A former Iowa Congressman is reportedly on the “short list” for a job heading the National Association of Broadcasters. Fifty-seven-year-old Fred Grandy, who was born in Sioux City, is best known nationwide for playing the role of “Gopher” on the “Love Boat.” But Grandy is not the lightweight he portrayed on television. He went to Harvard and is best friends with David Eisenhower, the grandson of the former president. Grandy was the best man at Eisenhower’s wedding — when Eisenhower married Julie Nixon, the president’s daughter. In 1986, Grandy entered politics. He represented parts of western Iowa in Congress for eight years before deciding to run for governor. Grandy, who’s a Republican, challenged then-Governor Terry Branstad and lost in the 1994 Republican primary. In 1995, he became president and C-E-O of Goodwill Industries, a position he held for five years. Since 2003, he’s been the morning co-host of the “Grandy and Andy” program on a Washington, D.C. radio station. If Grandy gets the NAB job, he’d become the broadcast industry’s national spokesman and a chief political lobbyist.
