Melting the “Ice Curtain”

Three smiling women stand together in KNOM’s lobby

During the Cold War, the “Ice Curtain” divided the people of the Bering Strait. But in the past 30 years, amazing things have been happening on both sides of the Alaska–Russia border.

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NOAA To Consider Bowhead Whale Catch Limits

Chris Apassingok was the striker who landed this 200 year old female bowhead whale for his family and community. Photo Credit: Karen Trop, KNOM (2017)

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has announced it intends to formally assess the impacts of issuing annual catch limits for the subsistence harvest of bowhead whales. Any changes would go into effect in 2019.

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Profile: After 70 Years, A Diomede Family Reunion

Tandy Wallack, Etta Tall, and documentary filmmaker Lourdes Grobet laugh together in the the KNOM studios, where they stopped by before heading to Little Diomede for a long-awaited family reunion.

For years, growing up on the Alaskan island of Little Diomede, Etta Tall wondered about what life was like just 2.4 miles away, on Russia’s Big Diomede, where her grandfather grew up. Now, thanks to a special reunion, “I don’t wonder anymore,” she says.

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Story49 Presents “Through the Ice Curtain”

View of Provideniya from Komsomolskaya Bay. Photo: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

In this three-part series, we take a look at the relationship between Alaska and Russia from before the Cold War all the way through the present day. Hear directly from the people who melted the “Ice Curtain,” and from the people working to keep it melted.

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Our new news director!

Matthew Smith

In April, the news within KNOM’s walls was, at least momentarily, the news department itself. It was a bittersweet moment as we said goodbye to our longtime news director and, a few weeks later, welcomed a familiar face to the position. We’re proud and so fortunate to have counted Laureli Kinneen among our ranks for…

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From Alaska to Russia, with love

Laureli and American visitors in Anadyr

News director Laureli Kinneen was able to take advantage of an incredible opportunity this fall: to report, on location, from an international conference in Anadyr (AH-nuh-deer), a city in the northeastern Russian region of Chukotka (choo-COAT-kuh). The gathering – The Beringia Days International Conference – brought together researchers and cultural representatives from both sides of…

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