Supporting Community Radio in a Time It’s Needed Most

I’m thrilled to be leading a radio team retreat this month for KAXE, a northern Minnesota station rooted in people, place, and storytelling. In a time of shrinking federal and state support, their work is more vital than ever.

KAXE is at the forefront of community-powered radio, with programming that connects and inspires— a few examples of how the station:

Helps us identify the birds at our feeder (as well as other fascinating nature observations) through the program Phenology
Gets us up and dancing to the largest variety of music we’ve ever heard on Headwaters and On the River
Keeps us informed via in-depth Local News reporting on issues that matter to rural MN—like local government, housing, daycare and education

I have designed the team’s retreat to:

Tap into the energy of the local communities, including loyal listeners who raised $160K+ in a recent “Defunded but Not Defeated” campaign
Strengthen local news, music, and conversation. Our practical strategic planning involves reinforcing community radio’s vital role in free speech and amplifying underrepresented voices
Brainstorm how to celebrate KAXE’s 50th anniversary. Since the station is powered by the people of northern MN, we will craft events deeply rooted in community.

This moment is personal. I first volunteered at KAXE as a student, creating a youth news program. Now, years later, I get to support their mission via helping to empower a community radio station and radio team that is in short, irreplaceable.

This blog does not reflect the views of my clients.

Published by Kevin Anderson, Dr. Organizational Design (OD)

Kevin Anderson is a leading expert in organizational design and performance, leadership, large scale change projects, business process engineering and talent and culture initiatives. Kevin has over twenty five years of experience in designing and delivering high impact, global organizational solutions. He was most recently an Advisor/Senior Organizational Development Consultant at Cargill where he led efforts around team effectiveness, organizational design, culture and change management. Kevin diagnosed, proposed and delivered solutions in the Talent Performance domain. He has also created and rolled out Leadership Development and Organizational Development for the City of Minneapolis. Before that Kevin successfully worked with Accelare consulting health care, retail and university clients to create actionable strategic plans. In addition, he has served as an organizational development leader at Thomson Reuters working with legal, financial and scientific products. Kevin has a Doctorate in Organizational Leadership, Policy and Development and a Masters of Arts in Public Policy and Management from the University of Minnesota. His Bachelors Degree in Speech Communications and Political Science is from Macalester College. View more posts