KRDS Radio New Prague

I push the button for the Classic music channel as I drive to work. I hear the familiar but aging voice of Garrison Keillor. He is spinning a cracker barrel story of a town meeting in Northern Minnesota, where they are eating ham sandwiches and drinking glasses of milk. I am not a fan. So I push another button and I am taken to KRDS-FM - FM 95.5 - New Prague. A Polka band is grinding out “Apples, peaches pumpkin pie”. Not the pop version. The announcers sound refreshingly rural. They crackle papers to create sounds for an on-air raffle. Grand prize is $20 gift certificate to a local pub. Runners up get free tickets to an all you can eat Pancake and sausage breakfast at the New Prague Knight of Columbus Hall. It's all about authenticity. On the way home from work KRDS slips in and out of my reception, but I hang in there as I move westward and listen to “dance music” as they call it. Some crackling old Elvis recordings. Sometimes the Who, sometimes the Chiffons and then Led Zeppelin. All good. The jocks hawk a local car wash. Then back to Shake, Rattle and Roll. All real.