Iowa is, of course, the first state to weigh in on the presidential candidates, and it's a role its residents hold in high regard. As the leading Democratic hopefuls, including Joseph Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders, traipsed around the state ahead of the Feb. 3 party caucuses, the stations in the Iowa capital were there to cover them. And when caucus confusion enveloped the market the next day, the Des Moines stations were all over it.
KCCI and other Des Moines stations go big for the Iowa Caucuses. Here, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) speaks with KCCI's Stacey Horst (l.) and Steve Karlin.
KCCI has the specials series Commitment 2020: The Undecideds. The station has done six specials under this title, each one featuring one of the Democratic candidates facing questions from the people of Iowa. We want to get at the issues that matter to real Iowans, said Brian Sather, KCCI president and general manager.
Dave Price is WHO's political director, and hosts Sunday morning program The Insiders. We've put a tremendous amount of resources behind political, said Bobby Totsch, WHO VP and general manager.
Hearst TV owns KCCI, a CBS affiliate. That station is in a tight ratings race with Nexstar Media Group's NBC-aligned WHO. We win households and total viewers, and it's clearly a competitive market in demos, Sather said. It's a two-horse race and you have to bring your A game every day.
More Local News: WHO to Launch Hello Iowa in September
Other horses in Des Moines-Ames are Tegna's ABC affiliate WOI and Sinclair Broadcast Group's Fox outlet KDSM. Tegna also owns CW affiliate KCWI. MyNetwork-TV runs along with H&I (Heroes & Icons) on a KCCI subchannel. Mediacom is the primary subscription TV operator in DMA No. 68.
Nexstar picked up WHO in its Tribune Media acquisition. Totsch took over as VP/general manager in Des Moines in late September. He said Nexstar is investing, including a state-of-the-art set that blows away the antiquated one, in Totsch's words, that WHO used to have.
WHO moved its weekday news up a half hour to 4:30 a.m. in November, and will debut a lifestyle show in September. We have the most local programming by far of any station in the market, said Totsch, whose previous posts included general manager at WPMI Mobile and at KCTV Kansas City.
Steve Rohrer is the VP/general manager of KDSM. WHO produces the 9 p.m. nightly news for the Fox affiliate. KDSM's diginets include Sinclair-owned Stadium, Charge! and TBD. As Sather suggested, the ratings race is between two horses. For 2019 through November, KCCI won the household race at 6 a.m. and KCCI and WHO split the 25-54 contest. At 5 and 6 p.m., KCCI won households and 25-54. At 10 p.m., KCCI did a 10.6 in households, ahead of WHO's 7.1. WHO got a 4.0 in viewers 25-54, ahead of KCCI's 3.2.
KCCI won prime households easily in 2019, while the 25-54 race was much closer.
Totsch called Des Moines a bit of an old-school type Midwestern market, where people still watch lots of local TV and listen to local radio. (Nexstar sold news radio station WHO.) He described the city as clean and family friendly. A secret gem, I think, Totsch added.
The market quieted down once the caucus results, delayed by a software issue, were finally revealed. But in a growth market, things keep humming. People in Des Moines quip that the official bird of the city is the crane. There are a lot of them, Sather said. There's a lot of growth.
North America Stories
13/11/2026
The UIM E1 Series wraps its third season this week with the Bombay Sapphire E1 Miami GP, Nov. 11-14, on Biscayne Bay at the Miami Seaplane Base on Watson Island...
13/11/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
13/11/2026
Singer-songwriter Benson Boone will headline entertainment for the Discover NHL Winter Classic between the Utah Mammoth and Colorado Avalanche at Rice-Eccles St...
13/11/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced the Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone, a 7th order ambisonic microphone array that captures spatial audio for immersive video prod...
13/11/2026
SMPTE has announced that The Studio B&H and Riedel Communications will provide the video infrastructure and communications technology for the Solutions Hub at t...
13/11/2026
The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) has announced the theme and program focus for the 2027 HPA Tech Retreat, which takes place Feb. 14-18, 2027, in La ...
13/11/2026
Football Manager 27 Touch is available on Apple Arcade starting today. The game ...
