Powerful Storms In Iowa Took Down A Radio Station Tower

Counties in north Iowa took a hard hit from severe weather on Tuesday night. The National Weather Service of Des Moines issued Tornado Warnings for Wright, Hancock, Cerro Gordo, and southeast Worth County in Iowa as those strong storms and high winds moved through those counties. The storms caused a lot of damage in north Iowa and the storm was so severe, that a Mason City radio station group's tower was snapped in half knocking four of the five radio stations off of the air.

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In the over 7 years I've been with my wife, I've watched KIMT 3 News out of Rochester, MN, and listened to Start 106.1 in my travels to Garner, IA (Hancock County), her hometown. Tuesday night, we watched KIMT's live newscast from our home on their website as tornado-producing storms ripped through Hancock County and other counties in north Iowa to make sure my in-laws were safe.

Those produced severe storms did produce tornadoes, four to be exact. Those four tornadoes include an EF-0 tornado that touched down in Kanawha (Hancock County), an EF-2 tornado that touched down between Palmer and Gilmore City (Pocahontas County), an EF-1 tornado in Humboldt County, and an EF-2 tornado, also in Humboldt County, according to the National Weather Service of Des Moines.

Those storms that produced hail and strong winds continued into Cerro Gordo County which includes the towns of Clear Lake and Mason City. The winds caused a lot of damage in Mason City including to a radio station group.

The storms caused four of the five radio stations for Alpha Media in Mason City to go off of the air. Their stations include:

1490 & 96.7 KRIB (KRIB-A-K244FA)
93.9 The Country Moose (KIAI)
Super Hits 102.7 (KYTC)
Star 106.1 (KLSS)
AM 1300 KGLO (KGLO)

The only radio station to remain on the air during and after the storm is AM 1300 KGLO, according to Operations Manager Jared Allen, who told AllAccess.com.

I checked in with my in-laws Thursday morning and they confirmed, that all but KGLO are off the air. Luckily, Star 106, KRIB, and KGLO are still streaming their radio stations.

As you can see from the photos above, the STL radio station tower at their studios (341 South Yorktown Pike, Mason City) was snapped in half.

Star 106 morning host Joe Malone and KGLO News Director Bob Fisher walk around the radio station and survey the damage done in the video below:

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Of course, we remember in August of 2020 when our radio stations in the Quad Cities went off of the air due to the Derecho that ripped through Iowa. We were off of the air for quite some time.

Our thoughts go out to our radio colleagues in Mason City and to those in north Iowa who received severe damage to properties because of the storms!

QC Storm Damage

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