When I first came to KNOM Kelly approached me and said, “Okay, so, I was thinking. I want to try something new this year. I think it would be cool if The Morning Show had two voices this year instead of one.” That was a great idea, by the way.
It’s a different dynamic this year and we don’t have two regular KNOM DJs in the morning, which bred the crazy and obvious idea: why limit ourselves to the voices of KNOM staff? And why limit ourselves only to two voices?
The 2014 Morning Show is getting a remake. I asked a few Nomite friends to join me talking about issues important to them and our community at large. I tried to cover the bases: health, diversity, local culture, youth… these specialty segments occur Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, while on Tuesdays and Thursdays I go rogue. We might even be able to do a massive gabfest all together in the future.
Now, with no further ado, I introduce you to the new Morning Show team!
Tara Cicatello is a native of Buffalo and a fellow KNOM Volunteer. I call her the floater: she floats between studios in the mornings and sometimes I pull her into Studio A for fun & random conversations.
Tara loves sunshine, lollipops, rainbows, puppies, baking cookies, and micro pigs wearing raincoats & booties. Though she is a regular on our Breakfast Wednesday segment, Tara also has her own show on KNOM: AK Country, Wednesdays 2-4pm.
Her favorite thing to eat for breakfast is candy pancakes. Meaning, pancakes with whatever candy you find lying around the house (Snickers, Recess Pieces, Jelly Beans… all candies are equal. She doesn’t discriminate).
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A native from the great state of Wisconsin (where the cheese is the tastiest!) Megan “Mindy” Timm is the Prevention Program Coordinator at the CAMP department through Norton Sound Health Corporation in Nome. At CAMP, Megan helps people quit smoking, come up with weight loss challenges, assists in diabetes prevention programs, and organizes the “Summercise” summer camp programs for kids.
At KNOM she joins us for one of our most popular segments: Breakfast Wednesday. Every week, Megan guides Tara and myself in the preparation of a new healthy, tasty, coast-effective breakfast, sharing her nutrition knowledge on our airwaves with western Alaska. We then invite our audience to join us for a FREE breakfast at the KNOM Studios. In 2013, she played the voice of Mindy in our Christmas radio drama, “Mindy, The (Ugly) Christmas Sweater.” In her free time… well, Megan doesn’t have much free time because that time belongs to her dog, who is very young and needy. Should she have free time, she likes to believe she’d spend it eating breakfast sandwiches (with cheese, of course) and being a hardcore Star Wars geek.
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Panga Laura Ikanuq Pungowiyi has moved towns a total of 23 times (sometimes back and forth between the same towns). Some of these places include: Savoonga, Bethel, Sitka, Fairbanks, Anchorage, Washington, Oregon, Las Vegas, Nome, Palmer, and that summer or two in Mississippi that we don’t always talk about. She works in Nome with Kawerak Wellness and is the current president of the Bering Sea Women’s Group, a member of the Social Justice Taskforce, and a councilmember of the Community United Methodist Church.
She joins the KNOM Morning Show for a new segment this year: Fancy Pants Talk (which is ironic considering Panga hates to wear pants and opts for skirts). The show? Two girls, two microphones, two hours of us talking fancy about social issues, the media, culture, Alaskan living, gluten, Ani DiFranco, dinosaurs, and, on special occasions, our favorite kinds of candy.
On her free time, Panga enjoys living the not-so-secret life of a video game enthusiast. Her favorite breakfast food is Eggs Benedict, without the muffin! But lots of spinach and tomatoes (see? Fancy.) Join the fancy talk on Mondays from 8-10am.
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Chris Steppe is proof that the universe is a small, strange, wonderful place. A native of Northern Virginia, Chris’s life and Daynee Rosales‘ have followed similar paths: they attended rival high schools, ended up in the same University (same graduating class!), lived two blocks apart, ate at the same Korean cafes, and hung out in many of the same music venues, without ever meeting. Through different volunteer programs & adventures Chris and Daynee eventually ended up in Nome, where they finally met.
Chris is the director of the Boys & Girls Club where he aims to empower youth and build upon our community ties. At KNOM, he joins me every Friday for another new segment, the Nerd Power Hour! (Which is actually two hours long, but we’re not math nerds so… yeah). Chris has always wanted to be on public radio and now acts as KNOM’s resident nerd guru, possessing above average proficiency and understanding of anime, robots, video games, hockey, how to survive a zombie apocalypse (fun fact: it’s much like surviving an Alaskan winter storm), and bacon. Oh. His favorite breakfast food is waffles. Seriously. The man has them for breakfast every. Single. Day.
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Communicorn, otherwise known as the “community unicorn” or the “communications unicorn,” hails from the distant factories of China, so he’s come a long way. Communicorn lacks opposable thumbs and moves at a speed of 0 mph, but he doesn’t let that stop him from achieving his dream of being a radio DJ! He is known in western AK for his wonderful sense of humor (press his nose and listen to his unicorn noises) and a big, jolly smile. When communicorn’s around, it’s practically impossible to be unhappy. He’s a guest on the KNOM Morning Show on days when you least expect it. His favorite thing to eat for breakfast is the unicorn poop cookie, which Daynee makes only for special occasions.
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The Morning Show is all about being casual and conversational. Personally, I dance a little between quirky and OMGICANTBELIEVEYOUJUSTDIDTHAT. I mean, anyone remember last year, when I tried to cut my hair with a sword? Anyone? No?
We are here to ease your transition in the early mornings as you get ready for work, drop your kid off at school, or lounge around the house trying to figure out what to have for breakfast. (If you haven’t figured out that I love food-especially breakfast- you haven’t been paying attention.) I strive to make anything I do fun, accessible, easy to understand, and inclusive. There’s nothing more annoying to me than being stuck in a conversation where I’m being talked AT, not TO. Even though my audience is not in the studio with me, a successful show will make you feel like you were there with me all along. Listen in: KNOM Morning Show, weekdays 6-10am.
