Highlights of the History of Alaska Radio Mission

Highlights of KNOM’s history:

Operating with 25,000 Watts from Nome, Alaska, KNOM has been made possible by the dedication and hard work, the love and sacrifice of thousands of people. Unfortunately, it's impossible to mention more than a fraction of the outstanding individuals who have contributed to the station's success.

With that in mind, here are a few highlights of the history of the oldest Catholic radio station in the United States.

KNOM's early years are detailed in The KNOM / Father Jim Poole Story by Louis L. Renner, SJ, ISBN 0-8323-0444-1, published in 1985 by Binford and Mort, Portland, Oregon. The book is out of print, but can be found in many Catholic college libraries.

The Dream

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April 1, 1959: While pastoring the villages of Marshall, Mountain Village and Pilot Station, Father James E. Poole, SJ   dreams of a real station that would reach many villages and on this day, writes Fairbanks Bishop Francis Gleeson, SJ for permission.

Later that year, as administrator of St. Marys Mission school, he links 30 village homes by speaker wire, creating a “radio station” run by students.

·1961: Gleeson grants permission, provided that the project can find the money to pay for its construction and operation.

·About 1961: The natural location for the station is the town of Bethel, which is well situated to beam to villages in the Yukon River Delta.

A religious station has just been established in Nome, however, and based on Nome’s experience, the people of Bethel want nothing to do with a religious radio station and refuse to support the project.

On the other hand, the people of Nome are eager for something else to listen to, and the focus shifts to Nome.

·1966: Interior Secretary Morris Udall imposes a “freeze” on all actions pertaining to federal land in Alaska, pending resolution of claims by Alaska Natives against the government. A few years later, this will greatly delay construction of the radio station.

· Summer 1966: Poole is assigned as pastor for Nome. He is followed by Noralee Irvin (left), a volunteer who “slings hash at the local greasy spoon,” contributing all of her income to purchase office equipment for the radio station project. They are joined by Poole's mother, Luella Poole, who cooked for the tiny community.

·September 1966: “Nome Static” Transmission One is produced, a blotchy mimeographed sheet pleading for support.

·December 1966: Thanks to a $15,000 grant from the Society for the Propagation of Faith, there is $30,000 in the bank, which is erroneously believed to be sufficient.

·1967: Anchorage broadcast pioneer Augie Hiebert assembles the FCC application for the new station.   The Bureau of Land Management is consulted on how to apply for a right-of-way to utilize public land for a transmitter site..

·Autumn 1967: Former Saint Mary's volunteer Therese "Tweet" Burik joins the mission. As Rev. Louis L. Renner writes, "her sharp business sense, along with her exceptional managerial skills, proved to be of inestimable value to Father Jim and his mission in Nome."

After two years, with nothing happening on the radio front, Tweet leaves in autumn 1969, returning in 1971 for fourteen years of service as business manager before moving to Fairbanks as executive assistant to Bishop Michael Kaniecki, SJ.

Paperwork



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January 23, 1968: On the advice of BLM, the project applies for a federal right-of-way for a transmitter site, under the Recreation & Public Purposes Act of June 14, 1926.

·April 3, 1968: BLM rejects the application, citing that they had made an error: the would-be station must apply under the Act of March 4, 1911, and before the right-of-way is approved, it must overcome many hurdles caused by the 1966 freeze on federal land in Alaska.

In the following 30 months, the new application is submitted to Alaska Native groups for approval, and shuffles between Secretary of the Interior Walter Hickel, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the U.S. House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, and several others. The file grows to about two inches of paperwork.

·September 1968: From Boston, Betty Connors, RN (left) arrives in Nome as the radio station’s first support nurse, working at Nome’s hospital, contributing her entire salary. Over 25 years, she is followed by 70 other generous nurses, the last one departing in 1994.

·March 1969: The mission files an application for construction with the Federal Communications Commission. “We are off and running,” says the "Nome Static.."   Meanwhile, another “freeze” hits the project, when the FCC calls a halt to accepting new AM applications. The mission’s Washington, DC lawyer, Joe Hennessey, files for a waiver.

·July 1969: The FCC waives their AM “freeze” in the Nome project's case, but the Department of Interior land freeze continues to block use of a transmitter site. However, the FCC will not grant a construction permit until the land is secured.

