My upcoming appearance at Bismarck State College’s symposium, Humanities Mixtape: Rewinding the 1980s, reminded me of the day we actually put Prairie Public’s radio service on the air.
The schedule was to hit the air on September 1, 1981, at 5:30am. Preparations were underway, and we were confident we would make it. But then, a week before, our new master control audio board had a major problem. Thankfully, the manufacturer came out and corrected the issue.
Fast forward to September 1. It was my job to turn the transmitter on, and begin the live broadcast. In those days, we controlled the transmitter by remote – a panel in our master control room. The engineers told me to turn it on several minutes before we were to open the mic and start our inaugural broadcast.
But it almost didn’t happen.
I accidentally pushed the “off” button instead of the “on” button. So, I told my boss I had done that, but she assured me that there was an engineer at the St. Anthony transmitter site, and he corrected my mistake.
At 5:30am we played a “sign on” announcement that my boss and our corporate support representative had worked up. After that, it was my turn. Now, I had been preparing for days on what I would say. And I came up with this line: “Here we are, and are we glad.” After that, I read the first newscast from Prairie Public Radio.
That hasn’t changed much, 44 years later. I still anchor a 5:30am newscast, and still work the Morning Edition shift. And I come to work with satisfaction, knowing there are listeners who occasionally let me know they’re there.
As I mentioned last week, one of my talks at the BSC symposium will be on how news has changed since the 1980s. I have a lot to say about that. And to be honest, there are positives and negatives to it, but one thing is for sure – we are still trying to inform you of what’s happening in our prairie region.