'My loyalties are here': Longtime Des Moines radio host looks toward life after KIOA

This spring, Maxwell Schaeffer started a new morning routine: Walking.

It’s not doctor’s orders or a mid-life crisis that’s got Schaeffer circling the Glendale Cemetery shorty after sunrise, though.

He spends his mornings catching up on exercise because he no longer spends them entertaining you.

“They say it’s good when you’re going through a stressful time in your life to stay moving around,” he said, taking deep breaths, during a Friday morning phone call.

Des Moines radio station 93.3 KIOA parted ways this month with Schaeffer, a media veteran who co-hosted the station's morning show for 23 years. Both Schaeffer and KIOA declined to comment further on the circumstances of his exit.

The “Maxwell & Amy” morning show abruptly ended on May 11; Schaeffer's former co-host, Amy Sweet, remains on air weekdays from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m.

“We had a great morning show that morning,” he said. “That’s the way of the world for some folks. … I’ve swung and hit that curve ball many times in my life. This time, not so much.”

The departure comes following the station launching “the new” KIOA brand earlier this year, integrating 1990s and '00s pop into the classic hits format. KIOA introduced a new station tagline — “It’s random!” — to social media in February.

It’s a format “evolution,” said Alan White, brand manager and two-decade veteran of the station. Coined for the last decade as “Iowa’s Greatest Hits,” an A-to-Z weekend on KIOA could now feature everything from the Hootie & the Blowfish to Eric Clapton.

The station’s offered a number of sounds during its decades on Des Moines airwaves, moving from AM to FM and taking on top 40, oldies and current-day classic hits.

“We’re always trying to serve the needs of listeners with the music they want. That changes over time. We’ve made several adjustments to the music to meet those needs." 

On Schaffer’s departure, White said station management “just made the decision to move in another direction.”

Schaeffer empathizes for Sweet, his former colleague. He saw KIOA cut ties with longtime co-host Polly Carver-Kimm in 2007, leaving him to pick up the pieces.

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The aftermath was brutal, he recalled.

“She’s really strong and can handle that,” he said

The 59-year-old hopes to stay involved in the community, but knows finding a new job could mean leaving Iowa.

A Pennsylvania native who met his wife, Karen, in Texas, Schaeffer lived in Florida and California — hoping to spark an acting career — before calling the Hawkeye state home in 1986.

And it’s a community he loves. Schaeffer dedicates time off-air to local theater and hosting non-profit fundraisers. He doesn’t want to leave Iowa, but knows that “you have to do what you have to do” in the media business.

“You feel like you’ve invested your time into a place that you love,” he said. “My loyalties are here. I just need to connect with people in the community who recognize what I can bring to the table.”

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As for the listeners who called, emailed and asked “where’s Maxwell?” when he didn’t return? He misses bringing those Iowans a bit of joy.  

“One of the things that I never took for granted,” he said “I knew I wasn’t doing rocket science on the morning show, but hopefully I was providing some entertainment in making people’s mornings fun for many years.”

So, for now, he walks Glendale Cemetery, where he visits another former co-host, Pam Dixon, who lost her life to cancer last summer.

There’s no use in holding a grudge. To use a theatrical term, he said, that show has closed. But there’s always another show.

“The chips are going to fall in my favor,” he said. “I look forward to what that might be.”