KRIB KRIB KRIB (1490 AM) is a radio station licensed to serve Mason City, Iowa. The station is owned by Digity, LLC, and licensed to Digity 3E License, LLC. It airs an Adult Standards music format. KRIB was one of the first radio stations in Iowa to play Rock and Roll in the mid-1950s and garnered all of the young audience. KRIB is also the radio station that was one of the sponsors of the Winter Dance Party at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa in February 1959 featuring The Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens and Buddy Holly, which ended that
Ritchie Valens minutes after takeoff for reasons still unknown. The crash killed all three passengers and pilot Roger Peterson instantly upon impact. As with Holly and Richardson, Valens suffered massive and unsurvivable head injuries along with blunt force trauma to the chest. At just 17 years old, Valens was the youngest to die in the crash. The tragedy inspired singer Don McLean to write his 1971 hit "American Pie", immortalizing February 3 as "The Day the Music Died". Valens's remains were buried at San Fernando Mission Cemetery, Mission Hills, California. Valens was a pioneer of Chicano rock and Latin rock and inspired