·February 8, 1970: Volunteer Tom Busch (left, summer 1970) arrives from Philadelphia as the project's chief engineer, to design and supervise construction of the station.

In May 1973, Tom leaves to become chief engineer and swing announcer for commercial station KIAK in Fairbanks; in 1975, he is re-hired as KNOM's general manager.

·March 1970: The diocesan volunteer work crew, Tom Karlin, Bro. John Huck, SJ and Leigh Birkeland, in and out of town, begin to remodel the former James Walsh house on Third Avenue (left) that will become the radio station.

FCC rules forbid them from touching areas that will become studios, but they can work on the upstairs, which will become crew quarters.

In addition to the studio, the project houses volunteers in rebuilt World War II "k-d" (knockdown) buildings, constructed by the Army as temporary structures some thirty years earlier.

·May, 1970: Federal delays tax the patience of the staff and supporters. Senator Ted Stevens writes “I will do whatever I can to get this taken care of in the shortest time possible.”

·June 30, 1970: The FCC approves the project's application. There still is no permission to use the land.

·July 1, 1970: A $55,000 equipment order is in the mail to Collins Radio Company.

·July 17, 1970: The mission applies for the call letters KNOM.

The call sign KNOM is unavailable, as it is already assigned to the Coast Guard schooner “Chiquimula,” which had been scuttled.

The station’s symbol is developed by the volunteers, a seal skin stretched Eskimo-style, with gold rush lettering, symbolizing a blend of Eskimo and western cultures (left).

Final "Green Light"

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September 10, 1970: BIA Commissioner Morris Thompson agrees that the mission may develop the proposed transmitter site, 3 miles east of Nome. (The paperwork doesn’t arrive until January 11, 1974!)

·September 11, 1970: A retired miner begins to excavate a hole for the station’s tower base.

·September 14, 1970: The miner quits, unable to penetrate more than six feet into the permafrost. Volunteers John Pfeifer and Tom Busch continue the work, using pick and shovel.

·September 20, 1970: Six days’ work has yielded less than two additional feet. A local mining company lends the mission Sam Tucker, their dynamite expert (left); Tucker, Busch and Pfeifer work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, for nearly a month.

·September 25-29, 1970: Nome undergoes a cold snap, setting new September low temperature records, bottoming out at +15° on the 29th, the coldest temperature ever recorded in September.

·September 26, 1970: The Coast Guard relinquishes the call letters KNOM, and they are assigned to the new station.

·October 4, 1970: Snow is falling almost every day, and the mouth of the Nome River is frozen. On this date, the workers at the transmitter site open their fourth case of dynamite.

·October 16, 1970: The main foundation hole is one foot too narrow, and picks simply bounce off the frozen sides. The crew use an old miner's trick. They fill the hole with driftwood, add five gallons of gasoline and toss in a match.

Foolishly, before lighting the fire, they cover the hole with sheets of tin roofing, which fly in all directions following the explosion. Miraculously, nobody is hurt.

·October 17, 1970: The hole is wide enough, but nearly filled with muck and debris. From a month of lifting, Busch and Pfeifer have both developed abdominal pain, and fellow volunteer John Schuessler singlehandedly lifts every heavy bucket of mud out of the hole.

·October 18, 1970: Ten inches of forecast snow fail to materialize. Volunteer Tom Karlin and Bro. Randy McIlvain, SJ climbs into the four excavations to build the rebar reinforcing assembly. The concrete tower foundation and guy anchors are poured starting at 2 PM, work that proceeds into the following morning.   With temperatures approaching zero, Karlin supervises lean-tos and smudge pots. The next evening, one of the lean-tos catches fire.

·October 22, 1970: A crew from Utility Tower Company arrives, paints tower sections and prepares to erect the tower.

·October 26, 1970: The first day of construction, the crew completes the tower to the 160-foot point. The next day, a blizzard and +6° temperatures halt construction for two days.

·October 31, 1970: After three days of actual work, the tower is complete.

·November 1, 1970: The day after tower completion, Nome’s weather brings two continuous weeks of high wind, rain, snow and sleet.

·Mid-November 1970: Bro. Randy McIlvain, SJ uses a tractor to drag a 20-foot by 6-foot shed three miles on the ice-covered gravel road to become the transmitter building. A few years earlier, the mission had purchased the used highway construction shed for $300.

