Mame Gale—Playing Classical for Cows and Other Radio Pleasures

Jun 2, 2026

What started as a visit to see her sister became life-changing for Mame Gale. On a break from the University of Denver, she visited her sister in Wisconsin. That’s when she met John Gale, who was milking cows. He’d tuned his radio to classical music, and she was introduced to Wisconsin Public Radio.

Those two introductions led to lasting love, for John and for public radio. When Mame married John in 1980, she moved to the farm in Boyceville, WI. Mame shared with a smile, “We both loved the classical station, and after milking the cows, we kept the radio turned to classical and played the music for the cows all night. The music was soothing and comforting for us, and for the cows!'

Mame recalls her first experiences with radio. She grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She’d travel by car to visit her grandparents in Waterloo. Her mom would have the radio on in the car. “Of course, we heard Paul Harvey and the call-in shows.” She was hooked on listening. Later, while listening to Wisconsin Public Radio, she recalls discovering public radio shows including All Things Considered, Morning Edition, the call-in shows, plus the weekend variety of shows. “I’d listen every day, and the hosts became like friends.”

The farm was where they raised their family." I became an active community volunteer with the local library and schools. The farm offered a great upbringing for the kids, just sitting and enjoying the country. I became a country girl. We loved dairy farming. But the drought years of 1987 and ’88 were terrible. There were no crops to be harvested and no rain. We sold our herd. We bought back a few the next year but finally, in 1990 we got away from milking and switched to raising dairy heifers. Then John got into a business that manufactured and sold animal health and nutrition products. Eventually, we moved off the farm into Menomonie to send the kids to school in a bigger district.”

The move to Menomonie also made it easier for Mame to turn her radio to Minnesota Public Radio. “I really liked MPR’s news coverage. It got to the point where it was more thorough, more bent toward what I wanted to listen to than Wisconsin Public Radio. WPR was good, but Minnesota just did so much more. I love the weather coverage, because we were farmers and gardeners. And, that's really important to me since I live on 79 acres here.”

After her husband died in 2005, Mame continued her love for music. She especially appreciates folk music and other diverse genres, and public radio feeds her curiosity. Her son lives in Los Angeles, and he and his wife are expecting a baby in May. Her daughter has two children and runs a photography studio in her home. Mame hopes to nurture their love of public media, too.

When Mame learned about the funding cuts to public media, she decided to act. “I met with MPR’s advancement staff and offered a gift of appreciated stock—$150,000 to support MPR's campaign. I did the same for public television. I listen because I want to learn something. Yesterday, they broadcast the Supreme Court live, and President Trump was there, which was interesting. I'm never disappointed. I'll turn it on and find another good reason to keep it on.”