- Well, haven't played this one for a while
and here's Tim McGraw
with "Humble and Kind."
It's 11:06.
[Tim McGraw's "Humble and Kind" playing]
- ♪ You know there's a light ♪
♪ That glows by the front door ♪
♪ Don't forget the key's under the mat ♪
- We play traditional country music.
- ♪ Always stay humble and kind ♪
- You know, work hard and...
mind your own business
and respect your-- your neighbors,
respect your elders...
all the basics.
The golden rule really resonates
with a lot of these-- these people
in our part of the state or in--
really in anywhere in rural America.
- ♪ Always stay humble and kind ♪
- The county seat of Durand
is inland and upland from the village of Pepin.
- Here at Reel Country 1430 WRDN,
clouds, 66,
with Conway and Loretta.
- And providing the soundtrack for the city and surroundings
is station WRDN.
Station owner Brian Winnekins and cohost
Martha Gingras know that much of their audience
listens from dairy barns and tractor cabs,
so they provide them with the news they need.
- Market update being brought to you...
- And often, they've been the bearer of bad news.
- Really, the biggest challenge
has been the low prices.
It's really been a challenge
for some of these smaller operations
to be able to survive,
because they don't have that economy of scale
of-- of producing a lot of milk
to be able to-- to make up for it.
- When the numbers tell me that milk is down,
if-- if I could be lying media,
trust me, I would say that milk ended $25.
July, milk down four at $15.52.
August, down 14 at $16.41.
[laughing] I wish I could,
because I know that would help my community.
- And the long, steady decline has had an impact
on Durand's downtown.
- Half of our downtown
has empty buildings.
- I still look
this way, wondering whether or not
somebody's coming off the bridge,
and I realize, "Oh.
There's no bridge there anymore."
- That's among many changes to downtown
that Martha has seen over the years.
- My parents had the flower shop,
and when the economy started taking a turn
and we really couldn't support two flower shops,
um, my parents sold.
- Brian sees this economic stagnation
as a major factor in people's dissatisfaction.
- In rural America-- it doesn't matter
if it's Wisconsin, Minnesota, wherever--
they're like, "What about us?
"We seem to be working hard,
"but we don't get any extra-- we don't get bailouts.
"We don't-- you know, if our bank goes down,
"it doesn't get bailed out.
"It gets bought up by a big chain
or ordered to-- to close."
- There's a lot of upset people when they go to the bank now,
and it's like, they don't know who I am,
or don't they? Why don't they know who I am?
It's just based on my social security number,
my income, and numbers.
It's changed.