A Montage of Memory Loss

Amneesia Manne Montage

Amneesia Manne, the nice young man who wondered into KAXE with no idea who he was or why he was here, helped us have a great fundraiser. Here's a montage of his reporting on the Fundraiser from a forgetful perspective :)

KAXE's Record Setting Summer Fundraiser

by Doug MacRostie

Success!!! With 208 new/renewing members we raised over $24,500 for independent community radio. Thanks to everyone who pledged to KAXE, and thanks to all the volunteers who came in to play music, make food, answer phones, make food, offer services and make food :D This is big news for 2 reasons. 1) This is the largest dollar amount we've ever raised during a summer fundraiser. 2) This is a notable rebound in new membership (though not the highest ever).

Why #1 is important is pretty obvious - we set a goal to reach our operations budget for this fiscal year: $23,977. We raised $24,564 - this is almost $5,000 more than we raised last summer! w00t! With all the financial craziness the last couple years (both globally and locally) a record setting fundraiser represents strong support for Northern Community Radio.

Here's why #2 is important. In the last year we shorted our normally 2-week long Fall and Spring fundraisers to just 1 week, which worked very well overall, but we noticed a slow decline in new members - the money was coming in (about) the same, but it was larger amounts from fewer people. 97 new members this fundraiser is roughly a 25% increase over last summer (and the 4th highest overall). "New members are the most important reason we do on-air fundraisers... it's the only reason," said Maggie Montgomery, "We can find existing members and lapsed members, we know them. Fundraisers reach new people. New members are the lifeblood of the station." And this summer, the lifeblood is pumping strong :)

KAXE...The Rebel You Can't Live Without

by Kathryn Lavelle

So here’s the deal. There’s regular radio…and there’s KAXE. Both can be necessary assets for any community. Regular radio is good…can even be great sometimes. Regular radio is like that football player that you had a HUGE crush on in high school. You thought he moved with the grace of a panther, remember? His hair was like the golden wheat in that crazy farmer’s field next to the high school…waving slowly in the golden bronze of the sun.

But then you also begin to remember how that particular, hunky football player would ignore you because you weren’t one of the cool kids. You weren’t a conformist…you were different...you were unique…and he was just too damn focused on being popular to see your potential. He never even took the time to notice or appreciate your creative nature or eccentric personality.

Then enters KAXE, walking through the lunchroom with his tousled hair and black glasses. Kind of shy…kind of good looking in an I-don’t-care-what-I-wear sort of way…extremely intelligent…aloof…a rebel. He saw you for what you were right away…someone worth getting to know. Someone with substance and heart and beauty. He wrote you poetry and read it to you in the rain.

He had long conversations with you about environmental issues, politics and music…and not just the same ole same ole kind of tunes…but MUSIC…weaving its unique sound and eclectic patterns like rainbow trout swimming through a cool, fast running stream. He was the one who listened to your crazy conspiracy theories and never laughed…not once! He assured you that you would always be special to him…that he would always take the time to appreciate you…and he would never sell out so he could be popular.

There’s definitely a place in our lives for regular radio…as well as the sometimes fond…sometimes not so fond memories of the popular kids…the football players…the cheerleaders. High school wouldn’t have been the same without them. But…it would have been mighty boring without those eclectic rebels thrown in there. KAXE is the eclectic rebel we can’t live without. It is important to have that constant in our lives…the public radio station that will continue to amaze, comfort and challenge us. That will bring us the news we may not want to hear…but NEED to hear. That will educate our ears, heart and soul with unfamiliar music that captures and captivates us.

So again…it is time for us to support KAXE…the rebel we can’t live without!!!

Why KAXE? The Space In Between

by Deborah A Davis

There are a lot of things in Minnesota that are delightful. It's hard not to be reminded of them at this time of year. Just a couple of weeks ago the delicate yellow Moccasins were in bloom; now we've got the shocking pink and white of the Ladyslipper. We're lucky to live here, whether by choice or chance. The world outside fills our senses with its bloom, bird song and beauty. But what of the space in between? If the rush of whitecap stills your mind at the lake, what stills your mind in the mad dash to work in the mornings, the rush to the grocery store in the evening? There's only one radio station that I know that can brush up against the surprise and delight of natures wonder. Can any other station match KAXE's choice in music to sooth the soul, the savageness of the world we walk in every day?

Just this month you may have enjoyed Keri Noble, Eilen Jewell, Mayda. You could have adventured into the Dark Night of the Soul with Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse. KAXE listeners let their minds wander and rest, delight and dance with Wilder Embry, Janiva Magness and Bemidji's Pelican Railroad. We remembered the folksy roots of Dylan with Amy Correia, a shoot of that root herself.

And music isn't the only exploding of sensory bloom KAXE has given us this summer. We're kept vitally alive with LIVE PERFORMANCES and interviews, not only with with music makers but with local artists, activists and other world changers. KAXE touches us with local folk too. Heck, we might find out what the guy down the road had for breakfast. And we know the vital news of the world from a perspective that few are brave enough to tell.

Maybe they've made it too easy... If you want to see the rare and exotic Ladyslipper you have to hike, sometimes miles, into the woods. If you want to smell the scent of the pine in the rain you're gonna get wet. But when you want to be equally enriched by KAXE all you have to do is turn on the dial and listen. When you need that blank and frenzied space inbetween to be filled with wonder, you just push a button.You know, maybe you could go the extra mile; preserve your senses wherever you are. Pledge what you can today to be renewed, informed and delighted, and guarantee KAXE will be there when you need them. And you will need them. Winter is just an Autumn away.