·November 22, 1970: With Tom Busch and John Pfeifer at the 95-foot level and volunteers belaying at ground level, the tower's microwave receive antenna is mounted. Work halts for several more days due to an ice storm, before the antenna's coaxial cable can be attached.

·February 18, 1971: The KNOM Collins 820F-1 transmitter goes on the air for the first time. When Tom Busch presses the high-voltage “on” button, it produces a flash of light and a crackle due to a defective tube, which is quickly replaced.

Within a couple of days, the station tests, using repeating loop tapes of, first, “L.A. International Airport” by Susan Raye, later Anne Murray’s “Snowbird” and Gordon Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read My Mind.” The station receives a few letters of praise, requesting that it vary its music a little more.

·July 13, 1971: Six rare resistors burn out in the KNOM transmitter, threatening its first scheduled broadcast. Volunteer support nurse Kitty Orris happens to be in Anchorage and hand-carries the repair parts on the jet to Nome, arriving the following afternoon.

On the Air!

July 14, 1971: After five months of various technical problems, Bishop Robert Whelan, SJ pushes the remote control button "play" button for one of KNOM's two Scully 280 tape recorders (left), and KNOM signs on for the first time, with 10,000 Watts daytime and 5,000 Watts nights.   At 6PM, Harry Gallagher leads KNOM’s first newscast with a story about walrus hunting in the village of Savoonga.

In the following days, Alex Hills signs on at 7 AM for the morning show, Tom Busch announces 11 AM to 3PM, followed by John Pfeifer from 3 to 7, and Leo Kehs deejays to sign-off at 11PM, with Harry Gallagher producing the first hourly newscasts in Alaska west of Anchorage. All are volunteers.

·July 17, 1971: At 10:00 AM, KNOM broadcasts its first Mass, live from St. Joseph’s Church.

The microphone mixer is borrowed from Studio B every week for this task until spring 1973, when B receives its own audio mixing console. In 1997, the mixer is installed at the transmitter site, to be used in case of a dire emergency that might require the evacuation of Nome.

·July 18, 1971: RCA, which runs Nome’s long distance and emergency communications, complains that KNOM is interfering on the International Distress Frequency of 500 kHz. Shortly after noon, the station voluntarily signs off until the problem is corrected.

·July 25, 1971: Consulting engineer John H. Mullaney has flown to Nome from Washington, DC to supervise the installation of high-voltage filters, and KNOM resumes operation.   Mullaney donates the week's work. Volunteer Don Pike replaces John Pfeifer, who joins Gallagher in news.

Growth



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December 1971: Volunteers hoist a 3-foot lighted star atop KNOM’s 49-foot high studio tower. Over the years, at least five stars are constructed after their predecessors were destroyed by high winds.

March 1972: Winter snow drifts so high that volunteers can walk right up onto the roofs of the buildings. Many Nomeites must dig tunnels to their front doors.

KNOM broadcasts hearings for the Marine Mammal Protection Act, chaired by U.S. Senators Ted Stevens and Mike Gravel, from the Nome courtroom.

·May 1972: KNOM helps a Disney production unit with production of the feature-length film “Tundra Summer,” starring two Nome third grade children. The movie is released with the title “Two Against the Arctic,” featuring a trained polar bear named “Igloo.”

·July 1972: KNOM’s first year on the air is plagued by 69 power outages, one of them 28 hours long. Volunteer Fred Dyen travels to the village of Holy Cross to move a 15 kW World War II generator to Nome to power the studio during emergencies. The mission purchases a 40 kW generator to power the remote transmitter during failures.

·Summer 1972: Dyen and fellow volunteers Les Brown and Chris Brockway construct a prefabricated garage, and a prefab building for the transmitter site generator. By September, both studio and transmitter are protected against power outages.

·October 1972: According to KNOM reports, Diomede Islanders spot an umiaq (OO-mee-ack, a walrus skin boat) from the Russian side floating at the International Date Line. They scramble to gather chewing gum, candy and cigarettes and rush to visit their relatives.

Volunteer support nurses account for more than 90% of KNOM’s operating revenue. According to the “Nome Static,” 182 persons contribute to the mission in October.

