Gary Eichten has spent more than 40 years with MPR, serving in a variety of roles including station manager, news director and his current role as host of Midday.
Eichten began his career at Minnesota Public Radio as a student announcer at Collegeville’s KSJR, MPR’s first station. Among the honors Eichten has received during his career is the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Award for Best Local News Program. He also assisted in the development of two Peabody award-winning documentaries. In 2007, Eichten was inducted into the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting's Hall of Fame. Most recently, Eichten was awarded with the prestigious 2011 Graven Award by the Premack Public Affairs Journalism Awards Board for his contribution to excellence in the journalism profession.
March 15, 1996 - Midday guest Bernard Brommer, president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, talks about jobs and economic trends, worker training, job security, wages, the role of unions, and answers listener questions.
March 21, 1996 - Midday guest U.S. Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey talks about his New York Times best-selling book "Time Present, Time Past" and answers listener questions
March 22, 1996 - Midday talks about political integrity with guest Stephen Carter of Yale University, who is out with a new book called "Integrity". President Clinton said Carter's earlier book, "The Culture of Disbelief" is an essential book to read.
March 28, 1996 - Midday discusses the 1996 Education Bill and changes in public education with guests DFL State Senator Larry Pogemiller, the Chair of the Senate Education Committe, and the Republican State Senator Gen Olson. Listeners call in with questions.
April 3, 1996 - Midday examines affirmative action with guests Daniel Farber, University of Minnesota constitutional law professor , and John Skrentny, University of Pennsylvania Sociaology professor , whose new book is titled, "The Ironies of Affirmative Action: Politics, Culture, and Justice in America". Listeners call in with questions.
April 11, 1996 - Midday discusses economic war among the states with guests Art Rolnick of the Federal Reserve and Jay Novak, Commisioner of Trade and Economic Development. Listeners call in with questions.
April 17, 1996 - Al Harris, Hennepin County prosecutor, and Loretta Fredricks, legal counsel for the Battered Women's Justice Project, discuss how the legal system works in domestic abuse cases. They also talk about statistics and definition of abuse. Harris and Fredricks also answer listener questions.
April 18, 1996 - Midday discusses infectious diseases and the updates the latest information about the Ebola virus, T.B., mad cow disease, meningitis, influenza, AIDS and other diseases with guest State Epidemiologist Michael Osterholm. Listeners call in with questions .
May 3, 1996 - Midday examines proposals to change the way campaign advertising is done, with guests Dean Alger of the Minnesota Compact Coalition and Sara Janacek of the newsletter "Politics in Minnesota."
May 6, 1996 - Midday examines land mines. In the first half of the program a rebroadcast of the Minnesota Public Radio documentary about land mines called "A Plague of Plastic Soldiers." Afterwards a call-in program about land mines, and defense and military procurement issues with David Evans, Director of National Defense Issues for Business Executives for National Security.