Celebrate MPR's 30th Anniversary

MPR and Me: 2

My favorite MPR memory (among many) is laying in bed listening to Garrison and his selection of a gospel choir singing 99 & a half just won't do. This must have been in the early to mid 70's and was exactly the inspiration I needed that morning. It was simply wonderful. Congratulations on 30 great years. MPR and NPR are constant friends and resources and my world would be much smaller without both. Many thanks to everyone at MPR.
Roger Hankey, Hankey & Brown

Public Radio (Minnesota, National, or some other variety) is my most frequent office companion, so I have many memories of it. Some particularly vivid memories, however, date from the first few months of 1996, when I was writing - under punishing time constraints - the first draft of a mathematics textbook. The work kept me in my office all the way through many nights. MPR (and, via MPR, the CBC and the BBC) kept reminding me that there's a real, sentient world out there. Oblivious to my own preoccupations, Canadians kept arguing over their constitution, Big Ben kept chiming, and those wonderfully quirky BBC programs (pop music requests from Trinidad, Swann's Way re-remembered, today's headlines from London papers) kept coming. That little buzz from sleep deprivation only heightened the pleasure.
Paul Zorn

I remember when you had only your first station, KSJR in Collegeville. Then in about 1968 you added a weak, 16 or 18,000 watt transmitter on a tower in New Brighton, to bring your signal to the Twin Cities.
At that time I lived in a valley in Golden Valley, where the weak New Brighton signal would not come in clearly. I seriously considered moving closer to your transmitter JUST so I could hear you better!
Thanks to the Benedictine community at Collegeville for starting MPR and giving us this great gift! And thanks for your wonderful programming.
Larry Martin, Minneapolis

For years, I didn't listen to or watch public broadcasting because I had been raised with the idea that public broadcasting was very anti-religious and extremely liberal. I don't find that to be true. I find it to be moderate and neutral--which I enjoy. I believe that I can be better educated if I am not put on the defense by right or left-winged ideology.
One program that I really enjoy is "Talk of the Nation." One day, I was listening to a piece that Ray did on the New Testament. I was surprised that he did a piece that had religious content and was pleased with the obvious educated thinking of his guests. It was a real treat to have religion treated respectfully by the media. As a Christian, I feel that listening to Christian radio stations can be demeaning. As an educated person, I don't need to be indoctrinated, rather, I enjoy learning from various perspectives.
In addition, I really enjoy the social aspects of your station. As a new home owner in Minneapolis, I enjoy being informed about relevant issues to my neighborhood. I also enjoy hearing about diversity in cultures (I am in a Masters of Counseling Psychology program as well!).
Thank you!
Myndi Garrett

In 1987 I participated in a sailing expedition to Antarctic. After a circumnavigation of the Falklands/Malvinas Island, and a crossing of the Drake Passage we reached the Antarctic Peninsula and its adjoining archipelagos. We put into the US base on Anvers Island, Palmer Station. We were greeted warmly and invited inside and taken straight to the galley/common room. Whose voice should I hear on the audio system? No other than that of the Old Scout. A resupply ship had preceded our arrival by a day or so and in some base-scientist's mail was a relatively fresh supply of tapes made of Garrison's recent broadcasts. He was being listening to by some of his most far-flung devotees. A very nice bit of Minnesota outreach for a seafarer too.
Stuart Klipper

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