·February 1973: Just ahead of the first Iditarod Race, Father Phil Bourret, SJ sends KNOM its first remote broadcast units, retired 1950’s taxicab radios in various states of repair. KNOM’s Iditarod finish is heard live in Anchorage.

·July 1973: Les Brown and Roy Wells fly to the village of Wales to cover the unsuccessful attempt by an Oakland, California man to cross the Bering Strait, carrying one thousand letters of friendship for the Russians, in a bathtub.

·August 1, 1974: KNOM extends its hours an hour each way, broadcasting from 6 AM to midnight.

·September 1974: A new satellite earth station in Nome with a 30-foot dish antenna provides Nome with expanded long distance telephone service, and allows KNOM to air network broadcasts for the first time.

Linked from KYAK-AM in Anchorage, KNOM begins airing four Mutual Radio Network newscasts a day using a scratchy, voice-grade circuit. For other hours, the station continues to use the Associated Press teletype for national and international news, which are mixed with state and local stories into its hourly 5-minute newscasts.

Former KNOM volunteers are now working for Mutual affiliates KYAK and KIAK-AM in Fairbanks, making the link-up possible.
·October 1974: At the transmitter site, KNOM's electric generator repeatedly fails.

·November 11, 1974: A storm surge sends ocean waves crashing over Nome’s buildings, flooding downtown, the power house, and Nome’s satellite communications center. One of Nome’s few links with the outside world is KNOM’s Associated Press teletype machine, which has a keyboard. For two days, volunteer news director Steve Havilland, though a hunt-and-peck typist, keeps Nomeites in touch with family members living elsewhere.   The station broadcasts around the clock. Miraculously, electric generators at both the studio and transmitter site continue to operate through the crisis.

·June 1975: Former volunteer Tom Busch is hired as general manager on a small salary. Busch is the station’s first permanent employee.

·July 14, 1975: At midnight, Jim Tighe (left) begins KNOM’s first all-night entertainment broadcast, in honor of the station’s fourth anniversary.

At 3 AM, Stan Weisbeck takes over, becoming the first person to deejay over KNOM from 3 to 6 AM and PM on the same day.

·August 1975: Brother Normand Berger and Brother Albert Heinrich (left) arrive in Nome, beginning a KNOM relationship with the Brothers of Christian Instruction that would endure into 1992.

· August 1975: Among the incoming volunteer crew is Florence Francis, a Yup'ik Eskimo from the village of St. Marys.

Florence (left, in the station's upstairs office, 1975), works as part-time deejay and part-time secretary.

In 1977, she and general manager Tom Busch marry. She helps the station as time allows, and returns in 1989 to become the station's business manager. (In 1992 the Diocese of Fairbanks establishes anti-nepotism guidelines, but Florence is exempted by Bishop Michael Kaniecki, SJ.)

·October 31, 1975: In his first three months as KNOM news director, Brother Albert has fed Associated Press 34 stories, and ranks as the second most productive correspondent in the state.

·November 1975: Winter hits Nome early, setting low temperature records for seven November days, the coldest, minus 17°, on November 9th.

·December 9-10, 1975: The cold weather continues, bottoming out at minus 40° on these days.

·December 1975: KNOM becomes a full time affiliate of the Mutual Radio Network.

March 28, 1976: U.S. Senator Mike Gravel (grah-VELL) guest deejays during volunteer Jeanne Gabriel's shift (left).

·June 1976: KNOM extends its summer broadcast hours to 2 AM.

·Summer 1976: For five years, the station’s antenna has been plagued by electrical arcing and burning conductors and insulators.

To make daily readings of the antenna power meter easier, volunteer chief engineer Mark Hoelsken moves the antenna tuning unit off a wooden perch near the tower, and attaches it to the side of the transmitter building.

An unintended result of this move is that the antenna problems cease.

·Summer 1976: KNOM broadcasts Mutual Radio’s coverage of both national political conventions gavel-to-gavel. Through the late 1980’s, the station airs presidential press conferences and other national events live. The station is the only source of this information for many of its listeners.

·July 1976:   As the station’s services increase, the facility is clearly inadequate; its 6-foot newsroom and 6-foot Studio C interview room are far too small. The station makes plans for an addition but the money fails to materialize and KNOM continues in its present facility for another 17 years.

·1977: An archaeologist drops by KNOM to thank the station for the previous year's convention broadcasts, which he'd listened to with a small portable radio some 1,000 miles west of Nome, deep in the Soviet Union.

