November & December 2000

December 27, 2000

KGAN-TV Cedar Rapids has hired Tiffany O'Donnell as an anchor for it's 6 & 10 pm newscasts.  She comes from WHO-TV Des Moines where she has been an anchor, producer and reporter for the past six years.....KCRG Radio in Cedar Rapids is bidding farewell to Dave Franklin the host of the Sunday Morning Polka Party who is retiring after 35 years as the host.   

December 26,2000

A couple of new affiliates of the WB Television network are set to hit the airwaves.  KJMH Burlington which has been simulcasting sister station KLJB Davenport will stop airing KLJB's Fox programming and will begin airing a partial schedule independent of KLJB's starting January 1.  The two Grant Media owned stations will both carry the KLJB Fox 18 News and will share some overnight and early morning programming.....KPWB hopes to be on the air at the start of 2001 as well.  The new station, with offices in Ankeny will be a primary WB affiliate but will reportedly fill out its schedule with shows from the other fledgling network UPN.....Several stations with streaming audio may need to make other arrangements due to the financial problems of the streaming providers.  BroadcastAmerica.com shut off audio streams on December 21 as a judge in Maine gave Real Networks and MCI Worldcom permission to cut off service due to huge debts.  This will affect several stations in Iowa.  They are hoping to resume operations with new investors.  Also Radio Business Report says that GlobalMedia.com said in their SEC filing that they will cease operations on December 31 unless more capital is found.  This will affect KJJY and KRKQ in Des Moines.     

December 20, 2000

The Iowa Western Community College Board of Trustees has decided not to sell radio station KIWR (The River).  Bids were taken for the station which has an appraised value of $4.5 million but there was only one taker.  Calvary Satellite Network, a religious broadcaster out of California offered $352,000.....KPWB which will be the new Central Iowa WB affiliate on UHF channel 23 plans to be on the air around the First of January. 

December 9, 2000

At Midnight December 8 Clear Channel flipped the format of KMXD Des Moines from Hot Adult Contemporary to 80's "The New Mix 100.3. The Best Mix of the 80's and More."  Mix 100.3 joins a growing number of stations nationwide that have gone to this format in recent months.....The format wheel may not be done spinning yet as there are rumors regarding KDMI.....A new station sign on is KQCR 98.9 in Parkersburg.  "The Heart"  They have a Soft Adult Contemporary format.          

December 2, 2000

KFXA-TV Cedar Rapids promoted the Blimpie Blast women's basketball doubleheader December 2 in Cedar Rapids.  It featured Iowa State, Northern Iowa, DePaul and Illinois.  The games were carried on a network of Fox stations in Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, the Quad Cities as well as stations in Chicago, Champaign, Peoria and Rockford.....KHKI (The Hawk) Des Moines raised over $10,000 in its annual charity auction and concert benefiting Children and Families of Iowa.....KKDM (Kiss 107) Des Moines has a new night jock.  Carson joins Munchii via cybercast from WFLZ Tampa, FL....KGAN-TV news anchor Amy Johnson bid farewell December 1.  It was announced several weeks ago that she would be leaving television to become the head of the Public Relations department at Coe College in Cedar Rapids.  KGAN is still in the process of finding new co-anchors.....One On One Sports, which counts KJOC (K Jock) Davenport and KXTK (The Big Ticket) Des Moines among its 400 affiliates has been sold to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures.  The network will be part of Vulcan owned The Sporting News  and will be rebranded as The Sporting News Radio Network.

November 21, 2000

The Iowa Western Community College board has decided to seek bids for the possible sale of Modern Rock station KIWR (89.7 The River).  The Omaha World-Herald reports that the number of potential bidders is six and that the school is asking for at least $4 million.  The station which has a 100,000 watt signal was appraised at $4.5 million.  The board is to decide whether or not to sell at its December 18 meeting.....After a half century each of being part of University of Iowa Hawkeye broadcasts, Bob Brooks and Jim Zabel will not be part of Learfield Communications'  broadcast team.  Their final broadcast was the Iowa-Minnesota football game Nov. 18.....Here are just a few of the charity efforts that stations are involved with:  KMXD (Mix 100.3) Des Moines raised $10,208.89 in two days to provide a Christmas party for underprivileged kids.  KSTZ (Star 102.5) Des Moines collected 150,199 pounds of food in its annual "Combat Hunger" campaign.   KCVM (Mix 96) Waterloo-Cedar Falls morning man and PD Jamie Phillips went around the Waterloo-Cedar Falls area in the annual drive for the Northeast Iowa Food Bank.  This year he was joined by a life-sized piggy bank and Tom the Turkey.  The goal is $5,000 or 20 tons of food.  If the goal is not met by Thanksgiving eve, Tom will be somebody's dinner.       

November 15, 2000

KGAN-TV Cedar Rapids has named Les Vann as its new General Manager.  He comes from WICD-TV Champaign, IL where he has been station manager since 1994.....KGGO (94.9) Des Moines Music Director Jay D. Stone has been named Assistant Program Director at the station.....There is a new TV site you may want to check out, Eastern Iowa Television.   

November 10, 2000

A pair of Des Moines stations have tweaked their formats in recent weeks.  KRKQ has transformed itself from Classic Rock "98 Rock" to 70's based Classic Hits "Magic 98.3.  Meanwhile KXTK has stopped simulcasting FM sister KIOA.  Saga reached an agreement for Riverside Radio to program and market the station under a LMA.  Riverside, which is owned by the Iowa Cubs ownership, changed the format to full time sports.  KXTK is now known as "The Big Ticket" and has added programming from One on One Sports and SportsFans Radio Network to go along with the play by play and local talk it has already been airing.  It was also announced that KXTK will debut a new morning show hosted by Holden Kushner on November 13.