It may take the listeners of KILJ Radio in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, a few days, but they will soon sense a void in their day. Actually for those who listen to the southeast Iowa stations on a regular basis, that sense of loss will begin tomorrow about the time that "Doctor Bob", Bobby Mattocks would sign on for his daily time slot. That beautifully perfect voice was silenced today in a fatal car accident and while the listeners of the radio station will miss his news reports, community announcements and his vast knowledge of music, those who were lucky enough to know the man will grieve his loss for a long time to come.
I first got to know Bob when he started at KILJ in the early 1990's as the voice on the other end of the telephone engineering the broadcasts as I did the play-by-play occasionally for high school basketball games. Then a year later I became friends with him as he helped Barry Johnson and I put together a weekly radio show called "The Midwest Motorsports Report". Bobby didn't know much about racing but he would learn something each week because he took great pride in producing a good show and he especially loved to pick out the bumper music since it gave him an opportunity to sneak in snippets of his beloved rock and roll on the station that at that time featured a country format.
My greatest memory of Bob though will be his work on "The Hot Spot Middle School News", a project that he and I worked together on for a few years in conjunction with Lori Mueller's sixth grade classes at the Mount Pleasant Middle School. I would go to the school for a few weeks working with the kids on how to put together scripts, "sell advertising" and then write commercials. Then for four or five straight days we would bring a group of five or six students to the radio station to record their show, and that is when "Dr. Bob" would shine. First he would show the kids around the studio and tell them about his job and he would then work with the kids to put together their radio program. Keep in mind that he would be doing this in the middle of his own on-air time slot meaning that he would have to scramble to get a bunch of things pre-recorded before this kids arrived, and he would then have to play catch up after they left. But first he would take the time to apply his editing magic to what the students had just done to make sure that they sounded their absolute best and the show was always a big hit with the listeners. Bob loved his job and loved teaching these kids a little bit about what he did each day, and those kids loved every minute they spent with him.
Those kids are between the ages of 28 and 32 now and when they hear the news of Bob's untimely death I hope they think back to that special day of school when they had the chance to spend some time with, and learn from one the nicest guys that they will have ever had the chance to meet.
Rest In Peace Bob, you will be truly missed by many.....
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