Bio

Zach is a 1998 graduate of Mahtomedi Senior High School. Who graduated in 1999 from Brown Institute in Mendota Heights, Minnesota with a Certificate in Radio Broadcasting. Zach met is first wife in school and moved to South Dakota where he worked at radio stations in Mitchell, Madison and Huron. After leaving radio for five and a half years, he returned to KOKK/KIJV to work as news director. Zach was at KOKK?KIJV for eight years before leaving to briefly become Beadle County Emergency Manager for nine months. Zach moved to Pierre to get back into radio at KCCR as news director and also as chief operator. In Zach's time as news director he has earned 98 awards from the Midwest Broadcast Journalist Association and Associated Press including sweeping the general reporting category in the AP contest in 2014 and 2016. In 2015 Zach won the Tom Brokaw award, presented to someone for making a significant contribution to South Dakota Broadcasting. In earning the Brokaw, Zach testified before the South Dakota Supreme Court in favor of allowing cameras in circuit court proceedings. Zach also made the first two approved requests to allow electronic recording of circuit court proceedings and on July 1st of 2011, the first live broadcast inside circuit court; the closing arguments in a murder trial, were broadcast live on tv and radio. Zach has a 21 year old daughter in her third year at the University of South Dakota majoring in phycology. He is married with two step children, a 19 year-old boy and 15 year-old girl. Zach also spent five years as a certified police reserve with the Huron and Pierre Police Departments.