Pool Water Softener

EVERYDAY PEOPLE: KLKS' Collins enjoys life on the airwaves

BREEZY POINT — After a lifetime in radio broadcasting, John Collins rarely gets nervous when he slides the soundboard switch to speak to his listeners at KLKS Radio in Breezy Point. 

If he did, Collins would remind himself that he’s only chatting with Fritz, the former pharmacist in Pequot Lakes. 

Allen Gray, founder of KLKS Radio, told him once to just imagine he’s speaking to one person, not the thousands who are listening to him within a 75-mile radius of the Breezy Point radio station. 

That one person, Collins decided, would be friendly Fritz, who used to have the station on throughout the day in his pharmacy.

“Allen told me when you’re talking on the radio, there’s only one person listening. If there’s more than one person, they’re not listening to you, they’re talking to each other,” Collins said with a smile. “So I think of Fritz. I still think of him sometimes.”

Collins is a 1966 Motley High School graduate and grew up on a beef farm. He said growing up he always wanted to work as a broadcaster and got his big break at age 19 while a freshman at then Bemidji State College. He met a guy from Texas in his speech class who was an on-air announcer at KBUN Radio in Bemidji. Collins said his fellow student wanted to leave Bemidji to move back home to marry his sweetheart but his boss told him he would have to find his own replacement first. He offered the job to Collins, who happily accepted the $1.40-an-hour gig.

Collins worked part-time on the air at the radio station throughout college, spinning records that includes waltzes, country, rock and jazz music — a wide range of music and entertainment. 

“I’d always wanted to be in broadcasting. I’m too lazy to work and too nervous to steal,” Collins joked during his shift at KLKS last week.

He was drafted into the Army after college and spent a year working for Armed Forces Radio and Television in Thailand. He mostly worked in radio, but also did television voice-overs and worked in the projection booth when the base would show movies to the troops.

Effects of water on your hair | SALT

Effects of water on your hair

Everybody wants healthier & better-looking hair . But, sometimes we get a bad hair day with dull & lifeless hair. This could be because of water we use to wash our hair.

So, what is the relation between water & hair? Presence of minerals like calcium, magnesium makes water hard or soft. When we wash our hair, these minerals are absorbed into the hair and change the look & feel of hair. So, type of water used for hair wash can have a powerful effect on hair & scalp. Amount of minerals absorbed by the hair depends on acidity & hardness of the water.

What is hard water? Rainwater is naturally soft & mineral free. When it falls on the ground, it seeps through the soil and rocks & picks up the minerals & become hard water. The degree of hardness increases as mineral content increases.

Higher the hardness or ph level of water, the greater is the absorption of minerals in the hair. These characteristics of water can determine the amount of dye that is absorbed into the hair, how your shampoo and conditioning will work on your hair, look & feel of hair after drying.

A study published in ‘Sci Total Environ. 1999 Oct 1;239(1-3):189-93′ has mentioned that uptake of minerals by the hair varies depending on the initial total hardness and pH of the water. The study was conducted to see the uptake of minerals like calcium & magnesium by human hair from waters of 24 different locations throughout the world. The findings have shown that water of high initial total hardness or high initial pH resulted in more absorption of minerals.

Acidity or mineral content varies in local water supply from day to day. Chlorinated, mineralized or fluorinated house water can also affect your hair. Because of these variable factors, your hair looks great one day & shabby & limp on the other day.

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