KXRA Radio celebrated its 60th anniversary in Alexandria today.Years ago Mom would record some music and bring the tapes in to be played on the air. Stan can remember running into the little white radio building on Broadway (with a certain amount of awe) carrying some audio tapes to ask Disk Jockey Steve Sherwin (above) to "bulk" or erase the tapes on a big magnet so Mom could put new songs on them. That was in the early 1960s. Sherwin was on the air at KXRA for 41 years!
Of course we all remember that every Sunday the 9:30 First Lutheran Church Service would be broadcast live. This was very convenient, because you could get pertinent sermon details from the car radio to snuff any parental suspicions of teen church skipping. Don't know if they are still broadcasting services to assist today's youth. Anybody?
Radio Host Patty Wicken (pictured below) says they talked on the air about Erling and Beverly during their anniversary programming today.
Here's an email written by Patty that was forwarded to Stan today:
KXRA 1490-AM went on the air July 27, 1949. I am attaching a couple of pictures. One is of Ken Tessmer, seated at the microphone (Mayor Ness to his right). Ken was one of the original owners of KXRA. The owners all sat together and flipped a coin to see whose voice would be the first one heard on KXRA. Ken won the toss and returned to our studios today, 60 years later, for an interview. He is still actively selling real estate in the lakes area. Steve Sherwin, holding the balloon, was on the air continuously on 1490 for 41 years. Amazing. The other one is lumpy and limpy.
Maybe Stan would be interested to know that we talked about his parents today on the anniverary show. Erling Rolfsrud would play the organ and Beverly Rolfsrud would sing on their little radio show on KXRA.
