Norm Hall at the controls at KBEW Radio on one of his last days of work, when he retired in 2021 after more than 30 years in broadcasting.

The community of Blue Earth and people from most of the surrounding area were stunned recently to hear the news that well-known radio newsman Norm Hall had died in Alabama.

Norm Hall was a fixture on KBEW Radio in Blue Earth for more than 30 years. He was the news director, but he also did countless interviews, remote spots and sports coverage, among other things.

Norm did not start out in the radio business. After graduating from high school in Crown Point, Indiana, near Chicago, he first worked in the oil fields in North Dakota and on the railroad there.

He eventually landed in Fairmont and Blue Earth and worked at both Fairmont Foods and Juba’s Grocery.

In fact, it was at Juba’s that Norm met his wife, Michelle Brooks, who was also working there.

“Tom Juba claims he knows exactly what aisle Norm and I first met,” says Michelle Hall. “I am not real sure of that, but he could be right.”

The couple was married on Feb. 16, 1997.

Norm’s first job in radio was with the Fairmont radio station, and it was to record a Sunday church service in a different church each week.

In an interview with the Register in 2021, Norm said he got hooked on radio and spent hours practicing to be a radio DJ.

“I created my own pretend station, and practiced introducing the music, starting the music, reading the weather, news and sports,” he said in the interview. “I taught myself the radio profession. I never went to school for it.”

When the news director job opened up at KBEW in Blue Earth in October of 1991, Norm applied and was hired by station manager Roy Haven.

One of the best things about his job, Norm said, was talking to all sorts of people, from a U.S. senator and vice president, to county commissioners, and people on the street.

In the 2021 interview, Norm related how he got so busy visiting with people at the KBEW booth at the County Fair that he forgot to do the top of the hour news.

“Norm loved talking to people,” his wife, Michelle Hall, says. “That is why radio was the perfect fit for him. He could talk to a lot of people at the same time.”

Former KBEW radio station manager Kevin Benson agrees.

“I believe Norm most always thought that being on the radio was ‘cool,’ for lack of a better word,” Benson says. “He always appeared to love his job and liked most of the aspects of it. He was dependable, always showed up for work and always got along well with the rest of the staff.”

Michelle adds that Norm’s love of talking to people gave new meaning to the term “long Minnesota goodbye.”

“He would definitely keep visiting with people until it was really time for them, or us, to leave,” she explains.

Michelle says despite all of his public notoriety, Norm was also a private person, and was very humble.

“He used to always joke that he had a face for radio,” she says. “It always got a laugh.”

Part of his being humble about his work was the fact that he had never been trained in the profession. But, there were always many, many people who told him they loved listening to him on the radio.

Of course, his other activities also put him into the public eye. He and Michelle have run a DJ service for events and weddings for years.

And there is that annual fundraiser for the Faribault County Food Shelf and the Western Faribault County Toy Drive.

Every first week of December, for 26 years, no matter what the weather, Norm and some of his pals sat out in the cold of the Juba’s parking lot with the KBEW/Darling Ingredients You Can Make A Difference Campout.

It has been a highly successful event, and each year Norm would don some outlandish colorful sport coat or other outfit and accept donations for two and a half days.

The Campout is expected to continue in Norm’s memory.

“Norm would want that to be his legacy,” Benson says. “He and the other

guys who help with it were, and still are, genuinely interested and proud to be doing something for others.”

Michelle says family was always the number one thing for Norm.

“He always wanted to spend time with family, no matter what we were doing or where we were going,” she says. “He was always singing song lyrics and playing music, he loved music. And he would use some song lyrics to sort of teach his kids and grandkids some life lessons.”

Benson says that interestingly, part of his last conversation with Norm included how important good health was and how important every day of life is.

“I said I wanted to live long enough so my grandchildren could remember me after I was gone,” Benson relates. “Norm finished that thought by saying, ‘And remember the things we did with them.’ How true. I am hoping all of his kids and grandkids remember the times he spent with them. I am sure they will.”

Michelle says Norm loved living life and wanted to do and see everything. She says they decided to go do something, somewhere, during spring break.

“We couldn’t come up with a definite plan, so we just took off,” she says. “We just headed southwest, with no destination in mind.”

But then something happened Michelle will not forget.

“Norm just said, ‘I need to go see my sisters,'” she says. “Not want to go see them, but that he needed to go see them.”

So they altered course and headed to Alabama. They had a nice family gathering, but then Norm felt ill, went into the hospital there, and after a couple of days, he passed away.

“I guess God has a plan for all of us,” Michelle says. “And, you never know, you really don’t know, what that plan is all the time.”

Norm Hall always wanted to live his life to the fullest, and go and do a lot of things, while he could. That is good advice for all of us.