Part Four

“Let’s go fly a kite!!”

So said Mr. Banks in the movie Mary Poppins back in 1963. And today is no exception. It is windy on the prairie today. Wind speeds averaging 15-25 MPH with gusts up to 35. Might I suggest industrial strength twine to keep that kite up there?? You’ll need 2 people to pull it in.

Today is a mix of farming, broadcasting, and railroading. So let’s begin with….broadcasting.

I leave Kearney this morning and after heading west for about 10 miles, it is south on U.S. Route 183 to the town of Holdrege. Not only is it home to many, many acres of corn, and a few acres of cattle raising: 

It is the home to the transmitter site of KRVN-AM, Ag Radio 880, licensed to the city of Lexington, Nebraska.. 

Located near the corner of 737 Road and M Road:

KRVN-AM is a Class 1B AM radio station with an effective radiated power of 50,000 watts. Notice the class 1B designation. Back in the Northeast, some of us listen to WCBS, NewsRadio 880 in New York City. During the daytime, both of these stations can coexist on the same frequency due to the 1500 miles of distance between them. At nighttime, that’s another story. Because KRVN is a Class 1B and WCBS is a Class 1A and due to a phenomenon called sky wave propagation, KRVN must protect WCBS. This is done by doing what is known as a pattern change. What was 50,000 watts coming out of the number 3 tower (2^nd from the left):

Is now 50,000 watts distributed amongst all 4 towers with the signal being beamed to the west. When I was in Columbus last Saturday, I listened to the pattern change. What was just seconds ago a loud clean signal just basically vanished. The station was still on the air. You just couldn’t hear it anymore. Come 8am CDT the next morning, it’ll pop back up just like throwing a switch. The late Bob Steele of WTIC 1080 would very much love this. The antenna switch, as he use to call it.

And the elusive TV tower I mentioned yesterday:

This tower is home to KLNE-TV and just below the TV antenna is the 12-bay antenna for KLNE-FM, 88.7,

Both part of Nebraska Public Broadcasting and licensed to the city of Lexington. At a height of just under 1000 feet, it is quite a big stick.

Tower found. Mission accomplished.

Next, how ‘bout some farming??

As can be scene by the pictures of KRVN, we are in the middle of cornfields. Acres and acres. Or should we say square miles and square miles?? As luck would have it, I got to see how the corn is harvested. What may look like shriveled up corn stalks are actually ripe for the picking. The vehicle below is what’s known as a combine.

At the front of the combine is a rotating, wide funnel, if you will, that gathers the stalks and feeds them into the combine. 

Inside, the combine will literally remove the husks; shake all of the kernels off the cobs to be collected at the bottom of the combine, and spit out the now shredded stalks and cobs out the back end like shards of shrapnel. Along side the combine is a tractor pulling a gigantic hopper:

Which will hold the kernels fed out of a side chute from the combine and then goes back to the barn to be loaded into a tractor-trailer truck and then be brought to a grain elevator for loading onto a unit grain train. It is quite the site to see. 

According to Ken, a USDA inspector I ran into while watching the action, the combine has a microprocessor in its electronics to pretty much help the farmer guide his combine thru the fields efficiently. And while I thought of it, I asked why so much corn kernels ends up in big piles like we saw in Shelton?? He says that they literally run out of room in the grain elevators and have no better place than to dump the corn in huge piles until they can be loaded up back into the elevators and loaded into the unit grain trains. And while we’re at it, check out this grain loading facility in Elm Creek. 

In the foreground is a balloon track where grain cars are brought in and loaded in a continuous stream.

And underneath those big white tarps in the background:

Is yet more corn to be shipped to market. Did I mention piles of corn?

This one is a few miles west of the Elm Creek plant. So the next time you have that can of soda or fuel up with ethanol-blended gasoline, this is where it all begins.

Did I happen to mention broadcasting??

Before lunch, I head over to the studios of KRVN in Lexington.

As mentioned before, this is Agricultural Radio which allows farmers and related businesses to learn about the latest in corn, cattle and related agricultural needs plus some very unique advertising from hybrid corn seed to calf supplements to where to get your tractor or combine repaired, along with Fox News Radio on the hour and a blend of country music. I met with Rod Zeigler who is the director of engineering for KRVN-AM and its sister station KRVN-FM known as “The River 93.1” which plays modern country. Rod is also a ham radio operator with the callsign W0RVZ.

Here is the FM studio:

And the AM Studio:

According to Rod, KRVN was born out the need back in the early 50’s as a way to inform the farmers of what was going on in the agricultural area comprising all of Nebraska, south central South Dakota, and north central Kansas. But now in this current day and age, KRVN Ag Radio 880 is going through some changes. For years, they were affiliated with the ABC Radio Network, which was the home of the midday news report with the legendary Paul Harvey. After his passing, it came to be that KRVN decided to change the way of doing radio. Now affiliated with Fox News Radio, they are in the process of seeking a younger demographic for their on-air product. With the older farmers now passing on and their offsprings having the latest in technology from iPhones to wireless Internet, what was a farming community that was dependent on AM radio to keep them appraised of the market place and the general well-being (as depicted in this statue outside their studios):

Is now slowly going thru changes that are common place to us. The early morning livestock and commodity reports are still part of the mainstay of KRVN Ag Radio, but even with the modern day wireless technology making it easier to be informed, I can safely say that AM radio, and its FM and TV counterparts, will be there to serve the public good and to keep them informed. There is still nothing like good old fashion AM radio. See what Ag Radio is all about with KRVN at www.krvn.com and look for the "Listen Live" link.

And before we conclude for today, may I indulge you with a little railroading??

What you see is what’s known as a set of crossovers, 

Part of CP (Control Point) Spring Creek just west of the town of Spring Creek. To keep the railroad fluid, the Union Pacific uses these control points, spaced about every 10 miles, to run faster trains around the slower ones or around sections of track taken out of service for routine maintenance. Maximum speed thru the crossovers is 40MPH, and if you look very closely, you will see what looks like black covers along side and between the rails. These are heating ducts used to keep the switches clear of snow and ice during the winter months, Fed with natural gas and controlled from the Bunker in Omaha, the switch points are kept clean without having maintenance-of-ways crews being out cleaning switches when they can be doing other jobs needed to keep the trains moving. Quite genius if you ask me.

And what about BIG loads?? Check it out:

This is 37 cars of what appears to be natural gas pipeline, 4 feet in diameter and 60 feet in length. Imagine the size of an 18-wheeler caravan moving all of that pipe. Again, railroads are a very efficient way of moving just about anything.

Wow. Lots of pictures today. Guess I got carried away a little bit. Still, a great day in central Nebraska.

Anyway, we end the day in Cozad with what has been a spectacular day….if you don’t mind a constant 25 MPH breeze blowing you around. Wednesday we head west towards North Platte and the home of the world’s largest classification yard known as Bailey Yard. We’ll go revisit the Gentleman Power Plant. And we’ll show you some very different pictures of the prairie.

And before we head out, THE quote of the day. I went to Pizza Hut for dinner tonight and the waiter greets this 60s-something couple to the restaurant. He asks them how they are doing. And the wife says:

“We’re better than frog’s hair.”

Better than frog’s hair. Must be a Nebraska thing.

I’m Philip J Zocco. On The Road. In Cozad, Nebraska.