Mason City, Iowa city of Mason City, it does serve other communities in the Mason City micropolitan statistical area. The Iowa Northern has facilities in Manly, Iowa. The city also has a municipal airport, Mason City Municipal Airport, (MCW) with commercial service by Air Choice One. It is the airport from which Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper took off on the night of February 2, 1959, after a concert at the Surf Ballroom in nearby Clear Lake, Iowa, only to crash their plane in a historic event later referred to as the Day the Music Died. Mason City, Iowa, and
I've Always Been Crazy life of Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper, forever immortalizing himself in rock and roll trivia. Jennings, who was years getting over the tragedy, alludes to the flight on "A Long Time Ago," singing "Don't ask me who I gave my seat to on that plane, I think you already know, I told you that a long time ago" (he also name-drops fellow outlaw Willie Nelson in the song). In the liner notes to "The Essential Waylon Jennings", Wade Jessen quotes the singer: "Buddy was the first guy to ever have faith in me as a singer. He was