Donation to KAXE from KAXE member Rick McDonald

Rick McDonald stopped the KAXE studios for a phony staged handshake this afternoon.  The handshake was staged, but the check in his hand was all REAL.  Rick was the recipient of the MN Power Foundation Don Shippar Community Leadership award.  The winner is given to $1000 to donate to any charitable organization of his choosing.  Rick chose to give to KAXE as well as the Itasca Ski Club.

Thanks Rick!  you are a peach!

The Head Massager Video

How do you relax at work? KAXE volunteer programmer and Board Member Susan Lick brought in a Head Massager to try and help everyone relax during our staff meetings. Here is the initial test run on General Manager Maggie Montgomery. Want a TRUE head massage? Tune into KAXE!

Maggie's Sourdough Starter

SOURDOUGH BREAD
by Maggie Montgomery


Sourdough starter grows in flour and water. It is a colony of yeast and bacteria that live together. The yeast raises the bread and the bacteria make it flavorful and tangy. To keep the colony alive, you must feed it regularly, at least weekly if possible. The best way to feed it is to use it for baking. It will live in your refrigerator between uses. This slows it down so it doesn’t need so much food (again, “food” is just flour and water). The starter is healthiest if it is used every day, but that’s impossible for most of us!

Sourdough starter is not difficult to make from scratch. Here’s a recipe. You will need RYE FLOUR, GOLD N WHITE or BREAD FLOUR, a small amount of HONEY and WATER. These directions to start a liquid culture are taken from the Jeffrey Hamelman book, Bread:

DAY 1: 1 ½ cups whole rye flour (4.8 oz)
6 oz water (3/4 cup)
1 tsp honey
Mix together, cover with plastic, let stand 24 hours

DAY 2: TWO FEEDINGS about 12 hours apart
Half of above mix (5.5 oz)
1.2 oz. Whole rye flour (3/8 cup)
1.2 oz white flour (1/4 cup gold n white or good quality bread flour)
3 oz water 90°F (3/8 cup)
Mix well, cover with plastic, let stand in a warm area (75-80°). Throw away the unused portion of the old culture (you have to be heartless about this or your house will be filled with sourdough culture in no time—I send it down the sink with plenty of water)

DAYS 3-5: TWO FEEDINGS per day, ideally about 12 hours apart
Half of above mix (5.5 oz)
2.4 oz (1/2 cup) white or gold n white flour
3 oz (3/8 cup) water
Mix together, cover with plastic and let stand in a warm area.

By day 6 the culture should be ready for bread production. To develop further strength and complexity, feed it for 2 or 3 more days before you use it.

The culture is sticky, stringy, and gluey, and your dough, when you make it, may initially be stickier and gluier than the kind made with regular baker’s yeast. A key part of working with sourdough is washing the bowls and utensils quickly when you are finished with them, so the gluey dough doesn’t dry on. The artisan bakers say the longer it takes to make the bread, the fuller the flavor will be. This bread will also keep longer than other bread. Never refrigerate it. That hastens spoilage. The sourdough culture fights off invaders! You will get a workout with this bread too—by kneading it 10 minutes twice (20 minutes total).

To bake on Saturday, take out the starter Thursday evening and let it warm up overnight. On Friday morning, stir it, then add 2 T of the starter to 3 ounces of water, then mix in ½ cup flour (white bread flour or gold n white flour from Natural Way Mills in Middle River MN). Throw away the rest of the starter. Allow the bowl of starter to remain at room temperature during the day. That night, start your PART 1 mix for bread day according to the recipe.
The starter is at its best when it is fully risen and bubbly. Try to catch it at the top of its bubbling power for good rising bread.

