Audio Essays with Aaron Brown: “Beyond the Swan Song”

Aaron Brown grew up in a trailer house on his family’s junkyard on the Mesabi Iron Range. A sensitive boy and voracious reader, he fell into writing and radio to compensate for his lack of interest in transmissions. He has worked in Northern Minnesota media since he was 16, including stints at WEVE-Eveleth, KUWS-Wisconsin Public Radio in Superior, and the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Since 2001 he’s written a weekly column for the Hibbing Daily Tribune. In 2003 he got involved with Northern Community Radio and spent years as a contributing producer for The Morning Show and Between You and Me. In 2011 he founded the Great Northern Radio Show, the station’s traveling radio variety program that tells the stories of unique places through comedy, music and storytelling. A communication instructor at Hibbing Community College, Brown also writes the blog MinnesotaBrown.com. and is an occasional contributor to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He and wife Christina Brown live in Balsam Township with their three sons Henry, Douglas, and George.

For more than two decades, Heidi Holtan has helped shape the sound of KAXE. Since joining the station in 2002 as a volunteer music programmer, she has worn many hats including the weekly book program, Realgoodwords, hosting the Morning Show, creation and host of the weekly call-in program Between You and Me, serving as Outreach Producer. Program Director, News Director and currently Director of Content and Public Affairs.