After more than 50 years on the air, Ron Steele is leaving KWWL. The state’s longest-serving news anchor announced his coming departure at the end of the 10 p.m. news broadcast on Tuesday.
“I have come to an agreement with, and have accepted an offer from, KWWL, which will end my career here at KWWL on Thursday, Feb. 27,” Steele said, in what he called “a personal note” to viewers.
“I want to point out KWWL has been very generous to me and my family all these years. They have given me some amazing opportunities to go around the world and cover news, weather and sports over these five decades, and I will be forever grateful for that,” he continued.
Steele said he wanted to keep his statement short, and he would have more to say during his final newscast on Feb. 27, “because I have a lot of thank yous to pass along to so many people.”
Steele had become a seemingly permanent fixture during his decades on the air at the Waterloo station, and a welcome presence on TVs across eastern Iowa. To celebrate his 50th anniversary at KWWL in April 2024, the City of Waterloo renamed the downtown stretch of Fourth Street for a week, putting up street signs declaring it Ron Steele Street.
Ron Steele was born in Washington, Iowa, in 1950. He grew up in Wapello after his family moved there when he was 6. He attended the University of Iowa, and originally intended to become a teacher and coach. During his time at UI, two important things happened to Steele: he met his future wife, Candy, and he took a job as a deejay on the campus radio station.
“I applied for that job and got it, and it pretty much changed everything for me,” he told Patrick Kinney of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative in 2024.
Steele graduated from UI in 1973, with a BA in journalism.
His first job out of college was at WOC, the AM radio station in Davenport, but on a trip to Waterloo to visit Candy’s family, Steele learned that KWWL’s sports director was retiring. He applied for the position.
It took KWWL three months to respond to his application, Steele told Kinney, and that long wait almost made him reject the job offer when it came.
“I said to my wife, ‘I’m not gonna work for these people; they don’t tell you what’s going on; that’s tacky!’” he recalled.
Steele changed his mind, and on April 1, 1974, he started his job as KWWL’s sports director. Soon after, he also became the first play-by-play announcer for the Iowa Television Network.
In 1979, Steele moved to the anchor chair for the station’s evening news broadcasts. In the years that followed, he has covered local, state, national and international news. In 2013, KWWL launched The Steele Report, a weekly current events show.
Standing with his colleagues at the end of the 10 p.m. news, Steele added one last thing.
“My wife has already said that I better come up with a hobby really quickly.”
