KAXE at 50: John Barth and Kevin Anderson look back at the early days

As part of our 50th Birthday, we are taking the time to talk with people from our past to celebrate the continuing mission of KAXE to serve the communities of Northern Minnesota.

KAXE Director of Content and Public Affairs Heidi Holtan spoke with former KAXE content creators John Barth and Kevin Anderson about their experiences with the Youth News Program, and opened the vault for an investigative report from teenage Anderson on the controversy of kids selling worms.

This community based conversation aired on the KAXE Morning Show on April 23, 2026.

Inside KAXE

KAXE celebrates 50 Years of People-Powered Radio

On April 23, 1976, 91.7 KAXE signed on the air for the first time, with a weekend of music and information drawn entirely from northern Minnesota. In 2026 we celebrate 50 years of broadcasting all year long!

"I think it's important for people to realize that the core of public radio is actually very much rural stations like KAXE," said John Barth in a recent KAXE Morning Show conversation.

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John Barth

Barth is known for his work in talent recruitment, content development and strategic consulting for public media, news and social impact through his firm Creative Media LLC. He spent 16 years at the chief content officer at Public Radio Exchange, or PRX, and was the founding producer of Marketplace. He got his start as a reporter, producer and news director at stations in Missouri, Philadelphia and Minnesota, including KAXE, in the 1970s.

"Most of media is now created in large cities and distributed by satellites or over the internet, and KAXE, like a handful of public radio stations, is still completely grounded in a community where people can really enjoy it, but also really identify with the people who are making the radio," Barth said.

Kevin Anderson grew up in Grand Rapids and was part of the Youth News program as a high school student.

"John [Barth] and the station welcomed us in as teenagers and really, you know, taught us really important skills: deadlines, interviews, editing, fact checking," Anderson said. " ... It was just amazing — skills that we all then use the rest of our lives and our careers."

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Kevin Anderson

Anderson is now a leading expert in organizational design and performance, leadership, large-scale change projects, business process engineering and talent and culture initiatives. He was most recently an advisor/senior organizational development consultant at Cargill and now works for Xcel Energy as a senior engagement specialist. Anderson continues to volunteer with KAXE, leading retreats with staff for future planning.

"It's just been great to see the evolution of a ragtag group of kids walking in the old studio to where it is today with, like, the Up North Report with just amazing local news, real news, local news, community news," Anderson said. "It's just phenomenal."

Listen to the full conversation above to hear an investigative report from teenage Anderson on the controversy of kids selling worms and undercutting local bait shops!