G. David Gentling

G. David Gentling and the Gentling family pioneered radio and television in southern Minnesota. His distinguished broadcasting career began in 1937, when, after attending the University of Minnesota, he joined the sales staff at KROC Rochester, which was owned by his father, Gregory P. Gentling, and had just begun broadcasting in 1935.

He served in the US Navy as a flight instructor during World War II. After the war, he returned to KROC and took over as general manager when his father passed away.

He put Rochester’s first television station, KROC TV, on the air in 1953. He took full control of the Southern Minnesota Broadcasting Company in the middle 1960s, and put KROC FM on the air in 1967. The company sold its television station (now KTTC TV) in 1976 but expanded its radio operations, which now include three stations in Rochester and six in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Always active and respected in the industry and the community, he co-founded the Minnesota Broadcasters Association and was one of its first presidents.

G. David Gentling passed away, at the age of 75, on September 29, 1991.