R.I.P.: Iowa Radio Broadcaster Steve Gibbons

Steve Gibbons

Steve Gibbons, 71, who brought his talent to numerous Des Moines-area stations throughout this career, including KRNT 1350 AM, KIOA 93.3 FM and KSTZ 102.5 FM, died Monday from health complicationsd.  He hosted a popular morning talk and music program on KRNT before leaving the station in 2009.

According to the Des Moines Register, Gibbons was a force on the airwaves in the 1960s,  He began his radio career as a Des Moines North High School student.

Gibbons' wife of 27 years, Sheryl Gibbons, said he never thought of his career as a 'job,' that he never considered being a media member 'going to work.'

Cal Bierman, a radio commercial producer and one of Gibbons' longtime co-workers, said he was honored to fill in for Gibbons when getting his start on the radio in the late 1980s.

“Everybody just loved the guy because he was like a kid at heart,” Bierman said. “His mind was always working.”

“I always admired him,” he continued. "(I admired) that he had (a) kind of energy and (a) sense of humor.”

Bierman described Gibbons’ voice as one that would just "pop in" when you heard it and that he sounded the same on and off the air.

“(His voice) was warm,” Bierman said. "He sounded like he wanted everybody else to have as good of a time as he was having. He always sounded like he was having a good time.”