RECIPE 1: Sourdough with Whole Wheat
(The proportions are from Vermont Sourdough in the Hamelman book. Some of the method is from Hamelman and some methods come from Breads from the La Brea Bakery by Nancy Silverton. I use gold n white flour from Natural Way Mills and, of course, local East Nary starter)

PART 1: Liquid-levain build
The night before you bake, mix together and cover the bowl--
5 oz (1 cup) good quality bread flour or gold n white flour
6 oz water (3/4 cup)
1 oz (2 T) mature culture
Let this stand for about 12 hours at room temperature (about 70°)

PART 2: Final dough
15 oz water (1 7/8 cups)
All but 2 Tablespoons of the PART 1 levain starter (reserve 2 T to make more starter—mix w/ 3 oz water and ½ cup flour, leave on the counter for a couple hours, then put in fridge)
1 lb, 8 oz (5 ½ cups) gold n white or bread flour
3 oz (3/4 cup) whole wheat flour
1 Tablespoon kosher salt

Put the water in the mixing bowl, add all but two tablespoons of the bubbly, PART 1 culture and stir or mix with fingers until it’s incorporated. Stir in the flour until you have to knead it. DO NOT ADD THE SALT YET.

Knead the dough for about 10 minutes until you have achieved a satin smooth, elastic texture. To knead, dump out the dough on your surface, dusting the surface with the flour you couldn’t mix in for kneading. Try to follow the proportions precisely. I generally don’t need to add any more flour when needing and wind up kneading on the bare countertop. Wash out the bowl, butter it, return the dough to the bowl and cover the bowl. Wash the kneading surface.

Let the dough rest for 20-60 minutes.

After the dough has rested, spread 1 T SALT on your kneading surface. Dump the dough onto the salt. Knead the salt into the dough. After all the salt is incorporated into the flour, knead it for 10 more minutes, until the dough feels like a “baby’s bottom,” satiny, smooth and elastic. At first the dough will be hard to knead, because the salt will make it wet and resistant. Get past this point, until it is sticky again, and then finally becomes smooth.

Butter or oil the bowl again, put the dough back in, and cover the bowl. The hard work is done!

The next phase takes 2 ½ hours total: After 50 minutes, fold the dough by putting it on a lightly floured surface, flattening it, and folding each side and then the top and the bottom to the center. Dust off the dough and return it to the buttered bowl, first top-side-down, then flip it top-side-up to oil the whole thing. The dough will not have risen much yet. Do this again after another 50 minutes, always keeping the dough oriented the same way (the smooth top is turned out onto the floured surface and remains the outside of the dough). Each time the dough will have risen a little more.

After the third 50-minute interval, divide the dough into 2 pieces and shape it as you wish, keeping the outside of the dough on the outside of the loaves. I generally make 2 oval-shaped-but-fairly-round loaves by flattening the dough and rolling it up one way, then rolling it up the other way. Place the loaves on a large cookie sheet that has been buttered and sprinkled with corn meal (oil/butter isn’t absolutely necessary, but the corn meal is).

Let the bread rise 2 more hours at room temperature on the sheet, well covered with plastic wrap and a towel (up to 2 ½ hours may be ok—but don’t allow it to over-rise). Then slash the loaves for baking.

Start the oven 45 minutes before you bake the bread, preheating it to 425°F. Put a cast iron skillet in the oven on the shelf under the bread. Let the skillet heat up with the oven (45 minutes).

Put the loaves in the oven, then (wearing a protective mitt and long sleeves!) pour 1 cup boiling water into the cast iron skillet under the bread and close the door. This will steam the bread and make a good crust. Bake the bread 40 to 45 minutes. It is better to over-brown the bread than to under bake it.








Here’s one more recipe (50% whole wheat). Use the same method.

RECIPE 2: Whole Wheat Levain (This is the recipe I generally make every weekend!)

PART 1: 5 oz (1 1/8 cups) whole wheat flour
5 oz (5/8 cups) water
1 oz (2 T) starter

PART 2: 11 oz (2 ½ cups) whole wheat flour
1# (4 ½ cups) bread or gold n white flour
2 cups + 2 T (or 500 ml) water
1 T kosher salt
All (less 2 Tablespoons) of the PART 1 starter (aka levain)

Mix and bake by the same method as the first recipe above. Same time. Same temperature.

