Tiny Iowa TV Station Feasts on Rare Fare--Presidential Hopefuls

Right here in River City.

For Iowa’s smallest television station--in the community that was the model for home-town son Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man”--the months preceding Monday’s caucuses are a rare moment on center stage. These are times when the national media come through, candidates come a-courting and the sun shines even when it snows as Iowa becomes the media-washed official kickoff for the presidential nominating process.

“But after Monday, forget it,” KIMT-TV news director Larry Huegli said. “We’ll never see these guys again.”

This is the nation’s 149th largest TV market, extending from northern Iowa to southern Minnesota, with a large elderly population getting its local TV news mostly from reporters in their 20s, at stations in Mason City; Austin, Minn., and Rochester, Minn.

KIMT has a news staff of 11, including its six reporters with infant careers. “This is our graduate school,” said “senior” political reporter Al Carl, 26.

“We’re one-man bands here,” said the fatherly, low-key Huegli, 47, who delivers editorials and reads morning headlines on the air. Assignment editor Bill Schickel, 36, also anchors a news/interview show at noon. Weeknight anchors Jodi Atwood, 25, and Steve Smith, 26, also produce newscasts as well as report.

No prima donnas here. All KIMT reporters shoot their own footage.

Democrat Paul Simon stood up KIMT Sunday night after being scheduled to fly in for a live chat on the 10 p.m. news with Carl. Simon flew to Waterloo instead, but would be in later in the week. So would Democrat Gary Hart. It’s the season.

Now it was 8 a.m. Monday, Huegli brought in some fudge that his wife had made, and Republican Jack Kemp and Democrat Richard Gephardt were flying to Mason City, a community of 30,000, to rally supporters, shake hands and get some free media exposure.

“It presents logistic problems,” Schickel said. “We have Jack Kemp at 1:30 p.m. (at the airport). We have Gephardt at 5 p.m. (at the library). You’ll notice on the (assignment) board that I have a reporter (Carl) behind Gephardt with a question mark.”

There’ll be no question about which story will lead the 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts, however. It won’t be the the new candidate for sheriff. It will be the caucuses.

Stations in Des Moines have been accused locally of undercovering the caucuses. But no one is making that charge about KIMT, which has run at least one story a night about the candidates since November, according to Atwood, a tall blond with anchor looks.

That simplifies her job as 6 p.m. producer. “Before the caucuses, there were nights when I literally didn’t have a story to lead the news, because there is nothing going on here,” she said. “Now I always have something to lead with. But lately, I’ve had several people come up to me and say they were tired of the politics.”

No wonder. With the candidates coming through so often, repeating their standard campaign rhetoric, there usually is no news--except that they were here.

“I wish you could see some of our leads,” Atwood said. “ ‘Bruce Babbitt Brings His Campaign to Mason City!’ ‘Paul Simon Brings His Campaign to Mason City!’ ” She shook her head. “And then the wives. If Bob Dole’s wife comes, it’s ‘Elizabeth Dole Comes to Mason City!’ ”

To Huegli, however, the caucuses are a local story to be covered like any other local story. “We’re not the ones who said this is the most important thing since Hershey bars. It’s the national media that have made so much of it. So it’s not right to bash us.”

Meanwhile, the tall, enthusiastic, boyish-looking Smith was sent to cover Kemp. Is there too much emphasis on the caucuses? “I’d say it’s just about right,” Smith replied en route to the airport in a white KIMT station wagon. “Something always happens. Jack Kemp may say something today he’s never said before.”

And if he says something he has said before, should it be reported anyway? “That’s the boss’ decision, not mine,” Smith said.

Kemp’s entourage would include his wife, Joanne, a daughter and son, and actor Chad Everett, who is stumping for him in the state. “We’ll try to get Kemp coming off the airplane,” Smith said. “We want to get as much action as possible.”

Inside the small airport, Smith waited with his portable camera at the glass door, looking toward the air strip. Nearby was a reporter from KIMT’s competitor, KAAL-TV in Austin, Minn. Between the two local reporters was a camera crew from Britain’s ITV.

“The caucuses are a circus,” said the London-based ITV reporter, putting on a fur-lined cap with earflaps as he prepared to battle the subzero wind and greet Kemp’s taxiing jet.

Leaving his coat behind, Smith rushed out, too, aiming his camera at the jet, the wind blowing his hair and whipping his suit jacket. Minutes later, after Kemp and his party deplaned, the teeth-chattering Smith returned with the other TV people, his gloveless hands so frozen he could hardly mount his camera on a tripod for Kemp’s scheduled press conference before a smattering of national press and others.

Smith said later that he wasn’t proficient enough to use the camera while wearing a heavy coat and gloves. “I didn’t want my shots to be all crooked.”

After the press conference, during which Smith asked a question about line-item vetoes, the reporter followed Kemp inside jammed Orville and Wilbur’s Airport restaurant, where a standing-room-only throng of mostly elderly supporters awaited a standard campaign speech.

“I got the press conference,” Smith said afterward. “But I didn’t get anything inside the restaurant because I ran out of battery power. I was in such a hurry to get inside and I left my other two batteries outside.”

Back at the station, Smith screened his footage. He was happy. “If I just get him getting off and shaking a few hands, I’ll be in great shape.” Atwood was happy. “Steve says he got a package. Good. Now we have a package to lead our 6 p.m. news.”

Everyone was happy, for Gephardt’s handshaking tour at the library would also give KIMT a fresh lead for its 10 p.m. news.

Smith’s Kemp story ran a minute and 20 seconds, including this intro: “ ‘I think we’re going to surprise a lot of folks in Iowa.’ That’s how Jack Kemp described next Monday night’s Republican caucus. The New York congressman, running third or fourth in most polls, was with supporters and potential supporters in Mason City.”

Again.