North Dakota has 141 members serving in the 63rd legislative session. The legislature is constitutionally limited to just 80 days of business every other year.
The citizens of North Dakota have a new tool to follow the work of their elected legislators this session. A nightly radio program has debuted dedicated to covering the issues, debates and foibles of the North Dakota legislature. The program airs Monday through Thursday from 7 to 9 PM and Saturday mornings from 10 AM to Noon on KFYR 550 AM of Bismarck, Talkradio AM 1100 “The Flag” of Fargo and Talkradio AM 1090 “The Flag” covering northwestern North Dakota’s oil country.
Former Associated Press state Capitol reporter Dale Wetzel hosts the show. Wetzel has covered four governors and 13 sessions of the Legislature since he joined the AP in September 1984. He resigned from the news agency last month to become a partner in a new media venture affiliated with Bakken Beacon Media LLC, of Fargo, N.D.
Bakken Beacon Media LLC is a group whose leadership includes Wetzel; Gary Emineth, a Bismarck businessman and entrepreneur and former chairman of the North Dakota Republican Party; and Scott Hennen, radio talk show host.
“We look at this as an historic opportunity to deliver news that’s important to North Dakotans at a crossroads in the history of the state,” Emineth said.
The show will feature discussions of what’s going on in the Legislature and how it affects North Dakotans. It will include all political perspectives, including some that are seldom heard in the North Dakota media.
“This is a venture that’s going to focus on news and issues. It is not some Republican propaganda project. If it were, I wouldn’t be part of it,” Wetzel said. “For one thing, nobody would listen to a show like that. It wouldn’t be good business. “
The show is broadcast from the Peacock Alley, a bar and restaurant in downtown Bismarck, N.D., that has a rich political history of its own. It is a popular spot for legislators from both parties, and the Legislature itself used the building for meetings when the state Capitol burned and was rebuilt in the early 1930s.
“We think this venture will provide more information for North Dakotans about how their tax dollars are spent,” Wetzel continued. “And we’re going to have some fun doing it.”