Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Edna's Kitchen on KCIM-AM

The curse of writing about the arcane is that some stories will be forever incomplete.This one starts at  a class-B AM station in small-town Carroll, Iowa.  It's about 100 miles North East of Omaha, NE. In other words nowhere. If you're in Carroll Iowa, don't take that personally, nowhere is usually very pretty because there are no people in it.  KCIM-AM signed on in 1950 under a CP owned by Carroll Broadcasting. It was the fourth addition to a small stable of stations including KCIM, KKRL and KIKD.  That 1950 date is important because it's the only one I have.
"During my many years at Women's Director of Radio Station KCIM, in Carroll, Iowa, I have been besieged by listeners and friends to compile my recipes in book form. For many years, I have collected recipes as a hobby, many of them being favorites from home and friends in Cedar Falls, other places where I have lived, and you, my listeners. Every recipe contained in this little book has been tried in my own kitchen, and many are used over and over. The brown of the cover and the yellow of the pages are indicative of the color scheme in my very own kitchen; the copperware on the bricks is also from my own apartment. I am especially indebted to the management of KCIM for permitting me to make this recipe book available to you...

All of that comes from a single cook book pictured above. The cook book has no date in it. All I know is that it must have been printed after 1950 because of the station sign on. The cookbook has the typical numbered sections: Breads, Doughnuts, Pancakes; Meats, Casseroles, Salads; Cakes, Candies, Cookies, Deserts, Frostings; Pies; and Favorites. The blub refers to a radio program which may or may not have been named "Edna's Kitchen."  Edna's surname is not listed nor are the dates the program ran.

But in he broadcasting yearbook KCIM lists an Edna G. Collins as women's director, from at least 1958 through 1960, and that must be her.
Interestingly There was also an Edna Dahl, who was wife to a grocer in Des Moines, IA. Her name still graces the Dahl's website as "Ednas Kitchen."  It just happens to be a different Edna in a different kitchen.  More information is welcome if anyone happens to have any.

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