Inspiration, education, and news remain the focus of KNOM’s daily work, as they have been since our first broadcast in 1971.
The KNOM production department, led by program director Laura Collins and volunteers Karen Trop and Lauren Frost, is responsible for the 39,420 inspirational and educational spots broadcast each year. (Sample texts of inspirational spots are featured on this website, where you’ll also find downloadable Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet prayers.) Recent educational spot topics include tough subjects like heroin use, domestic violence, and grief, balanced with educational snippets of the Alaska Native languages of Yup’ik and Inupiaq, as well as celebrations of traditional art and artists from the region.
Karen and Lauren also produce news stories and long-form feature programs, like the original, regional storytelling shows Story49 and Dearest Alaska, that seek to capture what’s unique and special about this corner of the world (which you can hear right here on knom.org). Their work has included a visit with former national “Future Problem Solvers” champions from the village of Gambell, a walk with the captain on the decks of a cruise ship traversing the Northwest Passage, and lunch with community elders at Nome’s senior center.
The KNOM news department — currently led by staffer Margaret DeMaioribus and volunteer reporters Davis Hovey and Tyler Stup — researches, writes, and reports about 6-10 local news stories per week. These stories are the basis of the 1,300 newscasts KNOM news anchors each year. What’s more, approximately 10% of these original pieces are picked up and run by other regional, state, and national news sources.
On this website, you’ll find highlights of the stories authored by KNOM staff. Recently, these articles have covered local alcohol option votes in the rural Alaska communities of Emmonak and Kotzebue; a rehabilitation and training program at Nome’s regional correctional center; caribou hunting regulations; and relations across the Bering Strait with Chukotka, the region of eastern Russia that shares many cultural ties with KNOM country. For many folks who are no longer able to call Western Alaska home, these online stories are a way of keeping connected to what’s happening with their families and communities.
Your support makes this programming possible, and the new capabilities of the digital studios you helped to build will take these efforts even further.