There’s an infectious spirit of service at the heart of our mission; it’s been at the core of what we do, and how we view our role in rural Alaska, since our earliest days on the air in 1971.
Like Les Brown (about whom we’ve written elsewhere in our November newsletter), the people who work or volunteer at KNOM often continue to give or to work in some sort of service role even after their tenure at our radio station is done. We’re happy to report that this spirit of giving — especially for the good of the community — continues to manifest itself, time after time.
Two recent examples of this are Laureli Ivanoff (formerly Kinneen) and Tara Cicatello, KNOM alumnae who’ve recently been back in our studios.
After departing our mission in April after years as our news director, Laureli has been active as the Communications Director for regional organization Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation (NSEDC). Last month, she was in Studio A with KNOM general manager Ric Schmidt to talk about a new project being spearheaded by NSEDC: a cookbook collecting the regional recipes (and, by extension, a small bit of the culture) of our corner of Alaska.
Tara, meanwhile, returned to Nome last month after time back in New York, visiting family and friends following the successful completion of her 2013-2014 volunteer service year. In Alaska once more, she’s no longer on our staff, but she’ll still be volunteering two hours each week to host her very popular country show, AK Country, on Wednesday afternoons. Country music is abidingly popular in our region, and we know our listeners are glad to have Tara back.
From revitalizing culture to spinning Johnny Cash, our KNOM alums are keeping busy — and they’re continuing to work for the same region your support so generously allows us to serve.