A trip to Elim, Alaska
Thanks to a sponsorship with a regional air carrier, KNOM Radio is frequently the beneficiary of free air travel to many of the communities we serve. We view these “village trips” as essential to our mission; it gives us a vital opportunity to connect with our listeners in person and to do live reporting, on […]
“Oh, foggy day…”
Nome residents may have had the old George Gershwin song (“A Foggy Day”) running through their heads early last month, as KNOM’s hometown was shrouded for days in thick fog (not to mention, low-30s temperatures and snow in June!). In Western Alaska, fog isn’t just a curiosity (or mere fodder for song lyrics); foggy weather […]
Weathered in
One member of our KNOM family was temporarily waylaid in a remote community last month. Bob Froehle – deacon at Nome’s St. Joseph Catholic Church and secretary of KNOM’s board of directors – traveled to far-flung Little Diomede to preside at a funeral service. Because of inclement weather, Deacon Bob was unable to leave on […]
February 1993: Hearing the Mass in remote Diomede
February 28, 1993 KNOM volunteer news director Cherie Collins is on incredibly remote Little Diomede Island (pictured above), her small plane having landed on a strip cleared of snow on the Bering Strait ice pack. Diomede does not see a priest more than one or two Sundays a year. On this day, a Sunday, Cherie […]
Let’s have a conversation…
In Western Alaska, there’s always a lot to discuss. For more than a decade, we’ve been happy to provide a crucial means for our listeners to begin and sustain conversations on subjects important to them. The way they have these conversations is through our weekly call-in show, Sounding Board. Sounding Board belongs to our listeners. […]
At year’s end, gratitude and service
As 2012 comes to an end, we thank the entire KNOM family for keeping positive programming beaming to thousands of families. Your support affects listeners across 100,000 square miles of snow-covered tundra and the frozen Bering Sea. The KNOM staff and volunteers appreciate the opportunity to serve remote listeners, 24 hours a day! We wish you […]
Christmas greetings, over the airwaves
KNOM broadcasts to remote listeners throughout a signal area roughly the size of California. With about 4 hours of sunlight each day at this time of year, communication can mean everything to families far away from each other. Every year, KNOM broadcasts a seven-hour Christmas greeting program (call-in show) in which families separated by hundreds […]
Conversations in rural Alaska
A regular part of our mission is to send our hardworking volunteers to the rural, isolated villages in our listening area, especially when events rally those communities together around a particular cause. Last month, volunteers Eva DeLappe and Lucus Keppel visited one of the communities closest to KNOM: Teller, a village on the coast of […]
Halloween, 1970: The AM tower is complete
October 31, 1970 The AM tower construction is complete. Nome Joint Utilities runs a power line across the tundra to the tower, and it is lighted. It’s finished just in time. Two days later, blizzards shut down Nome for almost three weeks.
A missing girl found, and the threats of fall storms
Recently, KNOM coordinated with the Nome Police Department to locate a missing 10-year-old girl who had disappeared on her way home from school. Just as we always do for all missing-person cases, we immediately began broadcasting announcements with the girl’s description and her last known whereabouts, in the hopes that someone in our listening range […]