·April 1978: KNOM business manager Therese “Tweet” Burik is honored with the Alaska First Lady’s Volunteer of the Year Award. Burik was a four-year volunteer at St. Marys, and is in her tenth year of volunteering for KNOM.

·July 14, 1978: To celebrate KNOM’s 7th birthday, volunteer Mark Hoelsken accompanies King Islander Dean Pushruk in an umiaq to Sledge Island, 20 miles west of Nome. Using an automobile battery to power a 40-watt remote broadcast transmitter, he deejays from the top of the island.

At the same time, Munz Northern Airlines donates a seat on one of their flights to volunteer Chris Robling. Hoelsken and Robling wave and talk to each other over the air as the small plane circles the island.

·January 1979: Nome is pounded by one snow storm after another, and a block north of KNOM, Steadman Avenue is bordered by walls of snow twelve feet high.

This month, fire engines converge on the "Community House" building after smoke pours from, of all places, under the bathroom shower. An electrical heat tape had short-circuited. Fortunately, the fire broke out during the day and is noticed quickly. Damage is very limited.

·May 1979: This month, in attempt to fill municipal coffers, the City of Nome refuses to grant a tax exemption for the KNOM studios. The city also denies exemptions for the town's Methodist and Lutheran Churches, and several other charitable and religious facilities. The following month, KNOM takes the city to court.

·June 1979: On a medical evacuation to Anchorage, KNOM support volunteer nurse Trese Ptaszynski delivers a baby in a Piper Aztec at about 10,000 feet altitude. Mother and baby are both fine.

·1979: Volunteer support nurses like Trese account for 69.0% of the station’s income. This is the first year that KNOM’s annual reports provide this detail.

·July 1979: Fr. Paul Macke, SJ (left), comes on board as the mission's executive director for a year.

·August 1979: From Salmon, Idaho, volunteer Timothy Cochran (left) joins KNOM.

Timothy serves the mission as a volunteer for three years before leaving to become news director for station KOTZ in Kotzebue, Alaska.

He returns in 1985 and on the departure of Bro. Normand Berger, FIC, becomes KNOM chief engineer; among his duties is the design and installation of all of the electronics in the new 1993 Keller Broadcast Center.

He works tirelessly for KNOM until 1995, when he leaves to be married.

·October 1979: KNOM is honored by its first Gabriel Radio Station of the Year by Unda-USA.

·February 1980: Nome’s electric rates increase to 22.2¢ a kW/h outside city limits, where KNOM’s transmitter now consumes about $7.10 worth of power each hour, some $128 a day.

·May 1980: Volunteer news director Sue Boyle contributes eleven stories to the Associated Press, becoming Alaska’s top correspondent for the month, a KNOM first.

·July 12, 1980: 22-year-old KNOM volunteer news reporter Diana Gardenier is killed on a recreational trip when the Cessna 402 in which she is traveling crashes into a mountain 100 miles southeast of Nome. All eight aboard perished. She is the first KNOM staffer to die while working for the station.

Tom Busch writes, in part: “Knowing Diana, we have learned a little more about faith, about what it means to commit yourself to an ideal, about love and the spark of divinity within every person, in which Diana believed so much.”

·January 1981: Electric rates soar to 25¢/kWh, about $8 per hour for the KNOM transmitter, or $144 per day.

The KNOM/St. Joseph's Parish community grows to 25, too many to fit at the dinner table. Brother Ray Berube, FIC moves a wall, taking five feet from the pastor's office in order to add another table.

Always Improving

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September 28, 1981: KNOM manager Tom Busch is one of eight Alaska broadcasters who speak before the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, D.C. to explain Alaska's unique communications challenges. Tom is allotted 20 minutes of time before the full Commission.

·December 28, 1981: KNOM switches from Mutual to the Associated Press Radio Network, which has just become economically viable. The first AP Network newscast airs at 6 AM, the last Mutual newscast having been 5 PM the previous day.

·1982: Volunteer support nurses account for 66.3% of KNOM’s operating income. Due to KNOM nurses’ objections to abortions and other issues, the Nome hospital is rumored to consider ending its association with KNOM, threatening the station’s existence.

