My most formative growing up years would be in here in South Dakota, where I lived from the fourth grade through the ninth grade.

I remember lots of radio listening.

We didn't have television in those days.

We had a TV set at the local Fullerton furniture store downtown in the front window, and you could go down there and watch snow on the evening.

We, of course, were faithful radio listeners.

We had one station in here in in those days.

And I kind of knew about the the the announcers and the shifts and how they did all that.

Apparently, I had an interest already in the business.

And before I left here in in the ninth grade, the local play by play sports man allowed me to help him.

As I look back now, he really wanted me to help carry the heavy gear because the equipment was pretty heavy in those days.

And the steps were long.

And you know, his as a ninth grader, I could carry that bag a gear up there.

So that's really my first experience being in the broadcast booth.

I can remember the polio epidemic of the forties.

Some families kept their children out of school, but I remember also the radio station did fundraisers in the community.

They did at they hear in college gym, they had a big event, raised money and we had all kinds of fun.

I remember that that then I think that's where I started to learn that radio could make a difference.

And during the late forties, we had a real winter experience for about four years there.

Roads were closed, schools were closed.

There was a 47 to 49.

It was a mess.

And during that period of time, radio stations in Aberdeen, here in Mitchell and Sioux Falls had kind of a little network and they hooked up with a trucking company, Wilson Trucking Company.

And at 430 or 530 in the morning, they called the trucking company.

Whose trucks were that out all night.

What did you find in the roads?

And based on that.

Then about 730 in the morning, they had this little program where the guy in Aberdeen said what he'd learned in the hearing.

Guy got on a mitchell guy and the Sioux Falls guy, all the four, four towns.

And again, I said, gee, you know, safety is is being addressed by these radio stations, those events.

It reminds people of the service that that radio station can give if they're paying attention.

My involvement in broadcasting in South Dakota goes back to June of 1957.

I was finishing high school at Mitchell, South Dakota.

And a quick story is that in our graduating class, if you were in the top 98% of the class, you did not have to take your final exams.

And so I had four or five friends at the we had been buddies through high school and were going probably four or five different directions after graduation.

And so that last couple of weeks and we didn't have to show up for tests.

We decided to play golf most days, and one day we'd finished up our nine holes before lunch.

And so somebody says pretty early, we should probably play another nine.

To which I somehow said, Well, I don't think I can do that.

I've got to go to town and get a job.

And they said, Where are you going?

And I had to give them an answer.

And so I said, The radio station or an AM it 250 watts.

And so I stopped in at 1:00 and that this kind gentleman and I was going to go to college there in the community of the fall.

And he knew that.

And I told him that.

So he said, Well, let's let's talk a little more.

So he invited me back later in the week to to visit one more time and then told me that he had a position at a as a studio transmitter evening announcer engineer, which would fit in just perfect with my daytime go to college plans.

We had a local show in the morning and we had a long form newscasts at 7:00 and 12:00 and 6:00 and 10:00 PM had a disc program, a disc jockey show from like 3 to 6 in the evening.

And and then 11 to midnight.

At the end of the day, I had my first live disc jockey show.

We called it Dean's Discs.

We played a few of the hits, of course, but the hits in those days were Pat Boone and Teresa Brewer.

They let us play a little Elvis Presley once in a while.

After one year, I realized I was hooked on the business.

I sat there.

We had a lot of mutual programing coming down the network in the evening, so I had half hour blocks, which of course everybody thought I would study and it was there for that.

But I was going through material in the in the transmitter building, learning about the broadcast business.

I got hooked very early.

After one year, I qualified for a week's paid vacation.

And so I took my vacation visiting radio stations around Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota and talking to people who were on the air like I was.

And I found out most of them had gone to a trade school in Minneapolis for their training.

A lot of Brown graduates were in the radio and TV business.

So I resigned my job in Mitchell and went to the broadcast school.

And after I graduated from the broadcast school, I came right back to Mitchell for a job at K or and I love Mitchell.

I had a lot of ties.

I had family.

By that time I had a girlfriend and I wanted to come back to the ownership of our radio station.

Was the man by the name of Ray Appel, who had come to Mitchell in about 1947 and built the station from scratch.

He saw the opportunity to build a channel, Channel five TV station, and Mitchell applied for it, got the permit to build it and went ahead.

And in July of 1960, put on the station.

Those were pretty primitive days for rural television.

