Today, many of our friends lost their jobs at Des Moines, Iowa Sports Station, 1460 KXNO, as part of a wider company-wide layoff spree at iHeart Media, who owns the station. Some of us knew them like they were members of our family, while others only knew them from their familiar voices we heard every day. For all of us, they filled our days with content and community that cannot be replaced.
Ross, Chris, Heather, Travis, Sean and Andrew brought us the conversation, the news, the fun, and all that comes with the Cyclones, the Hawkeyes, the Drake Bulldogs and the UNI Panthers. Nothing will ever replace our ability to tune into their widely acclaimed shows (some were the best performing shows in the entire market) and hear the latest on our sports teams, or just hear a good reason to laugh — with a local perspective.
There are only so many seconds in a day I can waste on Steven A. Smith or Rich Eisen talking about national-level topics that barely scratch a surface or ring a bell locally. Folks locally love their sports teams, love to talk about them with their friends and families, and look to their local media to bring them the coverage they need and so deeply enjoy.
As media becomes more and more corporate and less and less local, the importance of locally owned media becomes paramount. These local figures in our community deserved to still be on the airwaves today and moving forward, but faceless figures in a faraway city couldn’t care less about their customer-base, the service provided, and the community these six personalities provided to Central Iowa and to fans of these teams around the world.
Although Des Moines is ranked as media market #93 to the folks at iHeartMedia, this community is Market #1 to hundreds of thousands of folks, and an important (and fun!) aspect of our lives is missing today.
Make sure to support your local media and journalists today. Nationally-based corporate media outlets will never have your interests in mind, as these six great personalities had for Central Iowa sports fans.
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