About Since 1981
About Bill Grady
Broadcaster, station builder, and the operator behind Fort Dodge Radio and MyFortDodge.com.
Over 40 years in radio
Bill Grady took his first full-time radio job in 1981. At 23 he became general manager of KRIT-FM in Clarion, Iowa, the station that later became KIAQ-FM in Fort Dodge.
In 1991 Dean Sorenson recruited him to run KVFD-AM and KUEL-FM in Fort Dodge, two stations that were financially distressed and operationally poor. He started as general manager on December 10, 1991, and returned both to profitability. He became regional manager for Sorenson Broadcasting in 1998 and for Waitt Radio in 2000, overseeing KVFD/KUEL, KQWC-AM/FM in Webster City, KHBT-FM in Humboldt, and KCUE-AM/KWNG-FM in Red Wing, Minnesota. In 1997 the trustees of the Sorenson Broadcasting employee stock ownership plan elected him chairman, representing the financial interests of more than 150 employee-owners.
Along the way he worked as a chief engineer, repairing AM and FM transmitters, studio-to-transmitter links and studio equipment. That hands-on work is the foundation for the technical work on this site.
In 2001 he served as president of the Iowa Broadcasters Association.
Six national awards for a small-market station
Under his management, KVFD and KUEL won the National Association of Broadcasters' Crystal and Marconi awards three years running:
| Year | Award | Station |
|---|---|---|
| 1998 | NAB Crystal Radio Award | KVFD-AM |
| 1998 | NAB Marconi Radio Award, Adult Standards Station of the Year | KVFD-AM |
| 1999 | NAB Crystal Radio Award | KUEL-FM |
| 1999 | NAB Marconi Radio Award, Adult Contemporary Station of the Year | KUEL-FM |
| 2000 | NAB Crystal Radio Award | KVFD-AM |
| 2000 | NAB Marconi Radio Award, Adult Standards Station of the Year | KVFD-AM |
Why that's unusual
The National Association of Broadcasters gives two of the highest honors in American radio, and a station competes for them against stations of every size across the country.
- The Crystal Radio Award honors year-round community service. Since 1987, the NAB has chosen 10 stations a year from a field of about 50 national finalists.
- The Marconi Radio Award honors overall excellence. KVFD and KUEL won in format categories, Station of the Year for their format, where a station is judged against stations playing that format in markets of every size. KVFD and KUEL were up against stations from cities like New York and Kansas City.
Fort Dodge is a city of about 25,000 people. KVFD and KUEL won a Crystal and a Marconi in the same year, three years in a row: six national awards in three years for two stations in one building, against competitors with far larger staffs and budgets. Bill's explanation of how they won is simple: small-market radio is a visible medium. Bill and his staff didn't see themselves as just broadcasters, but as community advocates, championing the lifestyle and sense of community that only happen in small towns.
The primary sources (letters, programs, photographs) are archived with SHA-256 fingerprints in the KVFD/KUEL award archive.
Other recognition
- National Association of Broadcasters Education Foundation
- NAB National Leadership Conference, seven years
- United Way Corporate Leadership Award, 1997
- Two Governor's Media Awards for excellence in community development
- Sorenson Broadcasting Sales Department of the Year, 1996 and 1998
Leaving the tower behind
Bill left traditional radio in 2002 and founded Star Communications of Iowa that July. He spent the next few years presenting seminars. Looking for a way to distribute those spoken sessions beyond the room led him to podcasting in 2005.
You Are The Guest debuted in July 2005. On September 27, 2005, Bill's guest was Jon Bischke, founder of the audio learning site LearnOutLoud.com, who invited him to publish his seminar there. "How You Can Create Advertising That Really Works" went up on Learn Out Loud in November 2005. Bill had presented it to small-business owners across six states; as a download, it reached listeners in more than 40 countries. Six weeks later, France's Le Monde featured You Are The Guest in its December 30, 2005 podcasting column. USA Weekend spotlighted the show in January 2007, and broadcaster Alan Colmes (Fox News' Hannity & Colmes) said Bill had found the "perfect form for the medium."
Star Communications has produced:
- You Are The Guest (2005), the first podcast series to originate from Iowa
- MyFortDodge.com (2007), a community news and events hub for roughly 60 miles around Fort Dodge. It streamed high school football video that first year and became a go-to online source for local events and community information in the early days of the internet in Fort Dodge.
- Fort Dodge Radio (April 1, 2019), an internet-only classic rock station serving listeners across North America
Radio Ink covered the launch in May 2019 under the headline "Is This The Future of Local Radio?" Live365 named Fort Dodge Radio a Featured Spotlight Station in 2020.
Radio is a craft, and the listener is a guest, not a product.
How the operation runs
The whole digital operation is overseen by one person, with no debt and no developer on staff. Bill rents the infrastructure (Cloudflare for delivery, Live365 for streaming and music licensing) but writes the specifications and audits what he rents instead of accepting vendor defaults. Every provider is a choice, and every choice can be replaced.