We really do have it all in GroveAtopia. We even have our own radio station.Our station is KNND and when you are in GroveAtopia, you'll find it at 1400 on your AM dial. Even that statement is something out of the past. In the age of Sirus and satellite radio, podcasting and Pandora, a good old fashioned local AM radio station seems just that. Old fashioned. But good.
Ours has a lively collection of locally produced shows that run in the morning. It starts at 7:00 AM when Paul begins our days with a Rockin' Oldies show. He hand selects the tunes - with no regard to conventional radio play lists. These are just his own selections, and you can tell. Usually they are songs you know when you hear, but really you never hear them. They don't conform to any one format. They conform to whatever is on Paul's mind that day.
Then, at 8:30 comes the Beeper. This is our local call in talk show. It lasts an hour and if you want to get an idea of what GroveAtopians are thinking, listen for a few days.
You will hear the regulars, Hal and Herb, who are on opposite sides of the spectrum. They call in every day and if they don't you start to worry about them. Then there is Pat, the former city councilman who retired last year. His comments always harken back to "the old days" when things were oh so different than they are today.
If you want to promote an event, you can be a guest on the Beeper. Paul will give you ample time to talk about your group, your event, your project, whatever it is. He is a gracious interviewer and even though you might be nervous about going on the air, afterward you wonder why you were.
During the school year, once a month you can hear from students, teachers and principals from our schools. They come and talk about new programs, perform on the air and generally provide a thrill for the parents of the kids who are on the air.
Mondays are for politics and we regularly hear from our City Manager, County Commissioner and state representative. This is your chance to call them and talk to them on the radio. If you are too shy to do that you can drive downtown and wait for them to finish on the radio and ask them your question as they come out of the station.
No mention of KNND would be complete without a mention of Swap-N-Shop. Every weekday morning at 10:00, Monday through Saturday you can call in and buy, sell or swap any items you want as long as they don't total more than $200. This is the most popular show on KNND and if you ever wondered if anyone is listening to KNND, Swap-N-Shop will disavow you of any of those worries.
There are other shows as well. The horse show. The Polka show. The religion show. The Friday night rock-n-roll show. The garden show. The Classic Country and Western show. The Wednesday afternoon dedication show. The blue grass show. The rest of the time you can hear the True Oldies Channel on KNND.
I wonder how many towns that have 9,245 people have their own radio station? Probably not many.
KNND is from another era. It's old fashioned, but it's ours and we love it. And I never want to see it go.
Your comments and observations make me want to move to Groveatopia (aka Cottage Grove, OR). Keep them coming - I may make the move someday.
ReplyDeleteThe blog about the radio station brought back sweet memories of my childhood when radio was the modern media. I listened to Soap Operas on the radio when I was sick and needed to stay home from school - does anyone remember "Stella Dallas" and "My Gal Sal"? These were favorites of the lady of the house at that time so those are the ones I listened to as well. On Saturdays there was my favorite program - "Let's Pretend". "Inner Sanctum" I believe was an evening program with a creaking door as an intro. I am sorry that kids now days don't have the same opportunities to use their imagination to visualize the characters and scenes in radio programs.
An admiring fan of your blog.
Here's an piece of trivia about KNND's Beeper Show that might be of interest to you. I wondered why it was called the Beeper and Paul told me it's because years ago whenever someone was on the air the radio was required to send a beep sound over the air at regular intervals thus confirming to the person that they were on the air. Hence, the Beeper Show. It claims to be Oregon's longest running talk show. It's been on the air for at least 40 years.
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