13/11/2026
MotoGP has announced a two-year media rights agreement with ESPN covering the Un...
13/11/2026
Apple Sports, the free iPhone app, has added the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to its lineup of supported sports, in time for Saturday's UFC 334. The...
13/11/2026
The NBA and Fanatics Studios, the joint venture between Fanatics and entertainme...
13/11/2026
ESPN held its annual EDGE Innovation Conference last night and offered up an ove...
13/11/2026
Regional sports network gives Ithaca College, SUNY Cortland students a platform to thrive
One of the biggest games in Division III college football will be pla...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Blue Lucy, the workflow orchestration and integration platform for broadcasters, rights owners and localisation companies, today announced an integration with c...
13/11/2026
Krotos announces Black Friday offers on Studio Pro and Studio Max
Brie Clayton November 12, 2026
0 Comments
First-year annual plans start at US$195.99...
13/11/2026
Blackmagic Design Announces Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone
Brie Clayton November 12, 2026
0 Comments
New 7th order ambisonic microphone with 108 MEMS...
13/11/2026
Meet the Berklee Student Setting Planetary Motion to Music With his compositional platform SoniKosmos, Javier Roqueni aims to make the universe the ultimate i...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , er...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , er...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Amagi, the media industry cloud company, today announced a partnership with Golden Times Media Technology (stock code 920021.BJ), a Beijing-based media and tech...
13/11/2026
CGI (TSX: GIB.A) (NYSE: GIB), one of the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world, together with its Malaysian partner, Cedar ...
13/11/2026
SMPTE, the home for media professionals, technologists and engineers, today announced that The Studio B&H and Riedel Communications will provide the video infra...
13/11/2026
iWedia, a global leader in connected TV software solutions, will present its software-first approach to DRAM optimization at Android TV APAC Summit 2026 in Bang...
13/11/2026
From pediatric research to smart hospitals, AI is helping care teams spend less time on routine tasks and more time with patients.
Health systems and startups...
12/11/2026
Industry leaders examine how Dynamic Media Facility, Media eXchange Layer, and c...
12/11/2026
The junior Tar Heel is embracing the technical and creative challenges of live production while emerging as a leader and mentor in the control room...
12/11/2026
Gracenote, Nielsen's content intelligence business, has released its fifth a...
12/11/2026
RTL Deutschland will bring the NHL to free-to-air TV in Germany starting Nov. 30...
12/11/2026
Clear-Com supported On Air 2026, a 24-hour student-led broadcast connecting 45 u...
12/11/2026
uniqFEED has opened a Remote Operations Center (ROC) in Madrid, Spain. It is already operational, delivering virtual advertising for LaLiga matches. The ROC is ...
12/11/2026
Disney, ESPN and the NBA will present Dunk the Halls, the third real-time animated NBA game using Sony's Beyond Sports data visualization technology, on Chr...
12/11/2026
Van Wagner has launched Van Wagner RELAY, a digital platform for official athlet...
12/11/2026
Deal brings together two of the industry's most established graphics brands and significantly expands Vizrt's footprint in U.S. sports and regional broa...
12/11/2026
Euro TV Production GmbH of Austria has upgraded its outside broadcast vehicle with Lawo technology. The mc 36 Classic console in service since 2019 was replaced...
12/11/2026
Tagboard has launched Spark Resize, an AI-assisted tool now in beta that takes an existing graphic and produces a new version for a different aspect ratio or sc...
12/11/2026
Ben Winston, Glenn Weiss, and FIFA's Jenni-Lee Van Gelder headlined a day fo...
12/11/2026
Free interactive platform visualizes team tendencies, formations, and schemes, updated weekly...
12/11/2026
Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Charlie Jablonski's broadcasting career is...
12/11/2026
Gracenote's 2026 State of Play report signals a rising retention risk: More ...
Iowa is, of course, the first state to weigh in on the presidential candidates, and it's a role its residents hold in high regard. As the leading Democratic hopefuls, including Joseph Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders, traipsed around the state ahead of the Feb. 3 party caucuses, the stations in the Iowa capital were there to cover them. And when caucus confusion enveloped the market the next day, the Des Moines stations were all over it.