As I remember, the telephone cable with the network programing came to Sioux City and Clarion had to find its own way to bring the signal from Sioux City up to Mitchell.

And they picked NBC and they brought it to Sioux Falls because guess what was going on there as an NBC at that time and then brought the signal over to Mitchell in the NEWSROOM.

Our only local photo that we could put on the air, we had a Polaroid and we had a small camera that focused on this little stand.

We put the Polaroid on the stand, but it was very crude.

But we had a car accident or a fire at three in the afternoon.

We could have a picture on our 6:00 news that night, black and white, kind of kind of foggy.

We had this working relationship with us or television, and they would call the our newsroom and Mitchell once in a while and ask about a story.

Do we have a copy?

Yeah, we could do it.

We could get the copy to him somehow or another.

And then.

But did you have a picture?

Yeah, we got a picture of it.

Well, could you get a picture to us so often?

We would send them a picture.

And if they call like at 3:00 in the afternoon and they want a picture, they wanted it for their 6:00 news.

My, my mode of operation was I put the picture in a Brown mondale envelope, clearly identified K as all television in Sioux Falls with the street address.

And I would drive down to the Highway 16 section that went through Mitchell and go to a popular gas station off as a car pointing east.

I would go over and say, are you going to Sioux Falls?

And if they said yes, I would hand them the envelope with two $1 bills.

And I'd say, Now when you get to the edge of Sioux Falls, the first taxicab you see, hand them this envelope in the dollar and they'll deliver it for us and the other dollars for your services.

Thank you.

And I never lost a photo.

I never had a photo late.

So, you know, before FedEx, before U.P.S., we we had our guaranteed delivery service.

I had some very, very memorable and rewarding years on the news desk.

I just love doing local news because you you're just talking to people that are know there's such sad stories.

You've got those things, but you've got lots of people that are talking about things they want to make better in our town and for our society, and you get to report on it.

The technology was very, very simple.

It was all we would now call it basic audio.

No digital at all.

We had a a small building that housed our transmitter, which was a small transmitter.

We had a desk office area, and then we had a studio that I would guess was about six feet by eight feet.

And it was a one person deal.

I was married by that time to a woman who was finishing her college career, and I'd been distracted and sidetracked on my college.

And so the goal was that we would get Dean through college.

And so my wife signed a contract to teach at Volga, South Dakota, and we could live in Volga and we could go to I would go to South Dakota State.

I came back to Mitchell and announced early in the summer to our own our manager what my plans were.

And he said, Well, that's wonderful.

He said, You're close enough that on weekends you can come back to Mitchell and Workforce and the radio and TV station on weekends.

I thought that was a wonderful idea.

I went home and told that to my wife and she announced that that was too convenient.

That's why you're not in college.

You know, we're not going to come back and let you get that involved in the radio and TV.

So we moved to the Black Hills.

After about six months, we realized she was pregnant and those days pregnant women could not teach.

So fortunately, she had to resign.

And I was working at a radio station in Rapid City.

I could go back to work.

Radio fulltime, and college kind of got forgotten.

It was crazy you, which is 920 and was a daytime AM station and we had a great staff, a great following.

It was a great radio station.

And based on that, in 1962 they bought a station and Pearce off to go to CG effects, which was a pioneer long time station in our state.

And I had grown up near Pier and I knew about Pier and and I was a young man.

I was 20, 22 years old.

I was ready for opportunity.

So I raised my hand and said, I'll go to Pier.

And so one of the senior people and I moved to Pier and and we built CG effects up at that time.

After one year, the senior man says, I think this is working.

Okay, I'm going back to Rapid City.

So at 23, I was turned over with a staff of my own to start building this radio station, and then in the late sixties that was sold and the new family came in and I operated for them for about a year and a half.

And I clearly remember the Kennedy assassination and it happened over lunch hour that hour.

And I was at Kgf Action Pier and our studios were in a house which my family lived in, and I had done the new news and I was in the dining room with my family having lunch.

And I heard that the UPI United Press International printer, Ding, ding, is it ten bells or whatever it is they did for Bulletin Malignant?

And I kind of opened the door and yelled out to the station, Somebody better check that wire.

And somebody came in and told me what had happened.

I was, you know, 24 years old at that time.

Probably not as is as cognizant of the situation as I I should have been because I went back out on the street that afternoon making my sales goals and I stopped in to the office supply store and a man who was probably about the age I am now, who was a wise gentleman, said, Thank you for bringing the news to us.

