Ken Mills with radio and research telephone
In 1959 there were four radio stations in Sioux
Falls:
KSOO at 1140am was the mom and dad station. Rosemary Clooney tunes and a morning
guy who had conversations with himself in high-pitched nasally voice.
KISD at 1230am was automated, mainly featuring the
voice of Jim Ameche, Don Ameche’s brother, playing what was then know as “beautiful
music.”
KELO at 1320am had talk shows and hour after hour
of NBC Monitor.
And KIHO – my favorite station, the outlaw rock station
at 1270am .
KIHO, or KI’-ho, as it was known, played 24/7 rock
n roll. KIHO was owned by a
company from Chicago. Having watched “The Untouchables” me and my speculated that the mob had something to do with
the station, a rumor that made KIHO all the more appealing to me, a 10 year old
boy.
KIHO, with jocks Smiling Jack Shafer, Dandy Dan, “The
Morning Mayor KIHO Helgie” played the hits without regard for parental
sensibilities. I was in love with
that skywave, particularly The Coke Show, a Saturday night request show where I
had made my first on-air appearance answering a trivia question.
My dad and I had a disagreement about KIHO. He didn’t like station. I claimed KIHO had more listeners than
any other Sioux Falls station. He
disagreed -- certainly KSOO had the most listeners, he bragged. After all, KSOO was where he bought his
political campaign ads.
So, on a Saturday afternoon in May 1959, my parents
and my little sister went somewhere, leaving me home alone for a few hours.
I decided that the only way to prove my dad wrong
was to do a survey that would prove that KIHO had the most listeners.
I got the phone book. I marked every tenth name and phone number.
Then, I started calling the numbers.
I’d say, “I’m taking a survey to find out what your
favorite radio station is.”
Some of the people getting the call would say “who
is this” and “who do you work for.”
But almost no one hung up on me and most gave me the call letters of
their favorite station.
If I reached an older voice, I knew it was probably
a KSOO listener. If I reached a
kid, they were likely to be a KIHO listener.
I kept a careful tabulation of the responses hoping
my beloved KIHO would win. It was
close.
After three hours of calls, the final count was
KIHO
14
KSOO 12
KELO 2
KISD 1
Other (WNAX, Yankton) 2
When my parents and sister got home, I could hardly
wait to show my dad the “proof” of KIHO’s superior popularity.
To my surprise, when I told him about the survey he
wasn’t pleased.
“You did what?”
I went through my methodology.
There was a quiet conference between my mom and
dad.
My telephone privileges were ended until further
notice and I was sternly advised not to do this again. But my dad never again said that KIHO
wasn’t number one.
The lesson for me was that research works.