These bread recipes usually turn out well. I have read that it is virtually impossible to over-knead sourdough bread by hand, so be sure to knead the bread sufficiently. In hot weather, use slightly cool water to make the bread.

We got great response to our Local Foods segment this week...

Maggie talked with Richard Thompson from Isle,MN this week on her local food segment. Richard grows peaches, pears, apricots and other things you don't necessarily think of as Minnesota Grown products. You can hear the conversation here.

We got great response to this, including Joel, a farm educator and retired market farmer from Mahtowa had some great advice for growers:

Hi Maggie-

Thanks for mentioning the kale query this morning.

Best date to start your tomato plants depends on a number of factors: date when you plan (or feel is safe) to set out, germination and early growing conditions, available light and temperature during "adolescent" seedling growth, length of day and sun angle once you start using natural light conditions for seedling growth, and growing medium fertility.

Best approach is to count backwards from your transplant date. Under ideal conditions, a tomato seedling only needs 8-9 weeks to attain a nice stocky profile with a strong root system. Given a transplant date of June 5, this would mean starting the seedlings around April 1. On this schedule, by the time you pot the seedlings up and get them into natural light (hopefully), it will be mid to late April and day length and sunlight will be quite favorable for rapid growth of stocky seedlings. This is the simplest way to approach the question.

Once you start pushing further back toward winter, a number of factors complicate the issue. I find that when I start tomato plants in early March, I don't usually have seedlings ready to transplant until mid to late May. That's because the light conditions are not as good and temperatures are lower. Of course, you probably don't want to transplant any earlier than mid-May unless your greenhouse is reliably heated.

I start my plants in one of two ways, depending on conditions: 1) in the basement in a germination chamber which has about 15-20 gallons of water with an aquarium heater. Four 11 x 22 flats can fit on lath set over this water which I try to maintain at 75-80F for nightshade germination. Two shop-lite fixtures with one cool and one warm flourescent in each provides close to full spectrum light. As long as the growing tips are kept within 6-10" of the lights, the plants don't get too leggy. Another factor that causes leggy plants is consistently warm growing conditions. A more natural day/night variation of at least 15 degrees F seems to promote a healthier growth. In general, I try to get my seedlings in natural light with more diurnal temperature variation as soon as possible.

Or 2) If weather is warm and wood furnace is not being used regularly (we also have a cookstove in kitchen which provides shoulder season heat), basement gets cold and it gets difficult to keep the germinator warm enough for good results with nightshades, even when the water is 80F. Possibly better insulation of the chamber would be the answer. Anyway, under these conditions I use our propane oven. Pilot light keeps the oven at a nearly ideal temperature for nightshade germination. A couple of downsides to this method--we have cooked more than one flat over the years and you need to monitor the flats quite closely and get them into light as soon as seeds start to germ.

I have two large south-facing windows with a 30 degree angle that is just about right for direct sunlight in February-April. I can fit four 11 x22 flats on the ledges of each of these. Diurnal temperature variation is more than adequate (On below 0 nights I need to protect the plants from freezing).

I try to move the seedlings out to the greenhouse (only heated as necessary) sometime in early May. No point in rushing them into the ground, because soil in an unheated greenhouse takes quite a while to warm up after it thaws out and I like to plant my seedlings deep. Also, if the weather gets too cold to protect them with my somewhat meager heating sytem (propane wall heater) I can always bring the flats into the house. Once the plants are set in the ground, it's a commitment!

With the above method, I never need to worry about hardening off my plants. Research shows that tomato seedlings exposed to 50 degree or lower temperatures during "adolescence" are more productive, so the cool nights are a positive which counterbalances the slowing of growth due to lower average temperatures.

