Marie Rock’s resume reflects a varied career.  She has worked for the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the White Earth Adolescent Treatment Center and several casinos.  But she always came back to the waves, not the kind on lakes but those surrounding people in the air.

Rock is program director for the public FM radio station, KOJB-The Eagle, located near Cass Lake.  Operated by the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, the station strives to enrich life for the Anishinaabe people by airing tribal information, youth programming, live broadcasts and music from Native American, country, hip hop and classic rock artists.

“News is an important part of the programming on The Eagle,” she said, while acknowledging support for shows on Ojibwe language, herbal medicines, environmental concerns, the Ojibwe as a way of life, and the history of Leech Lake.

Rock caught her first air wave right after high school, when she read the news on a Phoenix station.  After relocating to Bemidji many years and jobs later, she started as a part-time announcer at KKBJ-AM.  Eventually that became a full-time job, beginning a progression that has included stints as promotions director and assistant program director for RP Broadcasting, which operates several AM and FM stations in the Bemidji market.

She started her higher education later in life, earning a degree in psychology from Bemidji State in 2009.  She graduated that same year with her daughter, Alexis Marie Rock Van Leeuwen, who lives in Nashville, Tenn., where she is a management trainee for Olive Garden restaurants.

After one year as a youth counselor, she answered what she describes as the call of radio.  “I like being on the air,” admitted Rock, who also does the morning drive show on the station.  “KOJB was starting from the ground up, so getting to be a part of that beginning was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”