While the Raccoon Valley Radio tower project is to repair damage from last year’s derecho storm, there are reasons for the project taking place this year. 

General Manager John McGee says when the derecho came through last August and damaged all three radio towers in Perry, there were steps that needed to be taken before work could begin.

“The rest of the time delay from the storm until this summer here has mainly to do with insurance. Like a lot of homeowners, like a lot of business owners that had damage during the derecho, you spent quite a bit of time working with the insurance companies, working with the adjusters, working with the engineers to come up with exactly how we are going to fix these towers. That process was pretty well finalized by late November.”

McGee says by the time the process was complete in November it wasn’t a good time to have tower crews working in  Iowa winters. As of now the project is scheduled to resume the week of August 16th, with work primarily on the center tower, which will result in on-air interruptions for 99.7FM KDLS.

If there are on air interruptions you can tune into 1310AM KDLS, the KDLS app on your electronic device or online at raccoonvalleyradio.com