Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On October 30, 1925, gardening and radio entrepreneur Earl E. May’s KMA radio station went on the air for the first time. The Earl May Seed & Nursery grew from small town Shenandoah in southwestern Iowa into an all-time great Hawkeye State success story.
Born on a farm near Hayes Center, Nebraska, May earned money for college by raising turkeys. May graduated from Fremont College before enrolling at the University of Michigan Law School. Spending his summers working in the seed business as a traveling salesman for D.M. Ferry & Company, May sold seeds to farmers while traveling on horseback. Eventually moving back to Nebraska and finishing law school at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, May married classmate Gertrude Welch. Welch’s father, E.S., served as president of Mount Arbro Nurseries in Shenandoah.
May opened the Earl May Seed & Nursery Company in 1919 after spending a brief stint as an executive for Mount Arbor. He built the business while gaining an interest in radio. Starting to experiment in 1924, May officially went live on KMA in late 1925 to better market his products to Midwestern farmers. His station gained distinction as the first to offer early morning updates focused on agriculture-oriented news and weather. By 1926, May gained distinction when Radio Digest named him the most popular radio announcer in the country.
Opening a state-of-the-art studio called Mayfair in 1927, KMA welcomed over 400,000 visitors in a single year for live broadcasts in the 1,000-seat auditorium at the station. Competing with another local nurseryman named Henry Field, May built a nationally known brand. May gained further high regard from farmers when he continued to ship seed to cash-strapped farmers during the Great Depression while telling them to pay when they could. May passed away in 1946. #IowaOTD #IowaHistoryDaily #IowaHistoryCalendar
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