By Chad Meyer
KLGA radio’s contribution to supporting local auto racing goes back to 1966, when then track promoter Dwight Cook and news anchor Jason Etherington teamed up for the long-running “Racers Roundup” show.
Etherington, who was influenced as a youngster by watching Bobby Grim racing at the Kossuth County track, returned to Algona in 1966 covering local news and hosting “Racers Roundup” at 11:00 a.m. The show aired every Saturday during the racing season and often featured Cook bringing in a race driver to comment on his night at the speedway.
“Racers Roundup” continued on KLGA from its inception until weekly racing ended at Algona track in 1975. When the track reopened in 1986, racing on the radio returned soon after. “Racers Roundup” returned to the air on Saturday mornings.
“When the track reopened, Lynn Anderson, who was with the radio station, was the show host,” recalls long-time KLGA personality Al Lauck. “Anderson was on the race show throughout the 80”s and in the ‘90’s. It was around the mid-90’s that Tom Terwilliger took over the race programming,” he said.
It was then that additional racing-related programming was added to the station, with the creation “Trackside Live,” a live pre-race show, which was aired directly from the pits at the Algona track.
The operation of the Hancock County Speedway, which started in 1995, saw “Trackside Live” air on Friday’s from the Britt track, pushing the number of race shows on KLGA to three. News anchor Tom Terwilliger served as radio show host and track announcer at the Hancock County Speedway.
Shortly after Terwilliger stepped away from doing the racing radio shows, Chad Meyer took over the reigns of the show.
“I think it was the 2001 racing season I started doing race shows on the station. With addition of the ‘Hour of Horsepower’ show a few years later, that upped the number of racing shows on the station to four. I’ve always said that its amazing that a station the size of KLGA supported two pre-race shows, a Saturday morning show plus the Hour of Horsepower. This region should be proud of the support racing has had not only from the station but from the businesses that supported it,” Meyer said.
“2017 marks the 31st consecutive year of race programming on KLGA. Including the nine years from 1966 to 1975, 40 years of race programming is an amazing feat for a local radio station,” Meyer concluded.
KLGA and seven others will be inductees into the Kossuth County Racing Hall of Fame in Algona this summer. More information is available at www.KossuthMuseum.com.
