The KFJB's County Marshals were a favorite of the station's weekly barn dance programs, which were held in the Coliseum in downtown Marshalltown for three years just after World War II. The County Marshals band was made up primarily of radio station staffers, who often had their own musical shows on KFJB during the week. In addition to performing at the weekly barn dance, the KFJB County Marshals were in demand around the listening are, playing at dances and other events.
The adults who paid 50 cents each for a ticket found themselves treated to a full evening of entertainment. In addition to the one hour live broadcast, which featured an armature contest, the County Marshals would provide another two hours of music off the air for dancing. But there was a catch - those in the audience had to help clear the chairs from the main floor after the broadcast before the dance would start. "That was standard procedure. Everyone pitched in," Schrock said. "The sooner they cleared the floor, the sooner the dance started."
The weekly KFJB barn dances typically drew as many as 2,000 people to downtown Marshalltown on Saturday nights, "I would say that of all the promotions the station has ever carried, it was the most dramatic and the most effective," Schrock said. "This was an event that helped promote the radio station, it helped us mature and I think was largely instrumental in positioning the radio station in the community."
