Nancy Edmonds Hanson

Sitting down with Amy Iler and JJ Gordon feels like getting together with old friends – because you are.
For listeners to “It Takes Two” on KFGO Radio, the top-rated station in the Upper Midwest, it’s like chatting with a neighbor or the folks at the office about everything under the sun. The cohosts of Fargo-Moorhead’s number-one midday radio program have been sharing the highs and lows of their private lives, along with anything under the sun that catches their fancy. They’re live from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays on the venerable Fargo station’s airwaves, including 790 AM and two FM frequencies, 94.1 and 104.7.
“The best part of all is when strangers come up and greet us like old friends,” Amy says, reflecting on the six years she and comedian Gordon have partnered on the air. “They pick up on something we talked about on the air. Maybe one of JJ’s movie reviews hit a nerve, or they laugh about the time I got locked in my son’s bedroom.” (Long story, that one.)
“It’s like we’re just continuing a conversation. They feel like they’ve been listening to someone they know.”
The “It Takes Two” twosome has thrived in talk radio, though neither originally aimed for the airwaves. Amy, a Bismarck native who turns 40 in a few months, graduated from Minnesota State University Moorhead with a degree in mass communications in 2006. Active in politics during her college years, she moved to Washington, D.C., to work for U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan.
She had interned with Joel Heitkamp at KFGO as a student, but her aspirations lay elsewhere … until the day in 2008 her phone rang in the capital. “It was Joel,” she remembers. “He asked me if I’d like a job as his producer. I said no.
“But then I thought about coming back home to be closer to my family, and I changed my mind. I’m glad I did.” She worked with Heitkamp during drive time, mostly behind the scenes, lining up guests and running the control board. When he took over the politically charged “News and Views” from Ed Schultz, she moved with him to 9 a.m.
Seven years later, another departing personality pushed her forward. Sandy Buttweiler departed from the popular midday “Jack and Sandy Show.”
“I offered what I thought were some great suggestions for her replacement,” Amy says. Instead, management asked her to partner with Jack Sunday herself. “Of course I said no,” she laughs. But again she reconsidered, and the original “It Takes Two” was born.
“At the time, I think we were one of a kind in the whole industry,” Amy point out, “a Baby Boomer paired with a Millennial. It was kind of weird, but somehow, it just worked.” She adds, “I learned so much from Jack.”
When Sunday left the station in 2018 for personal reasons, it was Amy who was looking to fill his boots. She suggested JJ Gordon, who had spent a couple years on Rock 102, which segued into Mix 101.9, and was about to eliminate live personalities entirely.
They barely knew each other, the pro and the relative newbie, but somehow they clicked.
JJ – who turned 40 in October – came up on a different path. The great-grandson of 1950s Fargo mayor Charles (Chaz) Dawson, he describes himself as a former “sweatpants kid,” a loner with few friends. That changed when the young introvert discovered theater at South High. “I finally found a place to fit in when Gwen Stark got me involved in plays and musicals,” JJ says. “And then I got involved in the improv club we called the Donkey Hoties.”
Improvisational comedy turned him into the funny, voluble man he is today. After graduating from South in 2002, he joined the Linebenders, the area’s first and best-known improv comedy troupe. By day, he prepared for an education major at MSUM.
“But in those days, I thought this was a one-horse town. I really wanted to get out of here,” he confesses. That meant chasing his real dream of professional comedy to Chicago, where he attended a private arts school, Columbia College. More importantly, he says, he got involved with Second City, billed then and now as the world’s premier comedy club, comedy theater, and school of improvisation. “I got to meet and watch top tier talent honing their acts – people who you’ve seen on ‘Saturday Night Live’ and ‘Mad TV,’ who are major names in comedy today,” he reminisces.
So why did he come home to Fargo a few years later? “I ran out of money.” He resumed preparations to get a teaching degree while again enlisting with the Linebenders. He traveled the three-state area and beyond, performing in bars, keynoting conventions and business meetings, and entertaining at weddings and family reunions. “There’s not a VFW in North Dakota that I don’t know my way around. There’s not a back entrance at a Holiday Inn,” he jokes.
JJ had been on FM morning shows for two years when Amy invited him to try out as her new partner. But for him, the learning curve was steep. “On the FM side, you talk for maybe six minutes an hour, and it’s mostly a ramp – ‘here’s what’s coming up next,’” JJ explains. “Now I was on AM talk radio. That means you’re basically talking all the time and accepting your listeners into the conversation. There’s a lot to learn.”