Even if light and temperature conditions are ideal, seedling growth will not be satisfactory unless the growing meduim is fertile. While seeds need virtually nothing to germinate, once they've been potted up in a growing medium, they like plenty of nitrogen for the green growth, and adequate levels of phosphorous, potassium, and micronutrients are also important. I use 2" soil blocks made with peat, compost, good garden soil, vermiculite, wood ashes, and lime. I try to use wood ashes that include powdered bones from remains of chicken, turkey, venision etc. we've cooked or processed. Alternatively, you could use bone meal. Generally get pretty good results with this mix. When seedlings get to 1/2" in diameter, they should be potted up again to something like a 4" pot (I don't have a 4" blockmaker--they're fairly expensive). Once they're in 4" pots, they are not as easy to bring into the house if a cold night threatens them, although I don't have nearly as many plants to manage now so it's not that big an issue.

Setting out plants in the (mostly) unheated greenhouse soil on May 20, I generally expect the first short season hybrids to ripen around Aug 1 and heirlooms to start mid to late August. The real benefit comes from the quantity and quality that come in September when outdoor tomatoes are either blasted by frost or of dubious quality due to the consistently cool nights. I can usually keep a greenhouse producing fairly good quality fruit through mid October, possibly providing one or two nights of supplementary heat. After mid October, the declining day length and more frequent need for supplementary heat make continuing to keep things going a questionable effort.

I don't have much luck with setting slicing tomatoes outdoors here, but normally set out some Sun Gold Cherry tomatoes with tomatillos and husk cherries. Our average last frost date here is June 4, so I usually monitor weather carefully the first 10 days of June and set out in a warm period. Setting plants out on a pre-determined date can be a big mistake if the first 2 nights they are stressed by near-freezing temperatures and cold soil. As long as plants are still happy in their pots, better to wait a little longer.

Basil plants grow much more quickly and are also much more sensitive to cold. Germinating in a warm medium and potting up after a week to 10 days, they can be ready for transplant in 3-4 weeks and will be ready for harvest 2-3 weeks after transplant. This assumes they are not stressed by cold. Even a touch of frost will kill nearly all your plants completely, and the cold soils frequently encountered in the 1st half of June may set them back so much they never do well. When I transplanted basil outdoors, I used to aim for a warm window in late June-early July. Once I started planting them in a greenhouse, I found that early June was about the right time for transplant. Just for some perspective on the importance of warmth for basil. I used to set out 300 plants in a greenhouse and got 100 to 150 lbs good quality leaf with minimal stem annually. I estimate I would have needed 2000 or more plants set outdoors to get this kind of production in our climate (although I never set out more than 700). And even then, the quality would not be nearly as good.

Hope this is helpful.

Joel

When I Grow Up...

When you ask around the KAXE Studios about what people want to be when they grow up you hear all kinds of answers.

Steve Downing still thinks about his original dream to be a Catholic Priest like Guido Sarducci (see left).

Scott Hall's 12th thing-to-be is a woodland hermit that avoids the social ramble and fried foods that anger-up the stomach.

Doug MacRostie wants to be a rockstar who is in it for the music but loses his way and has to rebuild his career through an emotional but inspiring creative process.

Jennifer Poenix wants to be a TV sitcom writer - more specifically for The Office...in fact, she said she would be willing to switch bodies with Mindy Kaling.

Maggie Montgomery wanted to be a nuclear physicist and even took the math and physics classes, then she wanted to be a writer, then she wanted to be a teacher, then she wanted to be mental health counselor...and now here she is at KAXE.

When Heidi Hotlan was little (like, 4 years old) she wanted to get her Class C drivers license so she could drive a regional library system bookmobile...something she still thinks she would enjoy.

What's your story? We're talking about what you want to be when you grow up this Saturday from 10-Noon on Between You and Me with guest host DJ the DJ. And while DJ is retired, he still has hopes & dreams for when he grows up!

This Saturday on "Between You and Me"

By Jennifer Poenix

With Heidi Holtan on vacation in Alaska, Maggie Montgomery and I will be your hosts this Saturday on "Between You and Me." We'll be teaming up on a subject near and dear to both of our hearts: The Beatles!

