After 40-plus years on the airwaves, Myron Heuer was inducted into the Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tenn. in March 1996.

Then, like now, disc jockeys were nomads. “You don’t get promoted in radio,” he said. Better jobs are had by moving to bigger stations. From memory, Heuer lists the call letters and years spent at 16 stations, most located in the Midwest.

In 1945, Heuer went on the air, and he hated country music. “Hated it, wasn’t into it at all. I liked more the big band and Sinatra,” he said.

He graduated from Beck School of Radio (now Brown Institute) in 1945. “I used to listen to the radio and wanted to be a musician, but it was too much studying,” he said.

Heuer’s first job at WROX in Clarksdale, Miss. paid $27.50 a week. He stayed from 1945-46. He spent part of 1946 at WDGY in Minneapolis filling in while full-time announcers were on vacation. Heuer also worked for awhile during 1946 at KROC in Rochester, then onto KODI in Cody, Wyo. from 1947-50.

Money was tight when Heuer was with KODI. He and his wife, Betty, had just gotten married in 1949 and extra cash was needed. He joined the National Guard, which paid $40 per month.

“Then they started the damn war,” he said. It was off to Korea for Heuer from 1950-52 where he started out as an artillery battery clerk.

Myron Heuer became Mike Hoyer in Korea. “One guy asked ‘Myron? Why Myron? Why not Mike? And why don’t you spell your name like it sounds?’

“Years ago everyone changed their names. I guess they thought it had to be easy to remember,” he said.

Back from Korea, Heuer worked at KWOA in Worthington, then KMA in Shenandoah, Iowa. The station’s nickname was ‘kiss my . . . .’ “That’s what we used to call it,” Heuer said.

“I started a country show Saturday nights at KMA and started going to the National DJ Convention,” he said. At the convention, Heuer could keep up on the radio gossip.

After KMA there were more moves: to KCUE in Red Wing and KEVE in Minneapolis in 1959. “They’re (KEVE) KQRS now, but they were country then. I thought I would suffer through because I thought I could get to WCCO.”

Instead, in 1960 Heuer gave television a try at KVTV in Sioux Falls, S.D. “Hated it,” he said. The next stop was KFOR in Lincoln, Neb.; then back to KMA for four years.

Around 1965, Heuer heard that WHO 1040 AM, a 24-hour, 50,000-watt station, was changing its format to country music and the midnight to 6 a.m. shift was open.

“I applied for it and I got it. There were very few 24-hour stations back then. WSM out of Nashville was the only other clear channel station,” he recalled.

In 1965, radio stations were only on the air six days per week. Each one went off the air one day a week for maintenance.

“It was Labor Day 1965 and WSM was off the air because it was their maintenance night. WHO was the only clear channel station. That first night the phone was really ringing off the hook. It was ringing. I got off the air in the morning and my voice was hoarse from talking on the phone and on the air.

“There was a relationship with these people. There were truck drivers, workers, insomniacs, professional wrestlers; anyone going from one town to another.

“They’d stop and call from a pay phone. Talk about where they been and where they were going.

“The next night I had my slogan ‘coast to coast, border to border, and then some - Country Music USA.

“I had letters and calls from all over the U.S., Canada, even ships at sea. It’s pretty earthshaking when you think about it,” he said.

“Coincidentally, this was the time when country music was taking off. I got in on the beginning - Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Charlie Pride - so many.

“It was satisfying to be in on the beginning of their careers and watch them go on.”

While some of these legends were paying their dues, they would give Heuer a call, leading to friendships with the likes of Waylon Jennings.

“I couldn’t believe the response the first night,” he said. Heuer’s boss, WHO program director Bob Gifford stayed up most of the night, listening to “Mike Hoyer.” “He told me he probably wouldn’t stay up after that. He figured the show was in good hands.

“I was staying with a friend of mine (wife Betty and family had not moved to Des Moines yet) “he couldn’t believe the response either.

Heuer stayed at WHO from 1965 to 1971. “The whole thing was so exciting.”

Of soldiers and prisoners being the best audience, Heuer said he would get letters from prisoners and phone calls from them, letting him know they were out. “I suppose they had to tell someone,” he said.

“It used to be just me and Nashville. Between us, we covered the whole country.”

In 1971 Heuer received the Billboard Magazine (the standard of the radio industry) award for Country Disc Jockey of the Year and in 1972 he was received the Country Music Association award for Disc Jockey of the Year.

By 1971, Heuer said he was tired of being up all night, and left WHO for KWMT Fort Dodge, Iowa. Next stops were KBUL Wichita, Kan.; KFGO Fargo N.D.; and KICD Spencer, Iowa.

“I enjoyed small radio,” he said. “You’re a big fish in a small pond.”

“I got out for awhile in 1981. Betty and I worked as motel managers for Motel 6.”

The Heuers thought they would try a new area of the country and he worked part-time at KXTC in Fresno, Calif.

“We got homesick so I came back to KFGO in 1989.”

Heuer left radio for good in 1991.

After years of moving, (“Betty is an expert, she could pack furniture for anyone,”) the Heuers thought it was time to decided where to settle down.

“In radio you don’t get roots, but we thought we would come to Howard Lake. This is where I’m from and we know people here,” he said.

Myron Heuer passed away Feb. 1, 1999.