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Local blog still breathing, feeling fine
For a community college instructor, the end of the school year is a wondrous time — but not particularly conducive to blog output. News, views and cultural tidbits swirl about as always, yet my keystrokes are needed elsewhere. Look for my Sunday column, followed by some new content next week that I think you’ll enjoy. I’ll be here if…
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Another Range boy heads down highway for blood & spoils
Today I am on my way to the Twin Cities to prepare for tomorrow night’s Great Northern Radio Show in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. It’s our 14th program, the first show we’ve done in the metro area after almost four years of touring small towns and cities in Northern Minnesota. Growing up on the Iron Range — especially as…
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Unique story of underground mine radio show in Iowa
Photo / Martin Marietta Materials A longtime reader from Iowa, Fred Borgen, shared this story of a radio broadcast from an underground mine located under, of all places, the cornfields of his home state. I hadn’t heard about any mines in Iowa until this, and now I’m deeply upset that I haven’t done a radio…
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Richard III found under parking lot; Paul Harvey found on Super Bowl
Behold, a feast of links I don’t entirely know what to do with. The bones of Richard III, one of the shortest-lived English monarchs and the last to die on the battlefield, were found in a shallow grave below a parking lot in England. The story and photos will give you something to think about.…
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Keeping ‘Wits’ about us
I’m late to the party, but I caught the recent buzz over Minnesota Public Radio’s third-year, limited run show “Wits” and finally took in an episode of the comedy variety show. Hosted by veteran public radio anchor and all-around witty guy John Moe the program’s June 30 episode was an enjoyable listen with some hilarious…
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More from the Great Northern Radio Show preview week
This will be a busy week for the Great Northern Radio Show, slated to go live from 5-7 this Saturday, April 7, from the Chief Theatre in Bemidji, Minnesota. This will be our second episode of what is now a quarterly variety show on Northern Community Radio and other independent public radio outlets. You can…
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Keillor, Prairie Home dodge the snow for big show
You can hear the Duluth episode of Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” here. I wrote last week about the program’s expedition to the head of the lakes over the weekend. The DNT and Star Tribune reviewed “Prairie Home’s” stop at the DECC. Naturally, everyone’s talking about the “10 Things to Know Before you Move…
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Duluth welcomes Prairie Home Companion this Saturday
Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” broadcasts live from the symphony hall at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center this Saturday evening. The show is iconic to public radio, and this broadcast features some great local talent including Duluth’s Trampled by Turtles and the Grand Rapids High School Jazz Ensemble. (My kids could be in…
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MPR: Beating the daylight-savings time system
I have the daily commentary over at Minnesota Public Radio’s site this morning. The topic is my experience with daylight-savings time (which is this weekend, by the way) dating back to my stint as an overnight disc jockey in my high school years on the Iron Range. There’s a lot that goes on for daylight-savings…
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Great Northern Radio Show moves up the shore
If I failed to mention it before, the Great Northern Radio Show has been picked up by 91.7 KAXE for a 2012 season. If you missed our October 2011 debut in Hibbing you can still hear the program online (Hour 1 and Hour 2). We’ve been trying to build an audience for the show on…
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A good sound man is hard to find
With my foray into live radio production this year I’ve made mention of the creative influence of A Prairie Home Companion on my work. Today I join others in mourning the loss of that show’s famed sound man Tom Keith, a longtime MPR host and personality. He died of a heart attack Sunday. A Prairie…
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Keep northern Minnesota radio lively & local
Today is the final day of the KAXE-Northern Community Radio fall fundraiser. KAXE is an independent public radio station that pays its own way for a programming mix that includes a little bit of NPR news and a lot of locally-produced, locally-generated content and music. This year KAXE and I produced the Great Northern Radio…
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Coming Oct. 15, the Great Northern Radio Show!
Times are neither good nor bad nor normal here on the Iron Range. We seem to be going through a transition that no one fully understands. And it occurs to me that the rest of the country, even the world, might be doing the same. So I could double down on my concerned missives on…
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Latto’s radio legacy shows local programming matters
Yesterday we learned that Duluth broadcasting legend Lew Latto died unexpected at his home as he prepared to go to work hosting his talk radio program. Latto was a pioneering local broadcaster and the owner of several Duluth and Iron Range stations. Though I never met him, I worked for Latto in my first media…
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The night I stole an hour from time
From 1996 to 1998, the years I was in senior high school, I worked weekend overnight shifts as an easy listening DJ at 97.9 WEVE in the iron mining town of Eveleth, Minnesota. Specifically, I’d come home from school on Friday afternoon, prepare a bowl of Campbell’s soup and cheese sandwich, take a sleeping pill…