We'd love to hear your stories, favorite songs, and anything else you want to talk about regarding the Beatles.

You can always leave your comments ahead of time by e-mailing comments@kaxe.org, or calling the Talkback Line: 218-999-9876, or you may join us live during the show by calling 218-326-1234.

"Between You and Me" is our Saturday morning mix of music and conversation, from 10am-noon.

AMPERS receives $2,650,000 from MN Legacy Amendment

by Maggie Montgomery

The 12 Independent Public Radio/AMPERS stations of Minnesota received news on May 19, 2008 that they were allocated $2,650,000 for the first two years of Minnesota’s Clean Water, Land and Legacy funding. The funding comes from a constitutional amendment, approved by voters last fall, that implements an added sales tax to pay for arts and cultural heritage activities (in addition to improving Minnesota’s natural environment).

The funds have to be used to “create, produce, acquire, or distribute programs that educate, enhance, or promote local, regional, or statewide items of artistic, cultural, or historic significance.” The money is specifically for creation of noncommercial radio programs that are broadcast. Stations must also archive the programs produced with these funds and make them available to other broadcasters and public educational institutions.

How AMPERS will handle and distribute the funds will be a big topic at the association’s annual meeting in June. Obviously, the available money opens many options for all the stations, including KAXE, because it will add to their capacity to produce arts and cultural programming for their listeners and communities of service. Do you have ideas for arts and cultural programming you’d like to hear on KAXE? If so, let us know. We’re just beginning to consider the possibilities!

Local Food: Winter Advice from Growers

by Maggie Montgomery

Last year, as part of our local food diet, Dennis and I built a tomato house out of 16’ cattle panels covered with plastic. It was part “hoop house,” but not as tall and wide as a real hoop house, and part “chicken coop,” based on a design of Jane Grimsbo Jewett’s (but lacking the chickens, of course). We grew a bumper crop of tomatoes in there, without the blight we normally get in the garden.

We wondered what to grow there in Year Two. Would it be safe to grow tomatoes again, or should we rotate the crop? Dennis was also interested in trying to grow early greens, and possibly some melons.

Two KAXE members offered some advice that I will pass along:

Jeanine said she grows 6 or 8 hills of melons in her “hoop house.” She recommends heavy mulching and these varieties:

Minnesota Midget cantaloupe
French Orange French cantaloupes from Nichols Garden Nursery in Oregon
Edonis French cantaloupes from Johnny’s
Watermelon: Sugar Baby, Starlight, Small Russian

Joel Rosen suggested growing cucumbers, melons, basil, pole beans and eggplant. He also said we could probably grow tomatoes there again if we want to!

He told us lettuce and other greens would take almost twice as long to mature if transplanted early into the tomato house, and this might delay planting the tomatoes afterward. He suggested planting Chinese broccoli (Gai Lan), broccoli rabe (or rapini), mustard greens, baby bok choy and tatsoi.

Snow Envy

by Maggie Montgomery

I have had the pleasure of commuting 60 miles to KAXE from my home in East Nary for the past 13+ years. There’s some guilt associated with using the gas, of course, and more than 2 hours on the road every day really eats into my personal time. Also, Highway 2 can be kind of scary when driving conditions are bad!

But the drive through the Chippewa National Forest is usually pleasant, and I get to devote a lot of attention to listening to KAXE! Commuting in northern Minnesota isn’t like a city commute at all: I know the highway well, get to see wildlife, and it’s (usually) much less stressful.

Going from Point A to a Point B 60 miles away also allows me to make some comparisons. Today it was the snow.

Yes, there is snow on the ground this morning in East Nary, maybe 2 inches of it. We have been patiently waiting for it to add up to something ski-able. This fall Dennis and I took to the trails around our house, like we usually do, with anvil-headed pruners and a scythe. Clip, clip…down with the shoots sprouting from the roots of trees in the trail. WHACK!…those wild raspberries! They grow like weeds!

