Stations KCRM 96.7FM (English) and KDNH 101.5FM (Spanish) out of Marshalltown provide around-the-clock religious programming in an approximate 10-mile radius, plus online streaming. Twenty years ago, on Dec. 23, 2003, KCRM first went over the air from a small studio on E. Main Street.

The public is invited to attend a “birthday” celebration of the radio station on Jan. 6 and 7 after all Masses at St. Henry Catholic Church in its dining room. Root beer floats and birthday cake on Saturday evening and coffee and birthday cake Sunday morning will be served.

In 1990, Founder Bob Dick purchased a large satellite dish and started taping programs from Catholic television network EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) and showing them at St. Henry Catholic Church. He approached the City of Marshalltown to see if that network could be added to the new cable package about to be rolled out in fall 2000. The answer was yes.

“The next year, an EWTN representative called me and said ‘I have a new thing for you. Have you heard of low power FM radio?’ And I said ‘no.’ So he explained that concept to me and asked me if I’d like to take that on, and we did,” Dick said. “I had no idea about anything radio-wise, because I was a pharmacist, but I was willing to at least try and I was willing to give it a go with the support of so many people, both with expertise and financially.”

The call letters KCRM were chosen, with the CRM standing for Catholic Radio Marshalltown. In 2008, the station installed an additional satellite dish to add programming from Relevant Radio. Then in 2012, local programming was introduced with a broadcast of the recorded edition of the weekend Mass from St. Henry’s.

“In 2013, we began producing and airing a weekly program called ‘Central Iowa Catholics’ — a half hour show where I interview people locally who are Catholics, or Christians,” said Deacon Roger Polt, who has served as general manager since 2017. “It’s taped then we broadcast it for a week, at nine o’clock in the evenings, Monday, Wednesday and Friday.”

On Nov. 18, 2015, Radio Catolica de Marshalltown was introduced when Spanish station KDNH, 101.5FM was added.

“DNH is Spanish for dios nos habla, which is God speaks to us,” Polt explained. “When we were doing just the English channel, Bob would program 18 hours in English broadcasting and six hours in Spanish broadcasting to cover our Spanish Catholics here in town. Well the new station offered 24/7 Spanish.”

The July 2018 tornado damaged its headquarters, then located in a building across from the Orpheum Theater.

“It wiped out the Catholic English station, but surprisingly, across the hall where we had the Spanish station, was untouched,” Polt said.

Broadcast and receiving equipment that was salvageable was taken to Polt’s home for storage.

“We had no antennae anymore. We started streaming, in both English and Spanish,” he said. “We were given one year by the FCC to be back on the air after the tornado. But if you have to relocate, you have to have the tower within four miles of your original one.”

This proved problematic until Marshalltown’s two Catholic churches combined in 2019, to become the St. Francis of Assisi parish.

“They were able to move all the offices from where they were at St. Henry’s to one near to St. Mary’s Church, that freed up an office building (at St. Henry Parish Center),” Polt said. “To make a long story short, we got new equipment. Our insurance covered that. Everything now comes in by Internet instead of by satellite. And so we are now able to pull in the information from EWTN and from Relevant Radio into our studio. That same information goes out by the Internet to a tower on East Iowa Avenue, which is almost four miles from where we had our original. We were able to meet the challenge of getting back up and running four days before our year expired.”

In 2018, Dick retired from Hy-Vee, having worked for that company in Newton, Marshalltown and Des Moines as a pharmacist for 41 years. He relocated to Des Moines to be closer to family. He does station programming remotely.

Both men said the radio stations would not succeed without the help of its small (unpaid) staff and sponsors.

Polt explained that hourly local announcements from the churches and school, plus pro-life committee and Knights of Columbus help give the KCRM broadcasts a “local flavor.”

In October 2023, Aggie and Jerry Zeihan accepted a 20th anniversary trophy at the EWTN annual conference in Birmingham, Ala.

In November, Marshalltown Catholic Radio launched a fundraising program for $5,000 to replace a broadcasting computer. Polt said the goal has been exceeded. Raffle winners will be announced December 23. Prizes include a quilt, $100 gift card to St. Henry gift shop plus Our Lady of Guadalupe image, and a food basket plus gift cards.

Polt said a special “mini-mission” would cap off the anniversary celebration. Catholic Radio of Marshalltown and St. Francis of Assisi parish will present Karlo Broussard, a Catholic Apologist for Catholic Answers. He will speak at 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 13 and 7 p.m. on Jan. 14 in the St. Henry dining hall.

Polt said it’s been rewarding receiving positive feedback from listeners, especially from non-Catholics.

“For every person who comments on the phone or by letter, that represent about 30 people thinking the same thing,” he said.

Streaming has allowed for people outside of Marshalltown to tune in as well.

“It does provide more potential for people to listen, who are not in that local community. It’s kind of nice,” Dick said. “It’s not just for Catholics. It’s for anyone who wants to listen.”

The station may be reached at: kcrm.kdnh@gmail.com. Listen live here: www.kcrmkdnh.com.