July 3, 1996 - Mainstreet Radio’s Leif Enger visits the central Minnesota town of Crosby, which is having a comeback of sorts…from prospering former mining town to bustling “antique” town. Those windows now contain 40 antique stores. Locals are hoping the recovery expands to other businesses for community.
June 24, 1996 - Mainstreet Radio’s Leif Enger reports on ‘fiber farming’ in Minnesota. Northern Minnesota farmers are trying to grow and harvest hybrid poplar trees as a new source of pulp for the paper industry and even a possible savior of Minnesota forestlands.
May 28, 1996 - Mainstreet Radio’s Leif Enger reports of an emerging safety issue in rural Minnesota…a lack of firefighters. Even as demands for fire protection rise, the number of volunteers is shrinking; in many communities there are barely enough firefighters to answer a call for help.
May 17, 1996 - Mainstreet Radio’s Leif Enger takes a walking audio tour of The Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post. Enger talks with Joyce Wedll, the museum manager about the purposes of museum for both tribal members and tourists.
May 13, 1996 - This weekend marked the unofficial beginning of summer for thousands of walleye anglers, who opened their season after what seemed to many the longest winter in memory. The winter, in fact, isn't completely over: ice still covers a number of lakes in northern Minnesota -- anyone wanting to fish walleye on Lake of the Woods will have to chop a hole to do it.
April 3, 1996 - Mainstreet Radio’s Leif Enger visits Northwest Technical College in Detroit Lakes, where a vocational program has become one of the best in the country…for neon benders, the people who create those ribbons of light. A resurgence of popularity in neon has sparked a demand for more benders.
March 26, 1996 - Mainstreet Radio’s Leif Enger profiles Wahkon, a small community at the south end of Lake Mille Lacs, where there is an authentic small-town renewal driven by a combination of optimism and fear.
February 23, 1996 - On this special Mainstreet Radio version of Midmorning from Crosby, a panel discussion on education and public choice in the region. Rachel Reabe interviews educators Bob Bross, superintendent of schools in Brainerd; and Duck Thomas, school board member in Le Sueur, about school choice and its potential impact to public schools.
February 16, 1996 - Mainstreet Radio’s Leif Enger reports on "King of the Hill" toughman contest has sparked an uproar on the White Earth Reservation in northwestern Minnesota. The event is like boxing, except that anyone can enter…and as the ads say, the last one left standing wins $5,000. With that sort of incentive, the fight card filled quickly, but opponents of the contest say there's enough violence on the Reservation, without paying for more.
February 2, 1996 - MPR’s Leif Enger reports on new cold temperature record in Embarrass…and the MANY unofficial records. The extremely low temperatures are about everything from “bragging rights” to business opportunities.