I was on the farm north of West Concord in the 1980’s and I remember well, highway 56 being closed in 1984 from town south to highway 14. I don’t remember exactly how long it was closed but it seemed like a couple of years. Small towns were beginning to have enough problems trying to make ends meet without having all traffic being rerouted. Well, almost all traffic. I was on the Concord Town Board in the 80’s and our township roads took on a lot of traffic even if they weren’t the official detour. So much so that in August of 1987, four of our town board members, Stan Strieff, Darrel Faulkner, Fred O’Brien and myself, went to St. Paul to testify before a house committee to describe the damage and seeking some monetary compensation for the said damages which included a lot of extra crushed rock and extra maintenance by our road grader operator Harold Vangness. We did end up receiving $10,000 from the state.
I remember this well because it was the start of my farm broadcasting career. I was not on the air yet but soon would be. Our town board had it all planned that we would meet and ride up to the Capitol in one car. But my plans changed when I had a job interview in Faribault that I thought would last an hour or so but it went for over 4 hours. Let me give you the background of all of this.
Dean Curtiss was the long time farm broadcaster at KDHL starting in 1948. Rod Johnson from Cannon Falls, was Dean’s replacement. Rod was at KDHL from the late 70’s to 1985 when he decided to go full time into auctioneering and running the family business in Cannon Falls. Rod later was the public address announcer for the Minnesota Timberwolves for 21 years.
In the meantime, after a short stint working in radio in the mid 1970’s, I came back to the family farm. By 1985, the farm economy had gone south and it was time to either get bigger or get out. With Rod leaving KDHL, their salesman, Ray Sanders would stop into Dick’s Repair on a weekly basis to visit and see if they needed to do any radio advertising. Ray asked Dick and Mary Jo Floren if they knew anyone who would be interested in being a farm broadcaster. Now normally, you would not know anyone who could try to step into the shoes of Dean Curtiss and Rod Johnson but Mary Jo knew I went to radio school and had worked at KOWO in Waseca before coming back to work on the family farm.
She told my mom about it and to make a long story longer, I called Ray Sanders to check on this possibility. So he forwarded me to the owner of the station, Jack Hyde. Jack was a co-founder of the station. The ‘H’ in KDHL was his initial. The other two founders of the station were Palmer Dragston, the ‘D’ and Herb Lee, the ‘L’. Thus the call letters: KDHL. My interview was scheduled the same day as our hearing in St Paul, which started at 1pm. My interview in Faribault started at 8am. I thought I would have plenty of time but the interview turned into a training day as I got hired before I knew I was hired. I called Darrel and told him to drive up and I’ll meet them at the Capitol. When I met up with the other board members, they were the first 3 people to know that I was the new KDHL farm director.
Meanwhile, Jack introduced me to the entire staff. I remember meeting Gordy Kosfeld, long time news and sports announcer who was 6 months into his job at KDHL. When Rod left, Gordy was doing both his job and Rod’s farm broadcasting job. He was so happy to see Jack had hired someone that he said to me and I quote, “If you were a woman, I’d kiss you!” I kept my distance from Gordy for some time after I started there. Eventually, I realized he was harmless. I also realized he was a great reporter and I hope the Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame someday will recognize his contributions to the industry.
Getting back to Survival Days in 1985, remember, this column was about Survival Days and the road closing. It was nice of the State Highway Department closed the road for a couple of weeks this year for our 40th anniversary celebration. It helped us remember why we celebrate. In 1985, the Sunday parade took place on one of those hot and windy July days. Our church, Mount Olive Grove Church, had built a beautiful float on one of my hay racks. On it was a tall palm tree among other decorations. We had a small Kubota tractor that the dealer in Kasson lent to us to pull the wagon. As I pulled on to the highway to head south into town, that strong south wind immediately blew the tree over. The rest of the decorations held on. We had two young boys who rode the float and held the tree up. We told them to try and look like disciples.
We made it through the parade, which as I remember it, was one of the better parades that West Concord ever had. At least I thought so. But then again all parades are fun. ‘Who doesn’t love a parade? It’s hard to believe that it’s been 40 years. I hope the parades keep happening every year and that the road closures are kept to once every 40 years.
