An Alternative Look At Local News And The Community

Approximately one year ago, Ron Toellner was contemplating his pending retirement from public accounting.

Being an accountant for forty-four years, he was an organization nut by nature, so he decided the best way to go about planning the future was to make a list. The list included a multitude of ideas from large to small. After much thought, a concept that ended up high on the list was the development of a local radio talk show.

Ron had always been a news junkie. World and national news was available twenty-four hours a day, but what about local happenings. The Sedalia community was fortunate that it still had a local newspaper as well as newscasts on local radio stations, but there was room for an alternative. Something could be developed that would address local news, events, organizations and community programs in greater detail. It should address not only feel-good news, but controversial issues as well. It should be broad in scope and cover items that the community should know more about.

Fast forward to a couple months ago, after the concept had been refined over many months, and it was time to see if the idea would fly. Ron presented the idea to John Meehan, a local civic leader, who not only liked the concept, but wanted to be a part of it. John, in turn, suggested bringing the idea to Beau Matthews, a local radio personality who was in the process of retiring, and he too wanted to be involved with the project.

The concept was presented to the management of KSIS 1050 AM talk radio, who enthusiastically signed off on the idea, agreeing to provide the production facilities, and an hour time slot each Saturday morning. With that, “Let’s Talk” was born. “Let’s Talk” is a one- hour pre-recorded program devoted to issues and developments that are of importance to Sedalia and the surrounding communities. By committing an entire hour to a subject, and many times having experts in studio, the hosts will be able to probe more deeply into the topic of the week and provide listeners with a broader understanding of what is happening in this great community.

There is currently a list of over one-hundred potential programs, and the list continues to grow. The programs will begin Saturday, December 4th at ten o’clock in the morning, on radio 1050 KSIS. The programs will also be available via the KSIS web site at KSISRADIO.COM and the KSIS smart phone app. A library of completed programs will be available on demand as pod casts accessible on the KSIS web site and app.
The hosts welcome comments from listeners regarding the programs aired as well as suggestions for future programs. Let’s Talk.

--Submitted by "Let’s Talk"