That two-way conversation with listeners is a big part of what has bonded the cohosts with those on the other side of the radio. Those who tune in regularly comment through texting, tossing their own opinions into the mix. They sometimes surprise the hosts, as they’ve done in “bracket challenges” pitting pop culture topics on anything from favorite ad jingles of the 1980s to top fall desserts. (To Amy and JJ’s amazement, peach cobbler outpolled pumpkin pie.)
Nor do the walls of KFGO always separate them from the listeners themselves. One of their first forays into the community was “parking lot Bingo,” the wildly popular outdoor gatherings they invented during the COVID epidemic. “People were so isolated in those days,” Amy observes. “Zoom (the live video digital app) gave us a way to get everyone together safely.” Bingo fans came by the carload, tuning in on their smartphones as the hosts called numbers, then honking when they scored a winner.
Other one-of-a-kind promotions have followed. Last year, “It Takes Two” staged what they call “the world’s largest cake walk” at Bluestem in south Moorhead. “We hoped to get 100 people, tops,” JJ points out. “But 20 minutes before we started, there were only, maybe, 50. We thought, ‘Oh, well, it’s a learning experience.
“Then the flood gates opened!” By the time the cake walk began, 639 individuals were tightly packed into a circle on the art center’s grounds. Amy laughs: “It turned out to be more of a ‘cake shuffle’ than a walk.” In the end, the jubilant crowd doubled the size of the largest recorded event of its kind.
While Amy and JJ spend 15 hours a week talking nonstop to each other, both have busy personal lives – “sometimes chaotic,” Amy interjects. She met her husband, Kristjan Helgoe, by accident. Literally. “Joel and I were driving in the cruiser (the KFGO vehicle) when the canopy came off.” Her future husband – then, and now, an officer with the North Dakota Highway Patrol – stopped to help them.
That was 2009. Today they have two children, 6-year-old Bjorn and Gretta, 4.
JJ and his wife Jill, who works at American Crystal Sugar, live with their two dogs in the house his great-grandfather built long ago on Ninth Street South. “At the time, it was on the very farthest edge of Fargo,” he jokes. “Now we’re inner city.” When not devouring movies in his time off, the broadcast host coaches the student improv group at Fargo North High and continues to occasionally perform with the Linebenders.
As KFGO gets ready to celebrate its 75th anniversary, the radio partners are proud of the role their station has played in the daily life of the community and the region. “It’s just amazing. Think of it – how people grew up listening to people Lem Hawkins and Bev Walters,” Amy remarks. “They were always part of their lives. It’s an honor for us to be carrying on that tradition.”
JJ adds, “It’s just it’s neat to be part of that. At some point, Amy and I won’t be doing a show anymore, and they’ll be tuning in to a new show that’ll be just as great as we were in our height, just as great as Jack Sunday.”
Amidst daily talk of movies, families, home repairs, children, health, national news, entertainment headlines, weather, and pretty much everything else their listeners might have on their minds, JJ and Amy have carved out a reputation for discussing food. Their listeners often chime in on “Foodie Fridays.” It has become something of a local institution.
Their newspaper column, “From the Kitchens of Amy and JJ,” appears in the FM Extra every week. They’re currently working on an anniversary edition of the radio station’s popular listener cookbook. The tradition dates back to the 1960s, Amy reports. This latest version, nearly complete at this magazine’s press time, is expected to be available for a donation of $5 in the weeks before Christmas.
Beyond the fun and often-frivolous takes on their daily lives, the “It Takes Two” teammates believe deeply in the role of live local radio, particularly AM pioneers like the company for whom they work.
Amy argues against the stereotype that long pigeonholed KFGO as a station favored primarily by men. Indeed, the station has ranked at the pinnacle of the ratings for both genders for many years.
“We reflect our community’s culture,” Amy emphasizes. “Yes, sports is a big part of what we do, but it’s also a big part of life and interests of our entire community. There’s lots more going on here than just major league games, though we’re proud to broadcast them.
“It’s just an antiquated notion to think that only men are tuned in to talk radio. We attract all kinds of listeners who want to be more acquainted with everything that’s going on. On one day, that might be local, state or national politics. On the next, it could be breaking news – like the shooting in July that took place right outside our building. But sometimes it’s movie reviews and fun things that are going on around town … and, year round, it’s always the road reports and the weather .
“You realize why a live local radio station like ours needs to exist when you think about all the information that’s being funneled out to the community. They listen to us to know what’s going on right now … and they call and text us, too, to tell us what’s happening around them.
“We’re living in a world where people are now more isolated than they’ve ever been in the modern era,” Amy reflects. “Yet our audience tunes in every single day. It’s almost like they’re part of a conversation that they could jump into themselves.”