The Neighbor Lady

Even among minor markets Yankton is diminutive. They air farm market reports. It's considered an unrated market area  among MSAs, but gets it's own book as a DMA in the bottom half of the list at #119. DMAs are generally kinder to the Midwest. The flat topography there milks extra miles out of each watt in ways that are impossible on the East coast. At 5,000 Watts, 570 WNAX-AM beamed the Neighbor Lady into homes from Sioux Falls to Sioux City. This is how the Neighbor Lady became an institution in Yankton, South Dakota for 66 years.

The 15 minute program broadcast weekday afternoons, first at 4:30 then 3:30. When she had her first child rather than let her quit she began broadcasting the program from her home. That continued until 1967.
Originally hired for ad work, she was later asked to do a recipe show. Needless to say it caught on. Wynn Speece began hosting the program back in 1939 (some sources say 1941). She was a fresh graduating of Drake University, located in nearby Des Moines. These days KDRA-LP operates from Drake, but they signed on only months after she retired from broadcasting. They did recognize her as a distinguished alumni in 2001. That same year she was commended on the floor of Congress.

Speece shared recipes, household tips and personal anecdotes. She did live cooking demonstrations, speaking appearances, county fairs, judged baking contests, and sometimes her daughter Gretchen came along. She plugged products too. Everybody needs a sponsor. Starting in 1941 she began publishing an annual Neighbor Lady book, mostly a collection of recipes and coupons.They even compiled a "best-of" edition in 1987. She won a Marconi award in 1992 for "small market personality of the year."  She looks elated in the pictures, but she'd already been doing the program for 5 decades. It was about time they noticed.

She retired in 2005 at the age of  90. She'd only been retired for 2 years.

MLI to DSM

Moline isn't a metropolis. In fact it takes four towns banded together to call itself quad Cities: Moline and Rock Island Illinois, Bettendorf and Davenport, Iowa. Strangely some folks count East Moline as a 5th and Separate City. I can state for the record it smells different than the rest of Moline.. kind of like Sour Cat food. It sticks with you. (I thought I left something bad in the hotel rooms trash can)
But I did have my best meal of the trip. I had lunch at cafe Fresh just because it was close and was wowed. A totally unexpected good meal is very welcome after a few days of tuck stop food. Next door was a small antique shop where I stopped for a minute waiting for the rain to let up and I was greeted by a thick stack of 45s, a fine and friendly greeting. I picked up some old Stax singles, including a little something by Booker T & the MG's. The single is S-137 Chinese Checkers / Plum Nellie. yes you should be jealous. That came out way back in 1963. There's an obsessive discography here.

I also hit the Salvation army on 19th street where they had the biggest selection of 45s I've ever seen at a thrift store. It was truly huge. It was also next to Maria's Mexican Cantina and a bakery with a line out the door.

I listened to KALA and KUNI while in town then headed off further west into Iowa that night. There is nothing between Quad Cities and Des Moines. It's not pancake flat, the hills are low but they are still hills. The land was flooded in places, and the sandy peaks of the corn fields were washing out onto Route 80 west. I stopped for Gas in somewhere near Iowa City.

There I heard something that sounded like sirens. I got in my car and flipped on the radio and was greeted by an EAS alert. There was a severe weather warning from the national Weather Service. On 600 AM WMT I found out that in fact there were tornado sightings and that the worst of it was in the area between Keokukl County and Marengo. Minutes later there was a report of a tornado in Williamsburg heading north toward Route 80 between mile markers 124 and 136. I wondered out loud where that was. It turned out to be where I was.

Dark clouds closed in and I caught non -stop coverage of it on several channels many openly mocking the national weather service for refusing to issue a tornado warning. It got very windy and the rain became heavy enough to nearly stop traffic. then off to the south I saw a thick black cloud that was undulating and below it everything was blurry. I actually passed it around Ladora, and in the rear view mirror it seemed to peter out somewhere among the muddy fields and corn stubble before reaching pavement.
I hit Grinnell shortly thereafter and heard KDIC for the first time. they were playing an unlistenable mix of 80s pop and IDM. there mission is fully intact. In Des Moines despite the abundance of non-coms KGVC, KDRA, KWDW, KDPS, I stayed tuned to WOI looking for more storm information. That night the storms continued, but there were no more sirens and my flight out even left on time in the morning.