[ad_1]
-Photo submitted
Dale Eichor has been on the air at KWMT AM540 in Fort Dodge since 1972. His broadcasting career began in 1960.
Seventy years ago, Dale Eichor was just a little kid fascinated by radio. As other families spent evenings around the new home televisions of the late 1940s and early 1950s, Eichor kept a close ear on his family’s radio, listening to old Nashville AM radio broadcasts and Dallas all night.
“I have always been fascinated by radio when I was a child” said Eichor. “And I had a big brother who was into all kinds of construction like model airplanes and electronic stuff and he built me a little mixer and a microphone and I had a 45 rpm record player. and I pretended to be a DJ. “
It’s been decades since Eichor had to pretend, and next month he will be celebrating his 61st birthday as a radio DJ. If you are from the Fort Dodge area, you have probably heard his voice on KWMT AM540 “True Country”.
Eichor grew up in Casey, near Adair, and graduated from high school in 1956. After graduation, he moved to Omaha to work at the US National Bank. In the evening, he attended classes at the technical school of the Radio Engineering Institute.
“I got my FCC First Class Operator’s License, which at the time you pretty much needed if you worked at a radio station.” he explained.
-Photo of the messenger by Kelby Wingert
Dale Eichor, DJ at KWMT AM540 in Fort Dodge, has been on the air for over 60 years and was inducted into the Country Music DJ Hall of Fame in 2001.
While in Omaha, Eichor met his 60-year-old wife Caroline.
“She has been a huge supporter of me and my pursuit of my radio dreams,” said Dale Eichor.
The Eichors quickly moved to Denison, where he held his first radio job with KDSN from 1960 to 1962. The couple then moved to Shenandoah, where Dale worked at KMA until 1967.
One of Eichor’s most memorable shows, he said, was sharing the news of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas on November 22, 1963.
“My first two stations in Denison and Shenandoah, I played all kinds of music”, he said. “I did some engineering, and I went out and played ball games and I was doing the setup, the remote control and things like that.”
-Photo submitted
KWMT AM540 radio DJ Dale Eichor poses for a photo with country music superstar Garth Brooks and Eichor wife Caroline in this undated photo.
But once a week, on a Saturday night in Shenandoah, Eichor hosted a country music show and he fell in love with country music. His desire to be a full time country DJ led him to KBUC in San Antonio from 1967 to 1968.
In 1968, Eichor and his wife moved to Peoria, Illinois, and he started WXCL from 1968 to 1972. It was there that the couple’s son, Tim, was born.
With a newborn baby, the Eichors wanted to be closer to their family, which led them to move to Fort Dodge in 1972.
“One of my mentors, Mike Hoyer, we worked together in Shenandoah, then he worked here” said Dale Eichor. “And he said, ‘Hey, we’ve got a job open here, why don’t you come and do it?'”
So, for almost 50 years, Eichor has been a DJ “True Country” for Fort Dodge and surrounding area.
-Photo submitted
Dale Eichor, DJ on KWMT 540AM in Fort Dodge, was featured on stage at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville by country singer-songwriter Bill Anderson after Anderson was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001. La same year, Eichor was inducted into the Country Music DJ Hall of Fame.
Almost 61 years behind the mic, Eichor has been on AM radio for more than half the time AM radio has existed. The broadcast of AM radio began around 1920.
In 2001, Eichor was inducted into the Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame in Nashville, but it was not his first award. He was named the Country Music Association’s DJ of the Year for Small Markets in 1974 and was named Billboard’s Program Director of the Year for Small Markets in 1989, among other honors.
Over the years, Eichor has had the opportunity to meet some of country music’s biggest stars – Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner; Alan Jackson; the Strait of George; Ernest Tubb; Hank Snow; Don Gibson; Garth Brooks and more. Some of the performers were already stars when he met them, but others he met when they were in full swing.
“Vince Gill got off to a slow start in his career, but I always knew he would succeed” said Eichor. “When I first met Reba McEntire, she was just a struggling singer, playing in rodeos and all that.”
Eichor noted how down-to-earth many of these superstars are.
-Photo submitted
Dale Eichor and his wife Caroline stop for a photo with country music legend George Strait at the Iowa State Fair many years ago.
“What I’ve noticed over the years are the ones that really make it bigger – maybe they’ve had to struggle a lot to get there – but when they get there, they’re the nicest people to be with. who to treat “, he said. “The bigger the star, the more beautiful she looked. “
Eichor retired from Clear Channel Radio, which owned KWMT at the time, in 2004, but remains on the air during the summer and fall on a part-time basis. He also hosts and performs music at various country and bluegrass festivals in Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota. He is self-taught on guitar and bass.
Thinking back to that little boy playing on the mixer his brother made for him all those years ago, Eichor sees how far he has come in his career as a broadcaster and thinks what young Dale would think.
“It looks like it’s a pretty crazy dream”, he said. “Certainly not. I couldn’t imagine that back then.
-Photo submitted
Dale Eichor, DJ on KWMT 540AM in Fort Dodge, was inducted into the Country Music DJ Hall of Fame in 2001.
[ad_2]
Source link