By CHUCK OFFENBURGER
SHENANDOAH, Iowa, Sept. 19, 2024 — We RicheBurgers were recently the guests of KMA radio’s Dusty Skahill, who hosts the well-known station’s weekly “Talk of the Town” interview show here in my hometown. Our chat of nearly an hour with Skahill was broadcasted today and is available online by clicking right here.
Skahill is a “multimedia journalist” at KMA, where he’s worked for 10 months. He knows the southwest Iowa territory well, having been born in Red Oak, went to high school in Clarinda and now lives in Shenandoah where the station is based. He attended the University of Iowa for communications,and did an internship at the CBS-TV affiliate in Cedar Rapids.
His “Talk of the Town” interviews air in a short-form version of about 12 minutes on Thursday mornings at 8:45 a.m. They are carved from the long-form versions that are available in full on the station’s website www.kimaland.com under the “Programs” tab. Dusty has done 27 of the interviews since joining the KMA staff.
Dusty Skahill, of radio KMA in Shenandoah.
We RicheBurgers — Chuck Offenburger and Mary Riche — the subjects of one of Skahill’s interviews. We talked about our two years of marriage, of course, but also about our 50 years of friendship.
Interestingly, the “Talk of the Town” show idea was started by his grandfather Jim Skahill, who conducted them for years at radio station KOAK in Red Oak.
“That was in the late 1980s and early ’90s,” Dusty said. “He essentially did the same thing, talked to people around the area, except he did it every day! I’ve been very pleased with how it has gone so far, in just 27 episodes, I am kind of amazed at the caliber of people I have been able to interview. A 2-star general who was originally from Red Oak, a New York City Fire Department member who was active on 9/11, Pat Angerer the new radio color commentator of the Iowa Hawkeyes, the director of player development for the Seattle Mariners who was from Council Bluffs, and so many more. I am excited for what else I will encounter.”
The logo of the featured interviews.
You can comment on this column below or write Chuck Offenburger directly by email at chuck@offenburger.com. You can write directly to Mary Riche by email at maryriche@gmail.com. You can write directly to KMA’s Dusty Skahill directly by email at dskahill@kmamail.com.
I’ve never met a “9-star general” The last I knew the general of the Army was the highest rank at 5 stars
Hi Rob, I checked back with Dusty Skahill of KMA, and he reports that Chris Hughes, the Red Oak native and high-ranking officer he interviewed earlier was a 2-star general — a major general. Thanks for pointing out our mistake. It’s corrected now.
The interview was beautiful, fun to listen to and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it!!
Love you both,
Molly and Doug
Well, Chuck, it should come as no surprise to you that this one kind of tugged at my heartstrings. I always claimed we were in very closely relat3ed fields. So naturally I hung on every word.