Most of the radio stations in Mason City, Iowa, were knocked off the air as a storm moved through the area Tuesday, April 12.
Alpha Media’s KGLO/1300 and Coloff Media’s “98.7 Kiss Country” (KSMA-FM Osage-Mason City) were the only local commercial radio stations on the air at one point Wednesday.
Alpha’s stations posted images and videos on social media showing that the tower that holds the studio-transmitter link antennas for their five stations was knocked down.
The National Weather Service issued a preliminary damage assessment confirming that an EF-1 tornado passed right by the Alpha Media studio in the eastern part of Mason City at about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. The twister had peak winds of 100-110 mph and travelled for about four miles.
Alpha’s “93.9 The Country Moose” (KIAI), “Super Hits 102.7” (KYTC Northwood), “Star 106” (KLSS), KRIB/1490, and KRIB translator K244FA/96.7 were all knocked off the air. All transmit from different sites.
KLSS morning announcer Joe Malone and KGLO news director Bob Fisher explained in a Facebook video that the fallen STL antenna was somehow still able to feed the KGLO transmitter site south of town:
Fisher was on the air as the storms moved through and said in the video that he had not previously had any fear of being in the building during severe weather coverage, but this time there was “a 30-second to one-minute timeframe where I wasn’t sure what was going on.”
Some of the stations were able to continue streaming during the broadcast outage. KGLO reported that all of the stations returned to the air by Saturday, April 16:
Meanwhile, Coloff’s “103.7 The Fox” (KLKK Clear Lake) was also knocked off the air amid power outages in the area.
This article was published on April 13 and updated April 19.
SEE ALSO: Mason City Radio Stations