New Owner Plans Hyperlocal Format for South Dakota Station

The future owner of an AM station and its FM translator in northeastern South Dakota is planning a hyperlocal format aimed at the 40+ audience.

Broadcast engineer Ron Schacht and his wife, Denise, are buying KQKD/1380 and K260DG/99.9 (Redfield) from the Ingstad family’s i3G Media. An asset purchase agreement submitted to the FCC indicates Schacht’s Gray Ghost Broadcasting, LLC is paying $25,000 for the stations.

Ron Schacht says the current format, a simulcast of “Pure Country” with Prairie Winds Broadcasting stations in Aberdeen, will end on KQKD when the sale is complete. The new format will include news and information for Redfield and surrounding communities with a broad playlist of Classic Hits and Classic Country.

Schacht, who has worked in radio since 1963, is a strong believer in localism and says he does not believe AM radio is dead.

“You can’t just load up an automation system with music or pick up a satellite format and expect to succeed. It takes one-on-one communications from a live announcer at the station to the listener,” Schacht said.

The Schachts have a library of thousands of LP’s and 45s and plan to have two turntables in the studio.

The couple owned a radio station in Pennsylvania in the 1990s and more recently, Ron Schacht helped build KUEL-LP/97.1 (Kensett, IA). Both Ron and Denise were board members of KUEL-LP licensee Worth County Community Radio Association but have resigned due to a prohibition on LPFM owners having other broadcast interest.

Schacht recently wrote a piece for Radio World about the shrinking pool of qualified broadcast engineers.

Redfield is a community of about 2,300 people that’s under the umbrella of the Aberdeen stations, and is the community of license for two FM stations targeting the Aberdeen market.