This week, the KNOM crew was busy enjoying race season while covering the 2016 Iron Dog: “the world’s longest, toughest snowmobile race.” Here, you’ll find some highlights of our radio coverage from the past week, including twice daily updates, live trail reporting, and fun race features, as well as a number of photos of Iron Dog events and KNOM volunteers in action.
Daily Updates
Mitch Borden and Maddie Winchester team up for an evening race update. (Photo: Emily Russell, KNOM)
Every day around 9:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., KNOM volunteers and staff tackled race updates in teams of two. Because things move so fast and information becomes out-of-date quickly, we don’t put all of our twice daily updates on the web. Below, however, you can listen to an example of our updates. You’ll hear Maddie Winchester and Laura Kraegel break down the race on Tuesday evening, including racer positions, events in Nome, and weather.
Live Reporting
Emily Russell interviews a racer fresh across the finish line in Nome. (Photo: Mitch Borden, KNOM)
Laura Kraegel prepares to report live from the race restart. (Photo: Maddie Winchester, KNOM)
Volunteers were also there to capture the moment when teams arrived at and left the halfway point in Nome. They took KNOM’s live broadcast equipment down to Front Street to set the scene for listeners and interview racers just entering or heading out of Nome.
Halfway finish in Nome:
Restart:
Features
Maddie Winchester interviews Mike Morgan and Chris Olds of Team 10 about staying tobacco-free. (Photo: Micah Straughn courtesy of Iron Dog Team #10)
Volunteers also spent much of the week recording and producing race features, short stories about different aspects of the race that aired as a part of our twice daily updates. Features highlighted natural sound and interviews, and topics varied from snowmachine maintenance in the garage to events at the halfway banquet.
Feature 1 – Maddie Winchester highlights the race start and the conditions that have lead to an increase in western Alaska teams.
A racer at the halfway finish in Nome. (Photo: Mitch Borden, KNOM)
Feature 2 – Emily Russell interviews Nome racer Shawn Pomrenke about his first Iron Dog run.
Shawn Pomrenke on the 2016 Iron Dog trail. (Photo courtesy of Orzelphoto)
Feature 3 – Race fans accompany Mitch Borden on an audio journey inside the garage as teams perform maintenance on their machines.
Team 50 looks at their machine during the 15-minute inspection time. (Photo: Emily Russell, KNOM).
Feature 4 – Laura Kraegel shares the halfway banquet festivities with listeners.
Aklestad and Johnson of Team 8 receive their prize for being the first team to Nome. (Photo: Mitch Borden, KNOM)
Feature 5 – Mitch Borden recreates the race restart and analyzes second-half strategies.
Team 8 performs last-minute maintenance before hitting the trail for the restart Thursday morning. (Photo: Laura Kraegel, KNOM)
Feature 6 – Listeners get an inside look at the partnership between Nome’s Teens Against Tobacco Use Group and the Team 10 racers as Maddie Winchester attends their meet-and-greet in Nome.
Chris Olds of Team 10 signs autographs for kids from the Nome Boys and Girls Club. (Photo: Maddie Winchester, KNOM)
Team 50 Tyler Whitley and Jason Chris at the garage. (Photo: Emily Russell, KNOM)
The trail map and update schedule on the studio A window, a race tradition. (Photo: Emily Russell, KNOM)
Team 30 Jerrod Vaughn and Geoff Crouse at the garage. (Photo: Emily Russell, KNOM)
Nome Mayor Richard Benneville greets a racer at the halfway finish. (Photo: Mitch Borden, KNOM)
While this post highlights our non-news race programming, KNOM’s news volunteers Laura Kraegel and Emily Russell also covered the race from a news perspective. You can check out those stories here.
