20 for 20: Swingin’ (1998)

To celebrate our 20^th anniversary of Lakeland News, we’re taking a look back at some of the memorable local stories we’ve covered over the years.

It’s called 20 For 20 – twenty stories in all, one for each of the twenty years we have been on the air with Lakeland News.

Our first story is from the very first year of Lakeland News in 1998. It’s our first award-winning story called “Swingin”. Reporter Jean Gnojewski and videographer Alex Brauer introduced us to a new dance craze hitting Bemidji.

Suzy and John “Hondo” Langhout established their School of Dance in 1998, and the school is going strong twenty years later.

The reporter for that story was Jean Gnojesksi. Jean was our first full-time reporter for Lakeland News and is now a public relations professional in Washington, D.C.

Alex Brauer was a 14-year old intern when he shot that story for us as a videographer. He was an award-winning videographer as a 14-year old boy, going up against adult professionals from much bigger markets. Alex is now a chief investigative videojournalist in Washington D.C. as well after previously working in Las Vegas. Throughout his career, Alex has won a National Murrow award, 5 regional Murrow awards, and 10 regional Emmy awards.

If you’d like to see more stories featured in our 20 For 20 retrospective, please click any one of the following links:

• John Yourd (1999)
• Highway 371 Bypass Opening (2000)
• Bob Peters (2001)