Media Excavations: Duluth-Superior Television Revolution

This ad campaign, luring businesses to advertise on TV in Duluth/Superior uses a picture of supporters of the Revolutionary government of Cuba manning a machine gun post overlooking one of the main streets, Zapata Avenue, into the heart of Havana, Jan. 4, 1959.

Loiselle Liquor ends 88-year run; new owners plan name change

Loiselle Liquor Store, 413 E. Fourth St., was owned and operated by the Loiselle family for 88 years. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske).

The oldest liquor store in Duluth has changed hands and will take on a new name for the first time in nearly nine decades.

Loiselle Liquor Store, 413 E. Fourth St., was sold by the Loiselle family this spring to Matthew Krueger and Katherine Eagle of Cloquet. St. Louis County property tax records showed the sale price at $360,000 for the two-story building — which was constructed in 1893 as the Goering Block.

“They Want Culture but Won’t Watch It”

Radio and television audiences in Duluth were surveyed in 1961. While the general demographics could be useful for media historians, it might surprise the readers of Perfect Duluth Day that, in 1961, the category of “first generation Scandinavian immigrants” was statistically significant in a survey like this. We are not so far away from the days when Duluth was a rich community built from immigrants, with all the magic and tension that follows from immigration.

Information from Media History Digital Library.

Colleen “Boss Mama” Myhre with New Salty Dog at Radio Waves

Colleen “Boss Mama” Myhre and New Salty Dog teamed up at the 15th annual Radio Waves Music Festival in Grand Marais back in September. The video was shot by Bear Witness Media for WTIP North Shore Community Radio, with an audio mix by Will Moore.

Media Excavations: KDAL and WEBC

Briefly, Duluth-Superior radio stations KDAL and WEBC advertised together. I found these joint ads while scouring a database of media trade publications.

Media Excavations: WEBC

I’ve been excavating media magazines for references to Duluth. Some of them are adverts for WEBC 560 AM, which is presently branded at “Northland Fan” and broadcasts Duluth-area sports interspersed with statewide sports talk from KFAN in Minneapolis and national sports talk from FOX Sports Radio.

Great Lakes Now episode: “Great Lakes Wildlife”

This contains several segments including one about Enbridge Line 3 (@17:15), and a mention of Duluth’s “Water is Life” festival (@24:58).

Lord, to be 35 Forever

I wish I could remember more about the first Hold Steady concert I saw. I know it was in 2005 at the Duluth Pizza Lucé. I know I went alone. I’ll never forget how Lucé felt during shows back then. But beyond that I’ve got almost nothing. No memory of specific songs they played or how big they sounded in that small room or what happened in my body and brain while it was going on.

I can’t even remember why I went. I wasn’t a Hold Steady fan. For most of 2004 I’d seen music magazine stories about how supposedly great they were, and that was my reason for ignoring them. I was early-30s going on 15 in some ways. One way was that I resisted music other people liked, as I’d done since junior high, because how would anyone know how special I was if I didn’t oppose things other people supported? (Ask me how I still feel about U2, REM, Faith No More, and INXS.) Maybe I went because curiosity wore down my resistance and misjudgment. Maybe I’m remembering it wrong and I’d been listening to them for a while.

A fan site says the show was on March 12 (a Saturday). I think I remember Lucé being full but not as packed as I’d seen it for the Black-eyed Snakes, Brother Ali, Dillinger Four, or Trampled by Turtles. Not chaotic like those shows. I think it was for sure the first time I’d heard any Hold Steady songs. Did I get bored? Sometimes that happens if I don’t know the songs, even when a band is good. Could I make out any lyrics? I had to like the actual music, which sounds like classic rock, punk, power pop, and other genres the Gen X music omnivores in the band would have inhaled while growing up.

The War Widow from Duluth Who is Worried About Frances

Forty years ago today — Dec. 3, 1982 — the dramatic film Frances premiered in American theaters. In addition to featuring Cloquet native Jessica Lange in the leading role as Frances Farmer, the film also includes a reference to Duluth.

Duluth Central High School 1920 Zenith Yearbook

Archive.org has the 1920 Duluth Central High School yearbook, Zenith, available for perusal online.

“Bird Love Song” by Cory Coffman

Duluth’s Cory Coffman composed what he calls “this super cheesy love song from a musical that doesn’t exist.” Alexander Sandor is on piano, Adam Sippola sings and Alyssa Johnson of Blind Spot Creatives handles the video work.

Select Images from the 1941 Denfeld Oracle

The Internet Archive hosts the 1941 edition of the Denfeld Oracle. My friends’ grandparents — those are the folks I am looking for in here, I think. And a nod to “then and now.”

Climate>Duluth: Bruce Jennings of Vanderbilt University

Climate>Duluth host Tone Lanzillo interviews Bruce Jennings of Vanderbilt University. Jennings speaks to Health Policy and the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society at VUMC, his former professor and mentor William Patrick Ophuls, Economics for the Anthropocene as well as the Centers for Humans and Nature.

Postcard from West Superior Street at Sixth Avenue East

Among the legible signs in this undated postcard: Hill Hotel, Hamm’s Beep, bus station, Holland Hotel, Lyceum Theatre, Spalding Hotel, Saratoga Hotel, Hotel Tavern, Dove Clothing Store.

One Book Northland 2023: The Wolf’s Trail

The Wolf’s Trail: An Ojibwe Story, Told by Wolves is the One Book Northland community read title for 2023. Written by Thomas D. Peacock and published by Duluth-based Holy Cow! Press, it’s about Ojibwe teaching and the truths of Ojibwe existence as seen through the words of a wolf elder as he “talks story” to wolf pups.