If we had the snow in East Nary today that there is in Grand Rapids, I could ski. But it didn’t happen. I have to wait longer. I’m jealous!

How’s the snow in your neck of the woods?

Dinner-Rama at Jack and Cindy Shelton's

Jack and Cindy Shelton can really throw a party! That’s just what they did last Saturday night, to honor 25 years of Phenology on KAXE. More than 20 people were there, including a visitor who could only speak Russian and a plethora of KAXE friends and supporters.

Jack served 2 kinds of chili - a vegetarian variety and a rich, meaty one with chunks of beef and pork that he had cooked for two days! He also made homemade pita bread and hummus with olives and tomatoes as an appetizer, and Cindy baked several pans of corn bread. Jack and Cindy provided beer and wine and non-alcoholic alternatives.

During the party we checked in with the special “Phenology Meets Green Cheese” show that was live on KAXE. John Latimer asked our Russian guest how to say “deer guts” in Russian. This caused a good deal of confusion! The photo is of Jack Shelton and KAXE engineeer Dan Houg talking to John Latimer, Julie Crabb and Heidi Holtan from the party.

The dinner ended with beautiful carrot cake, and Jack asked for donations for the 25th anniversary of Phenology project. The $565 contributed by Jack and Cindy’s guests will go into the fund to honor John Latimer by supporting Phenology activities in the future.

More dinner-ramas will be held this weekend and into the new year. All of us at KAXE appreciate Jack and Cindy’s work and that of the other dinner-rama hosts! Thank you!

Here is a link to photos of the party.

AMPERS—A Brief History and a New Subsidiary

By Maggie Montgomery

The man in that photo is Jim Gullickson. “Gully” is president of AMPERS (which also calls itself “Independent Public Radio”) and general manager of KMSU in Mankato.

91.7 KAXE is one of 12 member stations of AMPERS, the Association of MN Public Educational Radio Stations. One of KAXE’s founders, Rich McClear, was one of the organization’s original board members.

According to a personal history of AMPERS written by founding member and current manager of the University of MN’s Radio K in the Twin Cities, Andy Marlow, the AMPERS stations originally came together to address issues related to unfair distribution of NTIA money in Minnesota. In the early ‘70s, the MN Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB) was channeling all federal funds for public radio infrastructure improvements to MPR (then called MER—Minnesota Educational Radio) and Twin Cities Public Television (TCPT).

Several other stations statewide were pulled together as an advisory board to the HECB in an attempt to address this inequity, but the effort eventually failed because MER and TCPT refused to participate.

The group continued to meet in order to address MER’s monopoly on NTIA funds for radio in MN. Eventually the group found other common interests, formalized, and became AMPERS.

Andy’s history addresses an interesting facet of Northern Community Radio’s history: “Early on, we worked hard to differentiate ourselves from Minnesota Public Radio. Few people knew we existed as an organization. There was a lot of anger at MPR's behavior, particularly attempts to take over some of our stations by MPR (those included KUOM, KUMD, KMSU and others), MPR's efforts to prevent KAXE and KFAI from being licensed, and MPR's devious "theft" of the name Minnesota Public Radio from Rich McClear's effort to establish a station in Grand Rapids. The not-for-profit corporation created by McClear and his community supporters was originally incorporated as Minnesota Public Radio. Bill Kling of Minnesota Educational Radio and Marion Watson of KUOM convinced McClear to give up the name so it could be used generically by all public stations in Minnesota. McClear changed the name of the corporation to Northern Community Radio. Less than three months later, Kling changed to name Minnesota Educational Radio to Minnesota Public Radio.”

Andy, who is retiring from Radio K in early 2009, described several phases in AMPERS history. He does not describe the most recent phase—AMPERS has changed its name to Independent Public Radio. The stations are working together on a joint underwriting project that has led to the formation of a for-profit subsidiary called Independent Community Media, or ICM.

