2020
The North Dakota episodes of Antiques Roadshow aired in January and February 2020, and Prairie Public hosted a premiere at Bonanzaville. The most valuable item from this season came from North Dakota—a watch valued at $700,000.
In March, Prairie Public staff were encouraged to work at home to minimize the spread of COVID-19, yet programming and services increased to meet the needs of struggling communities. A slate of special television, radio, and digital services kept the public informed, and public media served as a valuable resource for changing educational needs.
A new radio show produced and edited by Prairie Public, The Great American Folk Show, premiered in May.
Election coverage was substantial, with web embeds and live coverage regionally and from NPR and PBS. All the candidates for ND offices were invited for conversations on Main Street, and Prairie Public hosted live debates for gubernatorial, senate, MN senate, and superintendent of public instruction candidates.
Television premiered season 17 of Prairie Pulse, season 20 of Painting with Paulson, and season 7 of Prairie Musicians. The Fargo Film Festival Preview Show premiered in February, Northwest Angle: Minnesota’s Best-Kept Secret premiered April 30, and a new season of Prairie Mosaic began in October.
In November 2020, radio produced Persistence, a Radio Play by Kathy Coudle-King, about women’s suffrage in North Dakota.
Other radio and podcast projects included a series of discussions titled One Book One North Dakota, a Poems for the Moment poetry project, a Small Stories project in partnership with the North Dakota Council on the Arts, a several-part digital series titled Energy Issues and Answers: Oil Well Reclamation, and the radio/digital/podcast series TellTale: Dakota Folklife and Stories.
2021
Prairie Public began live streaming television online.
On April 12, 2021, the Fargo building’s front doors were opened to the public for the first time since the pandemic began in March 2020.
Ésta Es Mi Casa – This Is My Home, a 30-minute documentary, was Prairie Public’s contribution to the “Moving Lives Minnesota: Stories of Origin & Immigration” television and online initiative, and it tells the story of the Hispanic migration to our region.
Nearly 12,000 people had to be evacuated from Minot in June 2011 as the Souris River exceeded record flood levels. To acknowledge the ten-year anniversary of the disaster, Main Street’s Ashley Thornberg traveled to Minot to talk with the displaced residents, the officials who had to make tough decisions, and city leaders who continue to lead the recovery.
In May, Philosophical Currents became a new Main Street segment with Jack Russell Weinstein—a philosophical view on current events.
Prairie Musicians premiered a new season with all solo artists and Prairie Pulse debuted with a new studio set—to minimize the risk of COVID-19 in the studio.
In June, Prairie Public original productions were honored at the 42nd annual Telly Awards. Mandy Groom: Alcohol Ink Artist won a Gold Telly, The Northwest Angle: Minnesota’s Best Kept Secret won a Silver Telly, and Wild Rice won a Bronze Telly.
We celebrated “Prairie Public Day” in Medora on July 31. Nature Cat said “Tally Ho!” to children early in the day, and Tom Brosseau’s Great American Folk Show performances were in the evening.
Artifact Spotlight premiered—video shorts that focus on artifacts from our region, to be shared in Prairie Mosaic and on social media.
On September 25, the 40th anniversary of Prairie Public’s first radio broadcast was celebrated with an online party. Dave Thompson, who was celebrating 40 years of covering the news with Prairie Public, played “Name that Mondegreen” with Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me’s Peter Sagal.
Prairie Public news director Dave Thompson was honored with a Liberty Bell Award from the Board of Governors of the State Bar Association of North Dakota.
In October, A Prairie Public original television production was honored with a Midwest Regional Emmy® Award. The short feature titled Wild Rice and produced by Andy Garske won in the historic/cultural short form category.
Prairie Public radio intern Annie Prafcke explored the challenges Chinese adoptees and their families face in a state with relatively few international adoptions with Chinese Adoptees: Not Abandoned or Alone.
Volume Two of the Dakota Datebook book debuted in December.
2022
We won an Emmy for our television short, Wild Rice, shot, edited, and produced by Andy Garske.
Season 19 of Prairie Pulse and season 13 of Prairie Mosaic premiered.
Prairie Public hosted a Listening Tour—four Zoom events to hear from people in rural North Dakota about their communities.
The Women of Alba Bales House premiered on May 19.
We hosted a private premiere of the new Downton Abbey movie on May 18 in the small theater at the Fargo Theatre, then on May 19 we had fun activities during the official premiere.
Prairie Public received a mini-grant from POV to hold engagement events for “Let the Little Light Shine” at the Fargo Theatre in November and “Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust” at the North Dakota Heritage Center in January.
To help support Tom Brosseau’s Great American Folk Show stage shows, we traveled to Medora for Prairie Public Day.
Election coverage on television and radio—and online—included live debates for North Dakota U.S. Senate, Minnesota 7th Dist. Congressional Debate, N.D. Congressional Debate, and Attorney General.
We’re partnering with Department of Public Instruction to produce Dakota Datebooks that feature indigenous wisdom. Teachings of Our Elders premiered on November 4.
J'Neil Gibson and Frederick Edwards are the 2022 PBS Digital Innovator All-Stars, a program that brings together a community of PreK-12 educators who are doing extraordinary work by integrating media and digital technology in their teaching environments and inspiring students to use these tools in responsible and empowering ways. Twenty educators were chosen from across the country to be Digital Innovator All-Stars.
Prairie Public presented The Moth Mainstage with Host Jon Goode on December 1 at the Fargo Theatre with a meet and greet reception afterwards.
2023
The public can now receive Chuck Lura’s weekly Natural North Dakota radio essays straight to their inbox in a new e-newsletter.
Prairie Public produced Black Histories of the Northern Plains, its first exclusively digital series. Later this year, the four-part project was screened at a Juneteenth event at the Hjemkomst Center in Moorhead, and it won an Educational Resources for the Classroom NETA Award.
A classic History of the Bobcat video archived on YouTube gained a following and had 1.2 million views … and counting.
Drone technology! Television production shot aerial footage above the homestead of Lawrence Welk in Strasburg with a drone for an upcoming documentary.
In August, Prairie Public hosted a 10-day trip to England featuring a tour of Highclere Castle and other PBS and BBC destinations.
A fire caused significant damage to the downtown Fargo Prairie Public building in the early morning of August 18. The rooftop fire was reported and quickly extinguished, but smoke and water damage destroyed the 4th floor offices. Staff were moved to other areas of the building until more long-term offices were rented from the City of Fargo.
Prairie Public original television productions were honored with 2023 Bronze Telly Awards: Nelda Schrupp Jewelry Artist, The International Peace Gardens, Pat Kruse Birch Bark Artist, and Bruce Engebretson Handweaver.
City buses in Fargo and Bismarck were wrapped in colorful graphics promoting “PBS Kids is the #1 educational media brand.”
The community celebrated retiring Director of Radio Bill Thomas with a party at Riverhaven Events Center in Moorhead. Bill worked in public media for 55 years, 24 of those at Prairie Public.