Deborah A Davis
Bemidji MN
msdeborahadavis@yahoo.com

Strictly Numbers - Online Listeners

by Maddi Frick

In the past 365 days, we’ve had 29,197 visitors listen to our online audio stream a total of 329,840 times. It costs $270 per month to run the online audio stream, that’s $3240 per year. If we were charging you to listen online, it’d be 11¢ per year. Do you think you could spare that? Give us $1.10 and you’d be covering 9 other people. Give us $11 and you’re covering the cost of 99 other people. Give us a one-time $33 donation and you are paying for 299 other people. Need I keep going? Don’t you appreciate being able to listen online? Think about it, 11¢.

Sense & Gender

by Guido

Back in our benighted past, when males believed they were the only ones capable of making sense of things, it was determined that we have five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. You could argue the small-mindedness of that conclusion---what about hunch?---precognition?---but hardly anyone did. Next, men decided that, of their five senses, sight and sound were premier, in that they so thoroughly involved the intellect, and thusly sight and sound were designated the manly senses. Smell, taste and touch were all about the body, the physical, lesser attributes than intellect, and they were of course then associated with the feminine.

This goofiness corroborated the very manly philosophy, Cartesianism, which held that truth is perceived strictly by way of the mind, and everything you sense physically is illusion. The clown quotient is over the top, no lie, but the gag held up for awhile in the 17th century, and the guy it’s associated with, Rene Descartes, is known as the Father of Modern Philosophy.

Remember “Cogito, ergo sum”? I think, therefore I am. There: right there is Rene’s great gift to modern and postmodern philosophy.

This week on KAXE 91.7 we’re proposing and proving---daily, hourly---that you need all your senses working all the time to fully appreciate all the things that membership in Northern Community Radio means for you, and manliness means whatever you want it to mean---same as it ever was.

Come to your senses. Yours is ours. We sense, we pledge, therefore we are.

A Match that Makes Cents

Now is the time to pledge!!! Willie, a friend of KAXE and longtime supporter, has been gathering change and brought in a jug full to help encourage NEW members to pledge. He's offering an additional $20 to the first 10 pledges by a NEW member, so take this opportunity for your pledge dollars to go further and support independent community radio: 218-326-1234 or 800-662-5799, or pledge online at KAXE.org

Listener support is our single largest source of funding for over 34 years and new members are vital to our continued success - pick an amount that fits your budget over the next year and pledge now so you get an extra $20 thanks to Willie!

See An Incredible Cup of Hot Chocolate On The Radio

by Scott Hall (with lots of help from Stan Freeberg)

The theme for KAXE's Summer fundraiser is "Come To Your Senses". Each day we focus on one our five (or six) senses. Today it's sight. That may seem like a stretch for radio, but au contraire, mon ami!. Check out this ad Stan Freeberg produced for the radio advertising council over 50 years ago.

Click here to listen: Hot Chocolate on the Radio

Don't Come To Your Senses in a Hospital Bed

by KAXE Volunteer Rev Dave,

If the Mayans are right, the world is going to change drastically in 2012. All the signs point to upheaval, change, and possibly the end of caramel latte's. In a world like this you don't want to be alone against the legions of mediocrity that have banded together like rats and taken over all malls and manicure shops. You need to "Come to your Senses!" and join the voice of freedom known as KAXE.

OK, OK, maybe a little heavy on the gloom and doom. I'll try this again...

KAXE is the sound that touches my heart, makes me see blue skies, and smell the memory of pine trees.

OK, that's a bad greeting card, or an anti-depressant commercial.

Damn, this is tougher than I thought.... All I'm supposed to do is write some little toss off about why people should support the great institution of KAXE. There's so many great programs, there are so many great people, KAXE is so many things to so many people, and weaves it's family into a fabric that covers the world. This should be easy.

But all I can think is, support KAXE or when you come to your senses you'll be in a hospital bed.

A Momentary Lapse of Morning Show

Have you ever lost 10 minutes to a daydream? Or maybe drove home and realized you couldn't remember the commute at all? We've all had these moments when it seems our mind was absent, yet we functioned just fine. Stuff like that happens on the KAXE Morning Show all time.

It's the first day of our Come to Our Senses Fundraiser and students from College For Kids helped to write, act and produce this video to encourage people to support independent local radio/multi-media in Northern MN.

KAXE is an non-profit, public broadcast organization working to build community in Northern MN and listener support is vital to our success - infact, it's kept us strong and on the air for over 34 years now. We need to hear from you NOW, pledge at whatever amount you can afford by calling 218-326-1234 or pledge online at http://www.kaxe.org

Freaky Fundraisers Hard at Work

There is a LOT going on in this picture - can you see the gong? And where's mallet? How many coffee mugs do you see? And is there a bird in the feeder? :)

It's the first morning of our Come To Your Senses Fundraiser. Listener support is our single largest source of funding - people just like you who pledge now!

On this first day we're celebrating the sense of hearing - when you pledge you can go on-air and we'll play a mystery-sound for you - if you get it right (and Sound Master Guido has been offering clues) you get a free CD!

On an entirely unrelated subject - a nice young man was found wandering our amphitheater - turns out he can't remember anything, so we lovingly nicknamed him Amneesia Manne and asked him to report about our fundraiser, check it out:
Amneesia Manne Ep 1

The important thing is that you look at your budget and see what you can afford, then give us a call! 800-662-5799 or pledge online at www.kaxe.org.

"I don't Know Who I Am or Why I'm Here..."

The other day the KAXE staff noticed someone wandering outside the studios and inquired if he needed help... turned out he can't remember anything - listen to what happened:
The Introduction of Amnesia Man

Our summer fundraiser starts Sunday night at 5 with Backporch Harmony and goes through Green Cheese Trivia on Sat. the 26th. Are you a member? Now's the time to come to your senses...