Mind saying what kind of scanner you use and what you listen for/which channels you stay on?

Online scanner. Listen to local Sheriff's Office.

1. Can we see a photo of where you work?
2. What's the funniest story you've ever reported on?
3. What's the weirdest story you've ever reported on?

I can post a photo when I'm back Friday.

Similar questions to your last two have been answered.

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We dealt with that for two or three weeks then it was over. Not a huge deal.

I don't really question your identity (what's the point in impersonating a rural news director? o.O), but I do want to point out your proof is pretty shitty. It might as well be a screengrab from the KMCD website. Where's the personal KMCD id tag? The stationary? Hell, even a pen would be more credible as proof than the 'About us' blurb that is your screenshot...

Can you show us something more suitable, preferably with a date / reddit reference? Obviously you can black out any obviously personal information.

This thread will be here tomorrow. For you, I'll post a timestamp from work when I'm back.

Given the likely size of your audience (apologies for the assumption), how is it that you remain afloat and do you attempt to 'innovate' at all or change the model as audience consumption habits change? If advertising makes up a chunk of your revenue - how do you engage local businesses to advertise with you over the competition (which in cases of those with an online presence, could be basically the whole internet).

I don't deal with sales or revenue. As long as my paycheck doesn't bounce, I'm content.

We do well as a company.

Any advice for a journalism student looking to enter the field soon?

Don't do it just for the local notoriety.

So how do you feel about a War of the Worlds broadcast?

Indifferent.

Thanks for doing this ama! What an interesting job you have. Do people ever look towards you as a source of knowledge? Have you ever found yourself being the hub of information for an event/ topic?

Hopefully this is clear. Thanks for your reply!

All the time.

How many people work in the station? By the way you're answering questions, it almost seems like a one man show.

Yeah. I'm used to it.

Are you a fan of the 90's NBC sitcom 'NewsRadio'?

I love that show! Classic Phil.

Did you break 9/11? Also, did you ever have to break sad news that affected someone you knew? Did you give them a heads up or is that against the rules?

I was 12, so no.

Do you ever tire of providing only local news and wish at times that you could report on state, national, or maybe global events?

No. Local news turns into national or world news. If Hillary Clinton comes here, or a gruesome murder occurs it is a national story.

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Slightly crushed.

Are you a fan of Welcome to Night Vale?

Not aware of it.

Would your station heads ever allow you to read War of the Worlds live on April 1st or October 31st?

No.

Better question would be, would you want to?

Not really.

Have you ever had an opportunity to do an Orson Wells - War of the Worlds- kind of production? April Fools?

No.

This sounds really cool. I have no knowledge of the radio or news industry so i apologize if my questions are a bit odd

1. As answered earlier you attend a lot of local governmental meetings for your information. Do you also work on or try to do Human interest pieces or mostly? For example, going beyond reporting "The local 4H club took 2nd place in Best looking Dairy Cow." And perhaps telling the story of the road that led to the 2nd place win.

2. Are you just the Director or are you on Air as well?

This sounds really cool. I have no knowledge of the radio or news industry so i apologize if my questions are a bit odd

1. As answered earlier you attend a lot of local governmental meetings for your information. Do you also work on or try to do Human interest pieces or mostly? For example, going beyond reporting "The local 4H club took 2nd place in Best looking Dairy Cow." And perhaps telling the story of the road that led to the 2nd place win.

2. Are you just the Director or are you on Air as well?

Yes! I love doing longform human interest stories like that. One of my favorite parts of the job.

I'm on the air a lot

What percentage of your reporting is brought in from other sources, and what percentage do you write in-house?

100% in house.

What are some of your hobbies? What's some interesting things you've reported on?

Stock trading, Magic the Gathering, reading other people's news.

What was your motivation to do this AMA, were you bored or did something exciting happen recently in your area and you are wanting to share it with more than the two rural counties that you cover?

Also, does your station only do the news or does it also support a specific genre or decade of music? If only the news, what type of information does the station share to fill the time?

Bored. Thought I might entertain some of you.

Serving rural communities, do the large agribusinesses play a roll locally in news stories? Is the community concerned with the glyphosate controversies and such?

Farms here are large. 90% of our listeners aren't farmers.

Agribusiness aspect is a portion of our programming, but not as large as you would think.

you can create propaganda. you have a really influential position. have you ever abused it to cut out stories that you don't agree with?

I like to be as objective as a human can be. I pride myself on that.

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No.

(quick assumption that you have a parent company please correct if that isn't the case) When you are reporting non local news do you choose what to report or just report all that the parent company tells you to?

I only report local news.

Do you lean conservative or liberal and if so do you frame your stories with the bias?

I plead the Fifth.

So, yes?

I won't say political lean. I try to remain objective.

On average, how much do you take from Reddit and use on the radio?

0%. Everything I do is local news.

Are you the only one in those counties with internet access, or is this strictly for local news that wouldn't be online to begin with?

There are no other daily news sources besides us on paper, on air or online.

Um....what about every major news network?

They don't cover local news here.

How many days of the year is the height of the corn the lead story? Be honest.

Only in a drought year or harvest time.

Ever told a ridiculously fake story just to fuck with the five people that listen to you? xD

No. And we have a lot more than five listeners.