Location: PO Box 30, Langdon, ND 58249
Phone: 701-256-1080
Cell: 701-370-1486
About Me
My wife Diane and I own and operate a small chain of stations (8 signals) located along the US/Canadian border. We are joined in the business by our daughters Andrea and Courtney. Ande manages our AM/FM combo at Grafton, ND. Courtney handles Operations for our group. In addition to the legacy broadcast products we also have a video production and digital sign business based out of our Manitoba division offices. We own a weekly newspaper and provide the local access channel content to the 2 cable company's in our markets. We also have some commercial and residential real estate. As far as I'm concerned I love radio and am very hands on. I handle the lions share of engineering for my stations and when time permits (see the smirk on my profile pic after changing out a failed oil sensor on one our gensets), I love to fill in on any one of my stations if someone is out sick. Yes, I still have live personalities on the larger stations.
My Market
We are blessed. It's just us here as far as radio is concerned. We own all 8 signals north of Grand Forks, ND to the Canadian border. The region is also served by a weekly newspaper which is also owned by us. Despite what you may think the weekly newspaper business is quite good. I know many IBIB members view print as evil, so I'll leave it at that. Our economy is agriculture based with light manufacturing and service industries. There is a lot of wealth in our small towns - think rich farmers. North Dakota is a red state and my service area can be best described as bright glowing red. Our markets are made up of conservative, gun carrying, no nonsense, God fearing folks. It's also a very cliquey. In our area especially you just don't pass through...you have to go out of your way to come here as the next stop is the Canadian border. As a result there is sort of an isolationist mentality amongst those who live here. Outsiders find it very difficult to assimilate. As our 26th President Teddy Roosevelt once said of North Dakota, -40 below keeps the riff raff out.
My Stations
We are border broadcasters. As US licensees we cannot originate an over the air signal in Canada, however we do have co-located studios and sales offices across the border in Morden, MB. To get signals from the Modern studio to the stateside hub in Langdon, ND we use Tieline devices. On our high power FM's we go back and fourth rotating one day-part from the states, the next from Canada. It sounds kind of cool.
We operate 2 AM's with companion FM translators. KNDK AM/FX at Langdon, ND and 60 miles southeast our KXPO AM/FX at Grafton ND. Both AM's are programmed old-line Full Service with local news, farm programs, weather and high school sports play by play.
The FM's include a live Hot Country, a live/tracked Classic Rock, and 2 AC's. All FM's with the exception of one are run out of the corporate HQ at Langdon. The other FM is run from Grafton along with its AM/FX companions.
We have a full time news staff. We provide video and local content on our own local cable access channels.
In our Canadian division we also have a video production facility with it's own staff. Additionally we operate digital video signs at locations throughout the region. We are quite proud of our digital products and the revenue they generate each month.