Newton radio man to report news and play-by-plays on KNIA/KRLS

Randy Van Roekel, former news director of KCOB and the voice of the Newton Cardinals, is not only back on the air at a new radio station and reporting on the latest local news, but he is also getting a chance to bring back his signature play-by-play commentary of Newton sports via online streaming.

Two months ago, Van Roekel and fellow local radio personalities Joe Swanson and Jamie Grout were laid off from their jobs at KCOB and KRTI-Energy 106.7. Alpha Media USA, the radio broadcasting company that owns the Newton stations, replaced the local voices with syndicated satellite programming.

Community members were outraged by corporate’s decision, which effectively eliminated all local news content and friendly commentary listeners had come to expect. Van Roekel worked at KCOB for almost three decades. Newton was a small market, and he had every intention of staying for as long as he could.

Starting on Aug. 12, Van Roekel will have his reporting back on the air for KNIA/KRLS, a radio company who regularly broadcasts a mixture of content for listeners near and around Knoxville, Pella and Indianola. News reports for Newton will also appear on the radio station’s website at www.kniakrls.com.

While Van Roekel will not be reporting from a specific station or hosting a morning show, he will still be writing the news for Newton that will be broadcasted on KRLS 92.1. The news about Newton will be shared alongside news from other communities the radio station covers and reports from.

“I’ll do it all from here at a home basically,” he said. “I’ll watch the meetings from home. And they’ll give me the same unit that I used for the play-by-play so that I can report the stories back to Knoxville. I’m grateful the owners and management and staff at KRLS and KNIA for investing themselves in providing this service.”

Van Roekel said his work will be different than what it was on KCOB. Stories may not be as extensive since there are other communities what need to broadcast their coverage, too. Reports will be catered to a regional audience. But Van Roekel is confident he can provide listeners what they really need to know.

“I’ll still be reporting on city and county and school board, major court stuff, major arrests — all that stuff,” Van Roekel said. “…I’m glad there is at least some way they get more access to local news in the community.”

Local play-by-play will feature all home and away games for Newton football and at least the conference games for girls and boys basketball, but occasionally Van Roekel will get a chance to provide commentary for softball and baseball games. Van Roekel is just excited to give Newton residents another option for local news.

“Of course I’m happy that I’m the one that gets to do it since I’ve been doing it for so long,” Van Roekel said. “So I’m glad they chose me to entrust with this.”

Jim Butler, senior general manager for KNIA/KRLS, emphasized that play-by-plays of Newton sports will be strictly online. Without another signal to utilize, this is the only way for residents to tune in to games. However, Butler said the model has proven successful with other community teams the radio station overs.

“We have very good participation from listeners that click on and listen to that,” he said. “At least it will be live. We are working with the school and they do have for the home football games, and I believe basketball games, a live video stream. We’re going to work with them to have Randy’s play-by-play on their video.”

Butler said when it comes to local news reports, about three to five Newton stories will be shared on KRLS 92.1 every day.

“We’ll also have coaches interviewed for the Coaches Corner,” Butler said. “All the same things we do for Knoxville, Pella and Pella Christian sports will also be added to the our local sports on KRLS for Newton. It’s just like adding a whole other market and putting it in with everything else.”

Other services like obituaries and severe weather coverage in Newton will also be added to the radio station.

Butler couldn’t believe it when he heard local personalities were fired from the Newton radio station. To him, Newton is too big a community to not have a radio station with local coverage. He knew Van Roekel was looking for a new radio job and discussions were being held internally about meeting with Newton schools.

Around the same time KNIA/KRLS was receiving phone calls from community members and businesses asking if the station could do anything to help.

“The more that happened the more excited I got and wanted to see if there was something we could put together,” Butler said. “The next thing was to sit down with Randy, because that was kind of a hitch pin, too. We wanted somebody that knew the town and was well known in town. Randy’s got a fantastic reputation.”

All of a sudden the pieces started falling into place. To Butler, the most exciting thing about this new opportunity is giving back Newton something they lost.

“We should have their news and sports back to them,” he said. “We’re looking forward to serving Newton like we do the other communities we’re at.”

KNIA covers Knoxville and Indianola. KRLS covers Knoxville, Pella and Newton.