Caught Doing Something Good, or CDSG for short, is KNOM’s newest show that began airing this past February. To date, 6 episodes of the show have aired and, like Elder Voices, another show on KNOM, it airs once a month.
I came up with the idea for the show one winter afternoon after hearing a particularly negative newscast. News is news. It needs to be delivered to our listeners, but I wish good news made it into newscasts more frequently. Since that just isn’t how the world works, I decided to take matters into my own hands and go digging for good stuff that was going on in Western Alaska that would otherwise go unrecognized. I originally only had the intention of having the show air during the month of February, but some of the staff thought the show was worthy of being run more regularly.
I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to travel all around Western Alaska in pursuit of kids doing great things. I created the show to shine some light on the good things kids do in Western Alaska, and it has turned into a whirlwind experience. I’ve gotten to travel to some unique places and meet some very interesting people. I chose to focus the show on the youth in our corner of the world because of the impact they will inevitably have on the future. I think pinpointing and highlighting the kids that are having a positive impact will help other students to recognize the importance of contributing to their communities and show them that it’s not just the trouble makers who get attention. The squeaky wheel doesn’t always get the oil.
The map above shows the approximate locations of villages that I’ve been able to visit thanks to my position as creator and producer of CDSG. It’s nice to get out once in a while. It’s nice to gather the “good stuff.”