Aided by Alfreda Winnings, development director for Action on Smoking and Health, whom manager Tom Busch has met by pure chance in Washington, DC, the station begins a campaign to attract more contributors by mail. Five years later, as nurses become less available, the campaign is a life saver.

·February 1982: Until now, KNOM has broadcast with 10,000 Watts days and 5,000 nights. Thanks to a new FCC rule change, the station applies to operate with 10,000 full time.

·April 1982: KNOM manager Tom Busch and pioneer Alaska broadcaster Augie Hiebert simultaneously discover plans by Canada to construct new stations that would destroy long distance radio reception in the Alaska bush. They research options that will eliminate this threat.

·May 1982: From Lansing, Michigan, Linda Peters, RN joins KNOM as volunteer support nurse, one of six nurses and two doctors that year whose salaries provide the lion's share of KNOM's operating income.

Linda (left, with "Trapper" in a photo taken about 1989) departs the following year, but returns in 1984 and continues volunteering until 1991. Among the 71 nurses who supported KNOM, Linda's tenure is the longest by far.

·June 7, 1982: As incoming president for the Alaska Broadcasters Association, Busch introduces their convention’s guest speaker Walter Cronkite before an audience of 600 at the Anchorage Sheraton Hotel, an event broadcast statewide television. (At left, Cronkite speaks, with Florence and Tom Busch in the foreground.)

·December 1, 1982: Under Busch’s leadership, the Alaska Broadcasters Association files a petition for rulemaking with the FCC, requesting distant signal strength protection for KNOM and fifteen other Alaska stations. Busch, Hiebert and others fly to Washington, DC to lobby.

·January 1983: Using ten miles of cable, chief engineer Bro. Normand Berger, FIC rewires the KNOM studios, which have grown extremely messy over twelve years of additions and change.

·April 13, 1983: The FCC approves KNOM’s request to broadcast with 10,000 Watts at night, and the station immediately does so at sunset this evening.

·July 1983: KNOM wins its lawsuit against the City of Nome, as Kotzebue Superior Court Judge Paul Jones rules that KNOM should be exempted from taxation for charitable, religious and educational grounds. The City takes the matter to the Alaska Supreme Court.

·October 1983: For the first time, inspirational spots appear in the “Nome Static” newsletter. The first one reads: “When we see the lilies of the field spinning in distress, worried how to create beauty; when we see all the birds building barns to store, then it will be time to worry. Until then...trust Him.”

·July 1984: KNOM converts from playing vinyl LP’s and 45 RPM records to audio tapes, using four reel-to-reel tape players. This helps standardize the music and makes deejaying far easier. Volunteer music director Damien Berger gets the “Perseverance of the Month” award for recording eighty one-hour tapes.

·August 1984: From Albany, Oregon, Ric Schmidt joins KNOM as volunteer program director.

Ric departs after one year, and a few months later, marries fellow former KNOM volunteer Lynette Berger (the two shown at left in 1985 at the Iditarod finish line).

In Portland, Oregon, Ric is founding general manager of Catholic radio station KBVM-FM, which he serves for seven years.

In 1995, Ric returns as salaried program director for the KNOM mission, supervising everything that goes over the air.

On April 13, 2005, he ascends to general manager.

·September 13, 1984: At the Alaska Broadcasters Association annual meeting in Fairbanks, Busch meets a representative of Nautel, Ltd., a Nova Scotia manufacturer which has recently introduced transistorized 10,000 Watt transmitters. Installing one would cost about $60,000, but it would save KNOM $20,000 a year in electric power after that. The station begins to plan.

·October 25, 1984: After nearly two years of lobbying, intervention by Senator Ted Stevens and five inches of paperwork, the FCC grants KNOM and other high power Alaskan stations protection against interference that is beyond what is afforded large Lower 48 stations. The threat from Canada is over.

·1985: Everyone on the staff realizes that the station’s buildings need to be replaced. The work spaces are cramped. More importantly, the old “temporary” 1941 buildings are becoming dangerous and increasingly difficult to maintain. The problem: it’s far more expensive than KNOM can afford. (Left: Volunteer Marie Dieringer in Studio A, 1982)

·April 1985: KNOM learns of a reindeer herder on the Alaska coast who wards off grizzly bears with a radio tuned to KNOM. When a bear approaches, he turns the radio to full volume and that does the trick.

