An Evening With Al Malmberg, or How To Survive a Power Outage in Below-Zero Weather

English: WCCO Radio Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It was the night before the night before New Year's at around 10:15 p.m., and our entire neighborhood was plunged into a sudden darkness.  This has happened a couple of times before in the past year:  trees knocked down a power line after a big storm in June, causing the loss of power for days.  And a speeding car crashed into a pole on a nearby county road that killed its occupant.  An Afghan war veteran, we're told.

Power outages in the summer are one thing.  In the winter, it's quite another.  On this occasion, the temperature was dropping below zero.  With no heat in the house, things can get cold quick.  Dangerously quick.  In Minnesota, heat and power are not taken for granted.

The local energy utility was notified, and the automated female voice assured us that power would return shortly after 1 a.m.

In emergencies such as this, those of us without access to smartphones reach for their battery-operated radios for reassurance that this wasn't part of some worldwide calamity.  In Minnesota, that means tuning into WCCO (AM 830), the 50,000-watt blowtorch people used to tune to simply out of habit.

On this night, Steve Thomas was whining about the bad call that cost the Minnesota Timberwolves in the last seconds of a close NBA game with the Dallas Mavericks, a game which just happened to have been broadcast earlier on WCCO.

On the 11 p.m. CBS Radio News, the lead story was about a North Dakota town that had to be evacuated because of a nearby gas explosion.  On the pre-taped local news that followed, there was no mention of our local blackout.  But there was more stuff about the explosion, the firing of Vikings coach Leslie Frazier and the frigid temperatures.

Then it was time for Al Malmberg, a longtime Twin Cities radio veteran who returned to WCCO only a couple of weeks earlier.  Malmberg had been a popular late night host for years before the station wielded the budget ax and whacked him, to be replaced with a syndicated show called "Overnight America".

Tom Mischke, who had transferred his quirky show from KSTP (AM 1500) to 'CCO's clear-channel signal, held the late night slot for a few years until his sudden departure last summer.  That paved the way for Malmberg's return, in which he now has the 11-to-2 a.m. period

On this night, which Malmberg designated for open lines, the main topic was the Vikings and their decision to fire Frazier--a topic which had already been worked over all day on other stations.  He got his share of callers for that topic, along with the well-wishers who welcomed him back on the air.

There was one glitch in the proceedings when Malmberg tried to hurry off a caller before the midnight network news break, except that he was five minutes too early.

This is what late night radio used to be about before Larry King and, more recently, "Coast to Coast AM" and "Red Eye Radio" took over the AM airwaves.  The sameness of programming may be good for the station's profits, but it sure kills variety for everybody else.

After two hours of this, I prepared to go to sleep in a darkened bedroom with two blankets on, having become skeptical that the energy company's version of Siri was right about the power coming back on soon.  Then it did, twenty minutes later than "she" predicted.  After resetting some clocks, the vigil was over.  The blankets are still needed, but the heat will be back up to speed by morning.

There are a couple of lessons to take from this black evening:  With all the technology in the world, radio is still there when you need it.  Also, never doubt a computerized female voice from the energy company.

UPDATE:  In a recorded phone message I got from the power company two weeks later, they said that two thousand customers were affected by the lights going out that night.  The problem was a mechanical malfunction at the plant.  So it wasn't Homer Simpson goofing off again?