But, you know, I don't think that you should still be playing.

The crew cuts this afternoon in the rock and roll tunes in the state.

Our our nation is entering into it three in the afternoon.

And I went back to the station, which was about two blocks away, and we revised the music format for the next four or five days.

I still think that man for that day was a and and I think we went noncommercial.

I wanted my own bus to drive.

And so I left and within a year I was back and pure.

I had a partner at that time, his name was Jerry Simmons.

It was somewhat known across South Dakota politically and in adult education.

And he and I were partners for 15 years.

And he he was a great teacher, a great partner, a great supporter.

He and I went into business, bought the pier station, and from there we built our little radio company.

And our dream was to have seven markets and and seven AMS and seven FMS, because that's what the FCC allowed in those days.

So we bought Pier a couple of years later, we bought K Y.A.

in Yankton, and then in 1976 we bought KW 8 a.m. and FM and then we proceeded in 79 we bought Cobb H AM and then put KBH FM back on the air.

I had been there previously and take it off the air and at the same year we bought Cozy Y AM in Grand Rapids, and then following that we bought Jamestown, North Dakota.

KQED J AM built the FM there went and the Brookings Do stations license to Volga KGO, JQ and KQ.

And then we built which is now the 107 license to Clearlake later on.

And then our last purchase was we went back to Mitchell where I started the business and bought Gail Warren and KQ are in and until about 2009 we operated that company.

The interesting thing when he bought the station and this was amazing, I found his W-2 from 1957, we had it framed and when he came in we handed it to and we said, Welcome home.

What I couldn't believe is how he put together that powerhouse of stations starting out in 1957.

And then he has the energy and the wherewithal and the guts to push into multiple stations and then beyond that, multiple states.

And as I just always was impressed with that, his ability to to do that, I thought it was quite an accomplishment, really.

I eventually became news director here when he took over.

And, you know, I wanted to be the greatest morning jock in the world, but that wasn't to be.

And so when I took over as news director, he was really pleased about it.

And he says, I think you're going to do a great job.

And so he'd visit us occasionally.

He'd be sitting in the general manager's office.

He'd say, Well, JP, come here.

How are you doing?

Oh, good.

So how are things going?

I said, just fine, Dean.

He said, What was last time I told you what to put on the air?

I said, You've never told me that.

He said, Good.

If I ever do, I want you to tell me no.

He was he was very good about that.

He encouraged me to do, you know, to do my own work.

And that's the one thing he he never wanted to be a person that's going to tell you how to report news and stuff like that.

But he always had I was like that.

If I ever tell you to do that, tell me no.

When I was managing, he he told me, Dean, you're the manager.

You make the decision.

If you need help, call me.

Some of the best advice he gave me was don't call me with just one question.

Have at least two questions.

Most of my experience has been in what I would call community radio stations are if this has been on a local community and a small service area around it.

They're like children.

They're really important.

They're not just a piece of paper and a license or our tower and they are stations, they are parts of communities.

We went into the FM business with lots of vigor and excitement and a lot of foot dragging.

In those days of the 1970s, FM radio stations were not a profitable experience, and we put our our toes in very gently to begin with and didn't spend a lot of money.

And we're very frugal in our programing.

But as as our community accepted, the FM's and the advertising community accepted our calls and our ideas, then we were able to build that business.

Also, you pledged and guaranteed everything, including your children's futures on that.

But on the other hand, I had a lot of confidence in that.

We could build a team, we could build a staff that radio was good for small markets and we were committed to the towns of 10 to 20000 I was, or where we thought we could have the greatest impact and we were we were in the radio business.

We love the radio business, but I think more importantly, we were in the people business of our staffs and our community.

My partner and I both firmly believe that we could provide a work environment, that our staffs would be more successful than they thought they could be.

That we would encourage them to build their skills and their talent levels so they would go on to bigger and better things outside of our company.

And we still have many, many friends that are great business people and great radio business people, and we are proud of them and glad they're doing well.

I had work for him for a few years, a couple of years anyway, and he wanted me to go with him to a I think it was the Radio Advertising Bureau or National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas.

And here was I was going with him not really knowing much about any of the broadcasters.

And we got to the airport and we got off the plane and we hadn't walked 15 feet and somebody hollers, Hey, Sorenson, And I'll bet in the whole time we're in the airport, we had at least six or seven people yell that, Hey, Sorenson because everybody seemed to know Dean Sorenson I retired from that business in 1999, 2000.

