Jonas Nelson

It was a rainy night in August of 1967 when a young husband rushed his wife to the hospital in Rugby, ND.  The next morning their first child was born….a son.  They rejoiced greatly at God’s blessing and named him Jonas, after his great-grandpa.  They took him home to raise him on the family farm at Souris, ND.  He attended school in Souris from Kindergarten through Sophomore year, then attended Hillcrest Academy in Fergus Falls, MN graduating from there in 1986.  His parents, Arlan & Tessie, had two more children, Amy and Nicole.

Jonas always knew that his career would be in radio as his family listen to 1320 KHRT while he was growing up and then he would sit by the record player and pretend he was on the radio.  He received his radio training from Brown Institute in Minneapolis and upon graduation couldn’t find a job in Christian radio in the upper Midwest, so he moved to Fargo/Moorhead rooming with his best friend from Hillcrest, Pete.  While living here Jonas put his schooling to good use working in construction(?!).  It was all part of God’s plan, because it was there that Jonas met his wife, Dawn, through a College & Career Bible Study.  They were married in October of 1989 and moved to Minneapolis.  As a RN, Dawn worked at Minneapolis Children’s.  Jonas got a part-time job at a small Christian station, 1570 KYCR, eventually moving to full-time.  While in Minneapolis, two children were born to the Nelsons.  Alyssa was born in 1992, Kyle came in 1995.

In the summer of 1996 they left the rat-race of big city life and moved to the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota where Jonas worked at KSLT radio in Spearfish.  After only four months there, Dick Leavitt – owner of KHRT, offered him a job at the station he grew up listening to.  The Nelsons moved to Minot in a snowstorm the weekend before Thanksgiving.  (It was 30-below zero their first morning in Minot).  Dawn works at Trinity Health.  Jonas is Program Director of 1320 KHRT / 106.9 K-Heart.  Since moving to Minot, two more children have been added to the Nelson family, Melanie in 1999 and Thomas in 2003.

The family enjoys helping at church, camping and using their computers / Ipods / Ipads.

You can hear Jonas on the air from 6 am to 1 pm weekdays on 1320 KHRT and 4 pm to 7 pm weekdays on 106.9 K-Heart.  He also does play-by-play of local high school sports.

Interesting Facts:

Favorite color: Red
Favorite movies: The Little Rascals, Facing the Giants, Fireproof, Cars
Favorite scripture: 1 Timothy 4:12-16