By Rebecca Toov

You are listening to U of M Radio on your Historic Dial!

From 1938-1979, the Minnesota School of the Air brought educational programs into the classrooms of Minnesota and beyond over radio airwaves and through tape transcription. During the 1977-1978 season, School of the Air produced a series of radio “field trips” called Look What We Found, a program that introduced students to people and places in Minnesota. Join us this season as we revisit these radio field trips. Today’s episode takes listeners to the zoo, and ends with an important lesson. 

Season 2: Episode 5. At the Zoo.

You are listening to U of M Radio on your Historic Dial podcast. Welcome to Season 2: Episode 5.

Hi, this is Rebecca from University Archives.  Today’s featured broadcast of the program Look What We Found is titled, “At the Zoo.”  It is an interview with a zookeeper from Como Zoo in St. Paul who introduced listeners to some new animals.  Normally on this podcast, I give a short introduction and then we listen to the historic broadcast. Due to something that happened after this program originally aired on March 30, 1978, we should meet the animals and hear from the zookeeper first. I’ll come back at the end to conclude the program.

 

Broadcast Transcript

[Music]

Various voices: I don’t believe it. You’ve got to be kidding… Whew… oh wow!

[Group exclamation] Look what we found!

Announcer: Come on you’ve been sitting there far too long. Join the Minnesota School of the Air as we take a field trip in sound to someplace you’ve probably never been, somewhere in and around the Twin Cities. And here to go with you are your hosts Walter, Patty, and Bill.

[Animal sounds]

Walter: Ok Patty, what’s that?

Patty: It’s guessing game time.

Bill: Well it’s definitely something alive.

Patty: That’s right Bill.

Walter: Sounds like a baby of some kind.

Patty: You’re right too Walter. It’s the voice of St. Paul’s youngest celebrity. He’s a lion cub that was born at Como Park Zoo last week.

Bill: Well, tell us some more.

Patty: Why don’t we listen instead to someone who really knows what she’s talking about. Joanne is a zookeeper at the zoo.  We talked about it and she told me that spring is her favorite time at the zoo and it’s because spring is the time for baby animals.

[Animal sounds]

Joanne: Pretty big ostrich… [Laugh]

Patty: What are the best parts of the job?

Joanne: The best parts… um, well some of the easiest… like right now in the springtime it’s, uh, duckling season, and baby cat season, and baby chicken and baby rabbit season. It’s time for babies, and that’s really my favorite time of the year because everything is kind of opening up and springtime in Minnesota is beautiful anyway and then when the animals are kind of adding to it it’s really nice and sometimes you get to bottle feed the babies and take care of our little zoo animals, so it’s really interesting.

Patty: Wasn’t there a new arrival here? A couple days ago?

Joanne: Yes, we had the birth of one lion cub which was male and he was born Friday. We’re not too sure. He wasn’t here Thursday night but he was here Friday morning.  So he was born Friday during the early hours of the morning. Um, Saturday throughout the day we had 3 tiger cubs born, and… Alexandra’s good at this… she usually picks a busy Saturday or Sunday always, and she usually starts about 9 in the morning and then she finished by about 5 in the afternoon… and she had 3 this time and we tried to keep them with her.  It was hopeful that she would nurse them and attend to them as she should but, unfortunately, we weren’t so lucky this time. And we had to take the cubs from her, but they are all being bottle raised right now. All 4 of them… well, unfortunately, one of the tiger cubs has already passed on. But,