I have been involved in, oh, I would guess, 25 or 28 stations since then.

So I've had a lot of fun in this business.

We took lots of pride.

He did great things for South Dakota.

Broadcasting still is, as a matter of fact, and probably started before me and is going to be thereafter me.

I had like a year and a half in radio.

I was familiar with a name, but in my career here and Bob Famous saying, Hey, I'm going to start grooming you.

First off, he would take me along to the South Dakota Broadcasters meetings.

He would take me with two different things for me to learn and grow.

Well, Dean Sorenson was there most of the time.

So then just meeting him and talking with him and just being part of stuff.

Radio stations, TV stations, ah, serve the interests, convenience and necessity of the communities.

And I've always tried to hope that our stations would live up to that challenge.

At the same time, we thought that if we built these good staffs and good radio stations, we would make our communities stronger with the old saying we'd make it a better place to live, work and play.

And if we could, we could help our businesses be successful with great, even successful advertising, they would be able to return to the community also.

And we operated a lot of good communities and I won't say we made them that great, but I don't believe we distracted a lot from it.

I think we we carried on that tradition.

Dean was always, always encouraging us to really do the extra take, the extra step to be don't just learn radio, learn your community and be a part of your community and get depth into your community and be a part of it.

And that's what I took away from him.

And it really got me involved in a lot of things that I probably never would otherwise have done, you know, like getting involved in statewide debates and moderating them and all that kind of thing.

He was really a really a pusher.

But boy, in the background, he was he really support you.

He really had your back.

I look back at the things that some of our stations did that just make me mighty proud.

Farm prices were in a pit and Congress was not doing much about the farm economy and the farmers were getting frustrated.

And in Watertown and our station there, we had a call in show each morning called What's Up?

Somebody calls in this morning and says, you know, if somebody would just go to Washington and take a hold of those congressmen and tell them how it is, you know, they'd they'd respond differently as a result of that.

Our post David J.

Law continue this conversation.

Radio played a huge role even in our little group here in Watertown.

We started what was called a giveback program in the mid eighties after farmers were so frustrated that, you know, with the high double digit interest rates and farmland values were just going to heck.

And it was radio that came through out starting here and it's spreading out all over the great the South with the legislature motivated to go to Washington and make their case.

And within about two weeks, people in the listening area had thrown in what was supposed to be a buck a piece.

Maybe some people gave more than a buck and they generated enough income to bring out a charter.

Ozark Airlines, DC nine, the pier and load up the entire South Dakota legislative delegation and flew them into Washington and took them up on Capitol Hill and had a visit with as many congressmen as they could gather together.

And that's what radio could do back then.

And it was a lot of fun to be a part of that.

You know, just a lot of fun.

That was just local radio engaging the listeners.

Dean is just he is the dean of more and more than just a name.

You think of all the things he's done of owning stations, working in stations, being in the legislature, the he's just, you know, a gem of a guy and always did the right thing.

I always looked at Dean, and if I ever needed advice, I can ask Dean because he'd help you make the right decision.

Not just a decision, but the right decision.

You know, he's literally an icon in this business.

I mean, I know people who call him not only as a friend, but as just they need some advice about doing radio, whether it be broadcasting on a daily basis or or if they're looking to buy a radio station or to sell a radio station.

Dean's been through it all and has done very, very well doing it that way.

You know what I call Dean Sorenson the other day?

I could call him whenever I want, I feel like.

And he would help me and answer any questions.

Even with Bob's passing, I feel like Bob put the people in my path that needed to be in the path to help me along.

Of course, the Internet is the thing that exploded with podcasts and streaming and and I can listen to any radio station in the world off my little Internet radio over there.

And so the choices are much larger.

And and that forces us as a broadcaster to find a niche that nobody else can duplicate.

And for the most part, our niche should be taken as localism.

Nobody else is covering the city commission meeting in our town, the school board in our town, the local little league in our town.

So that's what we can pick out.

My belief is as long as we have communities, as long as people get up in the morning thinking about their children going to a local school, their kids in the Girl Scout or Boy Scout troop or playing soccer in the local club, we're going to have communities and that's going to be important information.

It's a wonderful way to tell stories, and I would hope that more and more of the students in our schools would look at journalism and look at the ability to get into the electronic side and and keep carrying on that tradition.

And that's a wonderful way to spend a career.