Most of the time, people who work behind the microphone at radio stations aren’t often recognized in public.
That’s not the case with Randy Hammer, the man who for three decades has been a consistent morning presence to people in the Vermillion and Yankton area who prefer to receive local information right away after they awake each morning.
When he’s not in the studio of the Five Star Communications-owned KVHT-FM Classic Hits 106.3 and ESPN Radio 1570 KVTK-AM in Yankton, he can be found on location, giving listeners information at various happenings and promotions in the region.
Currently, he helps area people wake up every weekday morning, signing on at 6 a.m. and broadcasting from the Yankton station until 11 a.m. When not on the air, he stays busy helping local businesses and organizations find ways to promote themselves over the airwaves.
“There is a sense of lighting up the mike and changing a life,” Randy said, describing what he finds exciting about his early morning “presence” in the region.
“Somebody might call and say, ‘I’m so glad you played that song,’ or ‘that made my day.’ You’re able to reach people on a personal level.
“I think that just being on the air, and communicating with people and being part of their lives and having them be a part of mine is great,” he said. “Whatever form, fashion or time that a person decides to listen to the show – I’m thankful for that.”
Randy has discovered that a modern era in which people can instantly become friends on Facebook or send short messages to each other via Twitter hasn’t diminished the important roles that on-air radio personalities fill.
“For some people, the radio is a companion, and the voice they consistently hear becomes their company,” he said. “I’ll have people call up just to say ‘how’s it going? What’s going on?’ And the great thing is they actually can talk with us on the air, even if it’s just for a short time.
They become accustomed to you ... people know about my kids, they know a bit about me, because I blab this stuff on the air. It’s personal.”
There are certain rules that Randy follows that help explain his long-time popularity as a radio personality in the region.
“I was told a long time ago that if you make the listener the star, you will be the star,” he said. “You need to try to treat people the best that you can.
“People like to be talked at. They don’t like to be talked to,” he said. “You should always put the listeners on a pedestal.”
Randy grew up in Aberdeen, is a graduate of Aberdeen Central High School, and attended Northern State College (now university) for one year. He transferred to the University of South Dakota in Vermillion in 1982, with the intent to study computer science.
He ended up on the radio on New Year’s Eve of ’82, where he’s chosen to stay.
“I did some radio in Aberdeen – I started at KKAA-AM 1570. It was three miles north of town, and I rode my bike there. I was only 17, and didn’t have a car yet,” Randy said.
During his first summer at that station, in 1978, he worked the midnight to 6 a.m. shift.
“I kept busy spinning records, talking news, talking weather, just doing the overnight shift,” he said. “I got the job by coming down and reading three pieces of news on to a reel-to-reel (recorder) in a studio, and they didn’t let me pre-read it.
“They gave me a call an hour after I got home (in Aberdeen),” Randy added, “and said ‘Be here at midnight.’”
It was a job that would only last about three months. The owner of the station fired him because he didn’t like the sound of Randy’s voice at the time.
“It was cracking too much. I was 17, and going through puberty,” he said. “I played out the rest of my shift that night bawling – I fell in love with radio right there and then.”
Determined to fulfill a role at that station, he talked with its program manager, and learned that he could find work in the production department. A tower crew was also just starting to put up a 60-foot microwave tower near the studio, and they were looking for help.
By 9 a.m. the morning after he was terminated as an announcer, Randy was busy putting together wires for the tower.
“I ended up on the tower, with the crew putting it up with a crane.”
When that job was finished, Randy returned to the studio and asked, “What else can I do?”
Soon he found himself helping the studio’s engineer putting together all of station’s equipment.
“I learned how to solder. I learned what punch blocks were, and I learned that audio goes from here to there and from there to here,” Randy said.
Those experiences as a teenager serve him well to this day, for his varied roles at the Yankton station include chief operator.
“I’m not the chief engineer, but I take care of the towers and make sure they’re running properly,” he said.
During the time he’s been dialed in to the radio industry – from 1978 to the present – Randy has witnessed a revolution in technology.
“You have to keep up with it, but I enjoy it. I’ve always been a gadget guy, anyway,” he said. “I love my computers, I love my cell phone.”
Cell phones, now an everyday item, have brought big changes to the radio industry. So has the transition, over time, from vinyl records and magnetic tape to CDs and digital technology.
“We do broadcasts over cell phones, and of course, with computers, you can control studios from other places, and you can sync a cell phone and a computer and you can be on the radio,” Randy said. “I remember back in the day when we’d be in the studio with a China pencil and a razor, cutting commercials up on reel-to-reel tape, and having a big pile of tape growing on the floor.”
That technology is crucial today, he said, as KVHT-FM Classic Hits 106.3 and ESPN Radio 1570 KVTK-AM strive to provide local radio in the Yankton and Vermillion area.
“If you don’t have local radio in your community, or let’s say you have it and it leaves, it hurts the community,” Randy said.
“We’ve never really left.”
At one time, under previous ownership, Randy broadcast from a Vermillion studio located on East Cherry Street. Starting in April, the two stations’ impact in the community grew larger with the opening of “Studio V” in downtown Vermillion. Randy mans the Yankton studio, known as “Studio Y,” in the mornings, while Joe Van Goor is at the helm of “Studio V” each weekday morning from 8 to 10 a.m.
5 Star Communications, owner of Classic Hits 106.3 KVHT-FM and ESPN Radio 1570 KVTK-AM of Yankton, have also joined forces with Broadcaster Press and Vermillion Plain Talk with one goal in mind: to provide the best service possible to local readers, local listeners and local advertisers.
This arrangement provides the opportunity for the radio stations and Vermillion’s community-produced print products – the Broadcaster Press and the Plain Talk – to cooperatively provide information to listeners and new marketing opportunities for local businesses.
“I live here in Vermillion, and during all that time, we’ve strived to meet the community’s needs,” Randy said. “We’ve been covering the Tanagers, the Coyotes, we cover Mount Marty, and the Yankton Bucks – all the teams for Vermillion and Yankton.
“We are the Vermillion and Yankton station,” he added.
“Technology has allowed us to have that presence in both communities.
We can do that now, and make it sound good, and people are loving it.”
The strides in technology, Randy said, make radio more and more important to the Yankton and Vermillion communities. As he sees it, the opportunities for tuning in, and the reasons for listening, are immense.
“Local radio is so important,” he said. “We live in a day and age where you can bring music with you almost everywhere, but music isn’t the most important thing that we listen to on the radio.
What’s important is we have a community and it is growing, and you are a part of it as a radio station. You’re a part of that growth, you’re helping people, and you’re making business happen. And you’re changing people’s lives.
“I just love it. I absolutely love it. I think it’s so much fun to be a part of all of this,” Randy said.
