MPR News editor-at-large and retired host Gary Eichten has worn many hats during his 40-plus-year career at Minnesota Public Radio, including news director, special events producer and station manager. He has served as host for Minnesota Public Radio's live, special events news coverage, and has hosted all of the major news programs on Minnesota Public Radio, including Midday, which he hosted for more than 20 years.
A graduate of St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, Eichten began his career at Minnesota Public Radio as a student announcer at KSJR (Minnesota Public Radio'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, he was inducted into the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting's Hall of Fame. Eichten has also been awarded the prestigious 2011 Graven Award by the Premack Public Affairs Journalism Awards Board for his contribution to excellence in the journalism profession.
November 24, 2005 - This year's edition of "Giving Thanks" includes music, poetry, stories and much more. One highlight is a rare recording of Charles Laughton in which the actor connects his personal discovery of Chartres Cathedral with an excerpt from Jack Kerouac's "The Dharma Bums" and the 104th Psalm.
November 24, 2005 - Former Star Tribune columnist Jim Klobuchar talks about his book “Walking Briskly Toward the Sunset," which collects some of essays about Minnesota, Uganda, politics and courtship.
November 14, 2005 - Voices of Minnesota visits two prominent Native American Minnesotans: Helen Blue-Redner is the former chairwoman of the Upper Sioux Community, and Carl Gawboy is an artist.
November 11, 2005 - Judith Miller, the New York Times reporter whom journalists defended for protecting her anonymous sources and criticized for her reporting on weapons of mass destruction, has ended her 28 year career at the paper. What impact has the Miller affair had on the Times and on journalism in general?
November 10, 2005 - Salman Rushdie, the Indian-born British novelist who was forced into hiding after the Iranian government put out a death warrant on him in 1989, speaks Thursday at the Westminster Town Hall Forum in downtown Minneapolis.
October 19, 2005 - What do baseball great Lou Gehrig and the biblical history of the modern-day Middle East have in common? Well, admittedly, not much, except that two nationally renowned authors who wrote books on those subjects were in town Sunday to talk about their books.Jonathan Eig, author of "Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig," and Bruce Feiler, who wrote "Where God Was Born: A Journey By Land to the Roots of Religion."
October 11, 2005 - Jerry Bell, president of Twins Sports Incorporated, visits Midday to discuss the team and elusive new stadium. Bell also answers listener call-in questions.
October 6, 2005 - Playwright Edward Albee, best known for writing "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," says art should be dangerous. Albee speaks live from the Westminster Town Hall Forum in downtown Minneapolis.
October 3, 2005 - One of the great voices of American theater has fallen silent. August Wilson, the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and one-time St. Paulite, died of liver cancer Sunday in Seattle. He was 60 years old.
September 27, 2005 - Minnesota-born journalist and Washington insider Al Eisele stepped down this September as editor of the influential political newspaper he co-founded, "The Hill." Eisele's career traced a broad arc, from dabbling in minor league baseball, to covering the White House, to working there as press secretary for Vice President Walter Mondale.