DCI will investigate both nights of 'disturbance' at the South Dakota State Penitentiary
LIFE

Whatever Happened To: Radio DJ Dan Farris

Virginia Olson
For the Argus Leader

Radio ratings wars brought DJ Dan Farris to Sioux Falls, where he helped battle for the No. 1 listening audience on 104.7 during the 6 to 10 a.m. morning show from 1987 to 1994.

"Reid Holsen, program director of KKLS, a 100,000-watt FM station, hired me," Farris says. "I had been living in Minneapolis and owned a record shop, audio equipment and DJ business in Rice Lake, Wis. The job Holsen offered: Create a show with Craig Mattick, the station's news director, which would go up against the Chad and Harley show on KELO AM."

It was a good opportunity, Farris says, and he took the job.

"When I came to Sioux Falls, the biggest deal going on in the city was widening 41st Street, and in the world of radio, locally owned stations were competing for ratings," Farris says. "Ratings were everything."

At first, Farris thought he and Mattick were a bad mismatch. Yet somehow, Holsen's idea of the "odd couple" D.J. team of Farris and Mattick seemed to catch the city by surprise.

"Craig and I were opposites, but we seemed to click on the radio show," Farris says. "It wasn't scripted that way, but the public really seem to enjoy the banter."

"We weren't 'shock jocks.' Craig and I just talked about our real lives, and the public loved it," Farris says. "Our radio conversations were relateable."

Farris soon became part of Sioux Falls' pop culture. He was easily recognizable with his long, dirty-blond hair cut in a mullet.

Farris loved producing. He believed the beauty of the show was producing for other people.

"We had hundreds of guests and really talented friends," Farris says.

One day, Farris remembers, Sen. Tom Daschle showed up, and Farris had him sing "Pretty Woman" on the air.

"It was the beauty of radio," Farris says. "I could do my thing, but always expect the unexpected."

Farris described the show as "risky and ahead of its time." Ratings brought him to KKLS and helped make him a rising star. When the radio station decided to change directions, he and Mattick were out of a job. Farris then went to work for KTWB and teamed up with Dan Christopherson for two years on the "Dan and Dan Show."

He eased out of the local radio "rodeo" in 2000.

"It was a great ride," he says. "I got to lead a blessed life, do what I loved to do and get paid for it."

Farris stayed in Sioux Falls and, at 58, is now outreach director at Complete Media, a marketing and advertising business.

"I had to pick up some skills and reinvent myself," Farris says. "Still, I will never retire. I like to help people.

"I am into God and all about my kids, who are 25 and 27."