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On the Porch

On No. 30, the KMHL Broadcasting Company marked its 70th anniversary. According to the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting, Harry W. Linder was born in Minneapolis in 1892, and he worked in various businesses until 1940, when, at the age of 48, he decided to find the largest town in Minnesota that did not yet have a radio station, and start one there. The town was Willmar, and the station he founded there was KWLM. He obtained his radio license from a radio board in Washington D.C. because the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) didn’t exist then. Willmar and the region quickly saw the value that radio’s instant communication and information could provide in a rural area, especially after the station’s important service during the Armistice Day blizzard of Nov. 11, 1940. Linder and his sons went on to build other stations throughout the state, including KMHL Marshall, KDMA Montevideo, KTOE Mankato, and KLGR Redwood Falls.

Radio Station KMHL in Full Operation is the front page headline in the Dec. 5, 1946, edition of the Marshall Messenger. The personnel at the time were G.F. Frayseth, manager; Corwin Ost, chief engineer; and Mary Keefe, program director.  Additional operating staff consisted of Robert Taylor, Julius Breczinski and Mervin Gardner. The writer of the newspaper story points out that all the personnel, except Mary Keefe, were ex-GIs. The manager, G.F. Frayseth, had been connected with KWLM in Willmar before moving to Marshall in 1946 to supervise the setup of KMHL. According to Frayseth in the newspaper article, the equipment had the power to broadcast for a radius of 150 miles. At night, the radius was considerably more. The antenna, or radio tower, was constructed at 205 feet tall and of special design capable of withstanding high velocity winds.

The Lyon County Historical Society is a nonprofit, member-supported organization. For more information on membership, research, volunteering, or the museum’s collection, please contact us at 537-6580 or director@lyoncomuseum.org.  Like our page and follow us on Facebook!

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