ICM was envisioned as a marketing and ad agency run for the benefit of AMPERS/IPR stations. It was formed because IPR’s joint underwriting ventures were so strong that they jeopardized the organization’s nonprofit status. Through ICM, potential underwriters can contract with any AMPERS/IPR station or stations. ICM can also make ad placements for other media. At the end of the year, all profits are distributed to the AMPERS/IPR stations. Jim Lowe is the vice president of statewide underwriting for ICM. If your business is interested in marketing through ICM, his phone number is 651/293-0077.

The concept is brand new! All of the AMPERS/IPR member stations will be monitoring ICM to see how the concept works in the coming months.

How Can KAXE Serve Hibbing Better?

By Maggie Montgomery

Aaron Brown (in the photo) was one of 9 KAXE members and listeners that attended a dinner meeting at Zimmie’s restaurant Monday night to talk about how 91.7 KAXE could be more of a hometown radio station to people in Hibbing.

Others in attendance were Tom Vucetich, Al Lipke, Joe and Sue Gnoza, Lucy Vitale, Mike Ricci, Jean Winter and Joann Mulonovich. Scott Hall, Stephanie Rose and I got to be part of a lively and fun discussion!

Here are a few things we learned:

Hibbing has not had a locally originating radio station—at least not for many years.

There was interest in a satellite KAXE studio to serve people in Hibbing.

It’s really hard to get through to Green Cheese (trivia). The phone lines are always too busy.

Those in attendance were not necessarily enamored of the Binary Boys but were impressed to learn the show was produced locally.

Hibbing Community College Theater would like to partner with KAXE for some events. There may be other partnership opportunities in Hibbing also (the Hibbing public library, Mesabe Concert Assn, Silica Fire Department).

KAXE might be viewed as elitist or inaccessible on the Range.

In spite of the fact that KAXE sees itself as a regional radio station, it is hard to portray it in Hibbing as other than a Grand Rapids station. One reason is the largest number of underwriting and other announcements are about Grand Rapids, followed by Bemidji. Another is the divide between being on or off the Range.

The outstanding work of KAXE’s music volunteers is appreciated (Volunteer of the Year Rev Dave was especially singled out for praise).

People in Hibbing don’t know KAXE is out there. Many think KAXE is part of MPR.

There is interest in more news and cultural information from Hibbing, including food. The group supplied Scott Hall with many leads for interviews.

Tonight some members of KAXE’s staff will head to Virginia to meet with another group of KAXE listeners. More on that meeting later!

Community Supported Journalism

by Maggie Montgomery

I have a question for you: Are you willing to pay for in-depth coverage of a public affairs or news story on the Internet and on 91.7 KAXE?

Are you willing to donate some money to support this coverage in addition to your current KAXE membership pledge?

How much would you be willing to pay for, say, a multi-week series of stories about the challenges of heating a home in northern Minnesota this winter? Or for a series about how we might fund public education in the future?

The way we consume, participate in, and pay for media is changing. News organizations across the country are looking for financial models that will keep journalism strong in an era of declining newspaper readership and declining use of traditional media, especially among young people.

KAXE, with help from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s (CPB) Public Media Innovation project, will be testing a new model for news and information programming on public radio stations and their websites in the coming year. Our idea is called Community Supported Journalism.

We’re trying to learn whether people and businesses will support specific, community-based newsgathering and pubic affairs efforts.

KAXE will be working with citizens, community journalists and citizen journalists in communities across our region to determine what stories really matter to us. Then we’ll use Northern Community Radio’s new website, http://www.northerncommunityinternet.org/, and 91.7 KAXE to bring these stories to you.

And then we’ll ask you to help us pay for them.

Your donations will pay journalists for their work and help pay an editor to work with KAXE’s staff to pull it all together.

Back in 1976, when KAXE first started, nobody knew for sure whether people would support a community radio station in rural northern Minnesota. We’re not sure if Community Supported Journalism will work either, but we’re going to try.

If you’d like to help, or if you’d like to donate to this effort, let us know!