This day in history: 1976 wasn’t a good year for snow either, so the Spokane Tribe and 49 Degrees North partnered for an unexpected solution

From 1976: Ski resorts in the region were hurting for snow, so 49 Degrees North near Chewelah was planning a creative solution: A “full-dress snow dance” by members of the Spokane Tribe.

Five drummers and 22 dancers were scheduled to perform at the resort in an attempt to improve the skiing conditions. The ski resort’s manager called them “weather modifiers.”

Snow conditions weren’t quite as sparse as today, but in 1976, the early season snow had gotten hard, with little new snow and some bare ground beginning to appear.

The ski areas had resorted to using “powder-making attachments on snow groomers to scrape the hardback surface.”

From 1926: Radio was now firmly established as a popular mass medium, but Spokane radio listeners were not happy.

They said that the growing number of stations was beset by several vexing reception problems, all under the general category of signal interference.

Some signals were apparently bleeding over into other stations, and some powerful new local stations were occupying too much of the dial.

The situation had become so serious that an organization called the Spokane Radio Listeners’ Association had asked for a federal broadcast official to come to Spokane for a mass meeting at the Davenport Hotel.

The head of the organization said he wanted at least 500 local radio fans to turn out for the meeting in an attempt to “get this matter cleared up once and for all.”

“Frankly, a situation has developed in Spokane which is most annoying, to say the least,” he said.