Diverse Radio for Minnesota’s Communities

17 Unique Stations from Border to Border

MN90: Minnesota History in 90 Seconds a fun exploration of wide-ranging topics including sports, politics, environment, business, entertainment, pop culture, and more.
MN90 is fun exploration of wide-ranging topics including sports, politics, environment, business, entertainment, pop culture, and more.

MN90: Roy Wilkins, the Civil Rights Act and LBJ

Roy Wilkins earned his professional chops as a Twin Cities journalist. But it was as an activist and director of the NAACP, says producer Britt Aamodt, that Wilkins helped change history with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

MN90: Mark Sertich: World’s Oldest Hockey Player

Mark Sertich from West Duluth was a hockey player but not just any old hockey player. Britt Aamodt takes a page from the Guinness Book of Records with this story of the world’s oldest hockey player.

MN90: The Rolling Stones at Danceland in ’64

Less than a month before, in May 1964, the Rolling Stones’ first LP hit American record stores. So when they rolled into Excelsior, Minnesota, there weren’t any paparazzi or screaming girls. Not much fuss at all. Britt Aamodt looks at the June night when the Stones played Danceland.


MN90: Nearly Famous Alison Bechdel

In the late 1980s, Alison Bechdel moved to Minneapolis to work for the LGBT newspaper Equal Time. But in her spare time, she drew and elaborated on the comic strip she had begun in New York in 1983. Britt Aamodt looks at how a “nearly famous” artist was eventually able to give up her day job.

MN90: Because She Wrote Winn-Dixie

For years, Kate DiCamillo called herself a writer, thought of herself as a writer, but wasn’t actually doing much writing—until a cold Minnesota winter night, when she was lying in bed and heard a little girl’s voice in her head say, “I have a dog named Winn-Dixie.” Britt Aamodt has the story of how DiCamillo really became a writer.

MN90: Little Crow’s Death

In 1864, a year after the Dakota Conflict, Chief Little Crow, his 16-year-old son, one woman and a handful of men returned to the Minnesota land that was no longer theirs. The ousted group of Dakota was now rootless and homeless, and they were outside Hutchinson, looking for the horses they’d need for this new nomadic life. Britt Aamodt has the story of what happened instead.

MN90: Minnesota Marielito

Rene Valdes was one of 125,000 Cubans who sought asylum in the United States during the Mariel Boatlift of 1980. Valdes only knew he wanted to live a free and open life as a gay man, but where, when he didn’t know anyone in the US? Britt Aamodt has the story of his journey to Minnesota.

MN90: The National Women’s Conference of 1977

It was the first and only of its kind: a national women’s conference funded by the U.S. Congress. Britt Aamodt takes a look at the Minnesota delegates who traveled to the historic November 1977 conference in Houston, Texas.

MN90: Young JKF Hits the Airwaves

In 1940, John F. Kennedy was 23 and sick, which explains his visit to the Mayo Clinic. But he was also a newly published author. Britt Aamodt has the story behind JFK’s radio interview at KROC-AM.

MN90: Peter Graves pilots Airplane

Minnesota native Peter Graves was best known as a dramatic actor in the TV series Mission: Impossible. So why was he being asked to star in a comedy spoof? Britt Aamodt looks at Graves’s tour of duty as Captain Oveur in 1980’s Airplane.

MN90: Friend of the First Lady

Lorena Hickok is best remembered to history because of her friendship—or was it relationship?—with Eleanor Roosevelt. Britt Aamodt has the story that came before, of Hick’s apprenticeship as a Minneapolis reporter and the first love of the life, Ella Morse.

Supported by...

McKnight FoundationMN Legacy