May 16, 1989 - Steve Chadwick, Duluth Community Action Program executive director, speaking at the Compass Project symposium held at the College of St. Scholastica. Chadwick’s address was on the topic of financial hardship in Duluth. The Compass Project surveyed households, key informants or community leaders, human service agencies, and examined reams of existing data, like previous studies and demographics of Duluth. The survey identified four primary areas of concern: employment, housing, financial hardship and health care.
September 8, 1989 - Mainstreet Radio’s John Biewen presents the documentary “Dancing on Beat: Portrait of a Reservation Family,” which follows the daily life of an Ojibwe family on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota.
September 8, 1989 - Mainstreet Radio’s John Biewen presents the documentary “Dancing on Beat: Portrait of a Reservation Family,” which follows the daily life of an Ojibwe family on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. Following documentary, Midday’s Bob Potter interviews Mike Bongo, director of American Indian OIC in Minneapolis, about his thoughts about documentary.
November 8, 1989 - As part of the Mainstreet Radio series “Rural Health Care,” Rachel Raebe visits Browerville, Minnesota to see how town is coping after losing its hospital. Only an empty building remains.
December 18, 1989 - Mainstreet Radio’s Leif Enger reports from Dorset, Minnesota, a place with a plate full in the number of restaurants. Owners call it the “food capitol of the world.” Everyone is there to eat.
December 27, 1989 - A Mainstreet Radio special from southwestern Minnesota town of Madison. MPR’s John Biewen presents a documentary entitled, "We're Not Dying," which highlights how the town survived the 1980’s farm crisis.
March 27, 1990 - On this Midday program, a presentation of a Mainstreet Radio report on rural Minnesota and the debate on how it should be viewed and described. Following report, MPR’s Bob Potter has a conversation with Paul Gruchow, local author and reporter; and George Donohue, a rural sociologist at the University of Minnesota about the differences between rural and urban Minnesota and answer listener questions.
May 16, 1990 - As part of a series on Bemidji race relations, Mainstreet Radio reporter Leif Enger looks at difficulties Native Americans face in finding housing.
August 18, 1990 - MPR’s Mark Heistad talks with Evelyn Fairbanks, author of the book “Days of Rondo.” Fairbanks reflects on growing up in the Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul.
October 11, 1990 - Midday presents a Mainstreet Radio special broadcast on rural schools…both their problems and successes. John Biewan visits Rothsay, a small western Minnesota town. People in Rothsay say their school, far from being a dinosaur, should serve as a model for education reform.