SD Radio: Longtime KSOO News Anchor Gene Hetland Signs-Off

Gene Hetland

This is how 63-year-old Gene Hetland sums up his life: "Started at the radio station in August of 1976. Grew up on a farm mostly north of Montrose. SDSU. Couple of jobs before I had this one. And I've been here ever since."

"Here" is the news director's desk at KSOO 1140 AM in Sioux Falls and "ever since" dates back to Aug. 25, 1976, when he first spoke into a microphone after brief stops at a Huron radio station and a Sioux Falls television station.

What Hetland's brief summary doesn't include, according to the Argus-Leader, is the impact he has made on his listeners and his peers over a career that will ended Jan. 30 when he retired.

He is one of a trio of South Dakota broadcasters whose careers began in the 1970s, the "old guys" in a business where you recognize the voice without ever seeing the face.

David J. Law has known Hetland for more than 40 years, since Hetland started at KJIV in Huron shortly after graduating from South Dakota State University.

'He carries a sense of trust about him'

"He can pull a story together so well," said Law, news director at KXLG in Watertown. "I think it's because he's so good at relationship building. He carries a sense of trust about him."

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