Leigh McNabb is Operations Manager for the Saga-owned Des Moines Radio Group, where she also serves as Program Director for Classic Hits 93.3 KIOA. McNabb recently landed a spot on Barrett Media’s Top 20 of 2024 list of Adult/Classic Hits Program Directors and said it was extra special because it means that her peers recognize her.
“I think the fact that it’s voted on by peers is that much cooler because there aren’t as many opportunities for all of us to interact like there used to be, and so we’re not all up in each other’s faces as much anymore and just knowing that you exist in other people’s peripheral is was pretty cool.”
KIOA is a set of legendary call letters in Iowa. The station was an AM powerhouse on 940 in the ’60s and ’70s and was the soundtrack to people growing up. I asked what it means to be the keeper of such an important station.
“I’ll tell you, my mom will be 80 in May, and she talks about listening to Dic Youngs on KIOA when she was a young girl. I’ve heard things like that all my life. I interned here actually right after high school and all through college. I got the chance to work with some of those people like Dic Youngs, and so not only are the call letters big call letters in the industry, but I also owe it to the people who became my friends to keep the ball rolling.”
Changing the formula on such a legendary station, in this case, from Oldies to Classic Hits, can be jarring.
“Shortly before I got here, the move to Classic Hits was made, and it was a rocky move. I’m still really trying to define KIOA as a Classic Hits station, letting people know that we have an oldies station—a pure oldies station up the dial. That’s a constant education process in the metro because Des Moines is a very loyal market.”
McNabb feels that maybe the transition happened a little too quickly.
“There’s no negativity. If there was that happened before I got here. I think the only real negativity initially in the process was just a realignment of some DJs and jumping too quickly. Initially, the station jumped too quickly from an Oldies station to almost ‘90s heavy. There’s a better progression that can be made there to not totally shock the system.”
“I think we found a good balance in that now where you add a few songs on the upper end; then you may drop a few songs on the lower end. Then you just keep inching, crawling your way. Because I mean, the eighties were 40 years ago.”
“People don’t come and go a lot. And so, they’re used to decades of KIOA being just oldies. I have the responsibility of not only keeping the whole thing legal but making sure those that came before me would be proud of what we’re doing.”
McNabb has a busy life. In addition to OM and PD, she is a mother of three, all born within a year, and she has a set of twins.
“I work, I’m mom, I work, I’m mom. Sometimes, I’m mom more at work than I do at home. But yeah, all three of our kids were born in the same year. I was 38 when I had all three; they’re not triplets. It’s very crazy in our house.”
“And it’s crazy here. I think that’s just where I thrive. I’ve always sought out opportunities to move and shake. We could say I don’t sit still.”
In another unique family twist, McNabb’s husband, Mike Wickett, is a morning show co-host on Lazer 103.3, KAZR, making McNabb his boss, at least at work.
“He would say I’m the boss at work, and I’m the boss at home. And he is correct. We’ve been very fortunate to both have radio jobs; this is now our third market. We met when we did radio in Milwaukee and transferred to Kansas City. And then we came here and about a year after we moved here, he got the morning job on Laser.”
“This is the first time that I have been his direct boss and not just a peer. He would tell you he doesn’t have an OM, that he either goes to his PD or the GM, and there is no OM to go to because we do really separate church and state big time.”
McNabb credits KIOA’s success to a hard-working staff.
“The crew on KIOA is the best at grassroots guerrilla get-out-there marketing, especially in the warmer months. They are at every festival, every event, doing every stage announcement. They enter every silly local competition. They’re out at the Iowa State Fair all day, every day. It really is shaking hands and kissing babies, and they do it, and they’re good at it, and they like doing it.”
Des Moines is a crowded radio market with several heritage brands across Sage, Cumulus, and iHeartMedia. How do you cut through?
“I think we have a very different business model than those companies do. At the end of the day, we are a local radio station. We want local people on the air who live in this community, interact with the listeners, and talk about what they’re talking about.”
“That’s not the way those other companies are going these days. If you want to sponsor a booth at the Iowa State Fair for ten days, you have a very limited number of stations in the market that are out there all day, every day, with humans that can get your business in front of all those people. If you want someone to put together a great social media campaign for your business and then link that with a commercial campaign on the air, this is the best way to do it.”
“There aren’t jocks at a lot of those stations that are going to go out to that business and shoot and edit and put together everything for that campaign. Because they don’t live here, they live far from here, or they’re not going to talk to anyone.”
“The way that we are able to stand out from our competitors is that we’re here, and we’re local. We are just like anybody else in the community, and there are very few stations and companies in Des Moines that can say that our salespeople are here. They are calling on local clients. You cannot call a number and design your commercial over the phone with a computer. It is a person-to-person business.”
I asked if there was anyone else to give a shoutout?
“I should probably shout out Wickett, my husband because he has made some pretty major market moves for me to try to figure out how to do all of this. And he stays home with those kids when I’m late at the office some nights. He’s really the superstar in all of this, but I hope he doesn’t have that go to his head because he’s already got an ego. Let’s be real honest.”
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Jeff Lynn serves as Editor of Barrett Media’s Music Radio coverage. Prior to joining Barrett Media, Jeff spent time programming in Milwaukee, Omaha, Cleveland, Des Moines, and Madison for multiple radio groups, including iHeartMedia, Townsquare Media, NRG Media, and Entercom (now Audacy). He also worked as a Country Format Editor for All Access until the outlet shut down in August 2023.
To get in touch with Jeff by email, reach him at Jeff@BarrettMedia.com.
