The Last Years of Sioux Fall's KISD Radio With DJ Magical Mike McKay (The Rock of Dakota)

Public Affairs Director, Jon Michaels, (since 1977) reminisces with KISD DJ Magical Mike McKay about the golden last years in the mid seventies of KISD AM radio in downtown Sioux Falls at 8th and Main Ave. Mike was the magician that later made the Statue of David disappear. Both KISD and Jon Michaels were later inducted into the South Dakota Music Association Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

From it's induction into the South Dakota Rock and Rollers Hall of Fame:

"KISD AM 1230 was a powerhouse top 40 radio station in Sioux Falls from 1966-1977 with enormous local and regional influence, bringing some of the biggest national and international acts to the area. In 1966 the Starr Group from New York bought the license for KISD. Partners included Peter and Michael Starr plus author and commentator William F. Buckley. In September of that year the format was changed to twenty four hour rock and roll and KISD quickly became the number one station in Sioux Falls.

The Starr Group hired Ray Ford from Phoenix to be the station program director. They brought in nationally known DJs like Bill Proctor, Tom Rambler, and Brian Cummings along with local announcers Jerry Dahmen, Michael Goodroad, and Ken Mills. Cummings and Mills have been inducted into the SDRRMA "Hall of Fame".

KISD promoted major concerts at the Sioux Falls Arena called "Summer Happenings". Artists included Three Dog Night, Gene Pitney, Lovin Spoonful, Easybeats, Turtles, The Mob, The Flippers, Roarin' Red Dogs, Crow, and the Rumbles. These shows drew thousands of people and created a new era of rock and roll for area music lovers.

In 1970 the station was sold to Stan Deck, a broadcaster from Dickinson, ND. They featured a new wave of DJs including Jon Michaels, Mike McKay, Johnny Knight, Chris Allen, Bill Richards, Robert W. Walker, Don Jacobs, and Joe Blood. KISD was a big part of rock and roll history in South Dakota."

From Wikipedia:

Verl Thomson, who had founded the station in 1948, sold KISD in 1966 to a group majority-owned by William F. Buckley, Jr., publisher of the National Review; Buckley and business partner Peter Starr also owned the KOWH stations in Omaha, Nebraska.[10] KISD's studios offices were relocated from a site on the edge of town back to downtown; Thomson remained involved with the station by broadcasting editorials but sold KISD in order to focus on his other businesses, a tourist camp and the Sioux Chief Train Motel comprising retired Pullman sleeping cars.[11][12] The station's tower collapsed in 1968 when a boom attached to a sign truck snagged overhead guy wires supporting the mast. The tower, still on Verl Thomson's property, narrowly missed the train motel as it fell.[13]

While Buckley and Starr changed the music format to contemporary (Rock and Roll), KISD's opposition to the establishment of new stations in the Sioux Falls area on economic grounds continued from former ownership.

Starr sold KISD to Stanley Deck, who owned KDIX radio and television in Dickinson, North Dakota, for $700,000 in 1971.[16]

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