The sound of sports is something we don’t appreciate enough.
Sure, we all love the roar of the crowd or the crack of the bat, but there’s so much more to that sensory experience.
The bone-crunching hit in football that sounds as violent as it looks. The peacefulness of a bouncing ball and squeaking shoes in an empty gym. The cold definitiveness of the ting a puck makes when it smashes into the back bar. The delightfulness of the football’s doink against an upright.
But there’s also the late-night scream from the couch that wakes your kids up after you witness a miracle. The groan of a sports bar when the home team blows it again. The smack of a high-five with a stranger to celebrate when they finally don’t.
The raised voices at the dinner table discussions about GOATs. The really raised voices during barstool Xs and Os arguments. The swoosh of the group-chat messages when those conversations continue from a distance.
They are all part of what makes these silly games so damn satisfying. The sounds of the game are a critical a part as anything.
Des Moines — and, really, all of Iowa — got quieter this week.
With the iHeartRadio layoffs essentially deleting KXnO from our radio dials and podcast feeds, the discussion, enjoyment and celebration of sports in our town — and state — is diminished.
After nearly two decades in this business, I’m no stranger to seeing friends, colleagues, peers and mentors lose their jobs. It’s part of the deal in 21st-century media. Still, even after seeing iHeartRadio try something like this back in 2020, it’s harrowing to see an entire station — one that has proven itself as a critical and valuable piece of sports media in our city and state — wiped away in a single stroke.
I know the economic pressures and realities that make this move make sense to the suits squeezing cents from hundreds and thousands of miles away. The math is the math, I suppose.
Still, it feels like a judgment on our “market” — which is the cold and corporate way of saying community. That we don’t warrant local voices talking local teams.
And that, I am confidently, proudly and loudly proclaiming, is a bunch of (Editor’s note: The profanity written here was just too extensive to edit, so we just took it all out).
Yes, sure, there are more people in this country who want to hear the same four people talk about the same four topics over and over again than there are in Des Moines who want to listen to sports talk about the Hawks, ‘Clones, ‘Dogs, Panthers, plus everything else we cherish between the Missouri and Mississippi.
Which makes it cheaper to just flood the country with the same four people talking about the same four things than it is to invest in people and places.
But making the product worse is rarely growth strategy. Believe me, I’ve worked in the newspaper industry my entire professional life, I know (Editor’s note: We almost took that one out, too, but left it because we know Travis believes in what the Register is providing for the community, loves his job and gets touchy about his jokes).
It is doing this community a disservice to turn it into a syndication market.
The voices at KXnO cared deeply not just about the sports in this state, but also the fans who love those sports. They created space to talk about the things we care about, and you won’t hear that on those airwaves anymore.
These people — my friends and colleagues — busted their rears for tough hours and low pay while being treated mostly with indifference or scorn by their bosses. They did it not only because they love sports and, despite the annoyances and difficulties of these gigs, they loved their jobs. Because they got to talk about our sports in our town with our neighbors.
That wasn’t valued enough by iHeartRadio.
But it’s valuable to me, and I’m guessing it’s worth something to you, too.
Yes, it’s self-serving for me to laud the virtues of local media, but if we don’t advocate for ourselves, who will? You can be a massive corporation, like Register parent company USA TODAY Co., and still see the value in what local provides.
That doesn’t seem to be the stance from iHeartRadio, which I’ve seen up close as a former intern, part-timer and freelancer once upon a time in my career, and more recently with the Register’s Cyclone Insider and Hawk Central radio shows airing on KXnO. Which is why I wasn’t surprised when they informed some employees of the news this week while they were broadcasting on location away from the station, nor was I surprised that the people they laid off were the kind who’d still drive the company vehicle and the equipment back to the office despite being out of a job.
I woulda Ubered home and let the suits figure out the car.
A community is the people in it. Who know what in the hell a “squinny” is. Who, right there with you, wonder when that construction on Ingersoll (or Fleur or the Mixmaster or …) is finally gonna finish? Whose kids go to school with your kids. Who know the difference between a Tigerhawk and a Clonenado.
It’s self-serving not just because I’m in local media, but because I’m local. I care about these people, these jobs, these discussions and, most acutely, this community (or audience or market, if we want the suits to listen).
Now, I know this doesn’t mean the end of sports talk in our town and state. Podcasts have lowered the barriers to entry and allowed new, talented and varied voices in on the discussion. Networks like the one my friend Chris Williams has developed with Iowa Everywhere — populated largely by KXnO exiles, I’d add — will keep the conversation flowing, interesting and funny. The Register’s podcasts will do the same.
Hopefully, the burning down of KXnO allows for new growth on new platforms that can make this sports community whole again.
For now, though, we’re all going to have to sit in the quiet.
Iowa State columnist Travis Hines has covered the Cyclones for the Des Moines Register and Ames Tribune since 2012. Contact him at thines@amestrib.com or (515) 284-8000. Follow him on X at @TravisHines21.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: KXNO layoffs leave Iowa sports community too quiet | Hines
Reporting by Travis Hines, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Travis Hines, Des Moines Register | USA TODAY Network
