KAXE - One of my Favorite Minnesota Things

I know I spend a lot of time bitching about the difficulty of living in the Great White North. But the truth is, there are some things here that could only be here.

One of my favorites is KAXE, a community radio station based out of Grand Rapids. They do some NPR segments, like All Things Considered and Morning Edition, which is nice, but what I love best is the local programming. One Wednesday morning, at about 9 am, I was flipping through the radio stations (no satellite radio, not even a CD player for the Jeep), searching for something other than country. I checked KAXE to see if I could get a signal (usually I can only get it for about half my trip), and stumbled on a 10 minute program about ancient Egypt, specifically Amenhotep IV, or Akenhaten. A fascinating little blurb on ancient Egyptian sociology, political conservatism, religious extremism and the introduction of monotheism to Egyptian society. All this early one Wednesday morning as I'm driving through Lake George - gotta love public community radio.

However, bar none, my favorite KAXE program is Phenology Plus. It is hosted by John Latimer, a rural mail carrier in Grand Rapids, for an hour every Tuesday evening. Latimer reports on wildlife and especially bird sightings in the area. People call in and report birds that they've seen or heard in their backyards. They send pictures, which are posted on the website. A report of, say, a northern warbler (I don't know, I just made that up), will be followed by a lengthy discussion of said bird's usual habits, and hopefully a few bird calls for good measure. I always feel like I'm sitting in someone's living room talking about what we're seeing out the window.

And, my favorite part of my favorite program: The Phenology Reports from local grade schools. Each week, a couple of grade schools (I think they're third or fourth grade classes) record a report of their own and submit it to the radio station. The kids take turns doing the report. A typical one will go something like this (imagine this is a 9 year old reading a written report into a microphone):

"This is Scott in Mrs. Peterson's third grade class at Blah Blah Elementary School with the weekly phenology report. This weekend Missy saw a wolf in her backyard. Sophie's dad had to borrow someone else's ice saw because the ice was so thick on ** Lake. Josh went ice fishing with his dad, and the ice was seven inches thick on their lake. Peter saw two bald eagles fly at each other, grab talons, and then fly away. Ole (yep, they still name kids Ole here) was walking his dog and saw a bear." Etc. Etc.

Two things. One: these weekly reports are one of the most adorable things I've ever come across. And what I like even more is that when they are done, Latimer always tells the kid what a good job he/she did with the report (even though it is recorded), and I always imagine the kid with their family listening to the radio, and the thrill it is for them, and then on top of it all, to be told what a great job you did.

Two: You wouldn't believe the stuff these kids see in the course of their everyday lives. It reminds me that, although living here may be difficult in some ways, inconvenient to say the least, there is a reward. You get to see bald eagles (like the ones that fish our lake from the tree by one of our cabins), deer (like the one that we and our neighbors watched swim to the island one day), bears (luckily, haven't seen one in person, although they wreak havoc on the neighborhood bird feeders), and birds, birds, birds. We are surrounded by nature, and there is the feeling that, although we manage to operate within it, by no means have we conquered it here. And, surprisingly, that feels good.

Oh, and if you want to check it out for yourself, they do stream on the internet. Also, I can highly recommend their music programming - they play everything.