·May 1985: The crew prepares for KNOM’s new transistorized transmitter. Part of the project involves superinsulating the transmitter building with panels of foam. That’s because waste heat from the old transmitter currently keeps the building above freezing. The waste from the new transmitter is almost nothing.

·July 1985: The new energy-efficient Nautel transmitter is installed. The old transmitter is sold to a second-hand dealer in Oklahoma City; the sale pays for one-third of the project. The rest is recovered by electric savings over the next two years.

·October 4, 1985: The Alaska Supreme Court declares that KNOM must be exempted from taxation, on religious, charitable and educational grounds, ending a six-year battle with the City of Nome.

A significant number of Alaska statutes related to tax exemptions are rewritten the following year and footnoted "Catholic Bishop of Northern Alaska vs. City of Nome."

·1987: A shortage of nurses and new hospital policies reduce KNOM’s roster of support nurses to one, whose donated salary amounts to 13.1% of KNOM’s income. The first five years of KNOM’s mail donor campaign have kicked in to pick up the rest, just in time.

·August 7, 1987: Long distance swimmer Lynne Cox swims the frigid Bering Strait between Alaska and the Soviet Union. KNOM volunteer Claire Richardson is aboard one of the small support boats.

KNOM receives a telephone call from Alaska’s Little Diomede Island. On the Russian beach, Richardson has transmitted a report via Citizens Band radio, which a Diomeder has tape recorded. It is illegal to gather news via CB (and extremely illegal to use a CB transmitter in the Soviet Union!), but the tape already exists, and KNOM decides to air it, so as not to upset the people of Diomede.

·August 1987: Paul Korchin (left) joins KNOM as volunteer news reporter.

Paul departs after two years, and returns in 1998 to become the station's news director.

Paul is the only KNOM'er in history to hold a doctoral degree. He earns a PhD in ancient Middle Eastern languages from Harvard University, completing his requirements on a six-month leave of absence from the mission in spring 2001.

·October, 1987: “With joy and humility,” KNOM accepts the two top broadcasting awards in the United States in the space of one week, the National Association of Broadcasters Crystal Award for Excellence and the Gabriel Radio Station of the Year.

It is KNOM’s third such Gabriel.

The same month, KNOM erects a 15-foot satellite receiving dish (left) to pick up the AP Radio Network in high fidelity. From 1988 to 1999 the dish is also used to receive daily news programs from the Alaska Public Radio Network.

The dish is aimed at the Westar I satellite, which is only 1.1 degree above the horizon, so low, its signal passing through so much signal-absorbing atmosphere, that according to conventional wisdom, it won't work. In fact, during damp summer days, the signal periodically drops out.

·October 11, 1987: As volunteer Therese Horvath can speak fluent Russian, KNOM premiers the “KNOM Radio Bridge to Siberia,” with news of interest to both sides of the border in English and Russian.

The program is later more accurately labeled a bridge to “Chukotka,” and upon Horvath’s departure, is aired in English and Siberian Yupik. It continues weekly until July 31, 1995.

·December 1987: The “Nome Static” is offset printed for the first time. It’s sent to 4,000 people now, and that’s the upper limit for a mimeograph. Mission staff fear that contributors will complain that it looks too expensive. Instead, the universal response is “we can read it now!”

·June 13, 1988: KNOM volunteer Claire Richardson is Alaska’s pool radio reporter on a precedent-setting trip to Provideniya, USSR in the Alaska Airlines 737 “Friendship Flight.” Her live reports are carried by over a dozen radio stations throughout the state.

Unethically, a commercial station in Anchorage submits one of Richardson's KNOM reports and wins "Best Newscast" from the Alaska Broadcasters Association.

·August 1988: From Canton, MA, volunteer Katy Clark (left, in 1988) joins KNOM as announcer/office assistant. In her second year, Katy becomes news director. A year later, she rejoins KNOM as salaried program director, and serves the mission for a total of five years before leaving for a career in Boston public radio.

·January 27, 1989: Nome hits an all time low temperature of      -54° F. The volunteers discover that legendary advice from Bishop Whelan is true: if you toss a cup of boiling water into the air when the temperature is below minus fifty, the water disappears into a cloud of vapor with a soft "poof."

In a stroke of bad luck, the furnace which heats the “Community House” volunteer dorm, St. Joseph’s Church and another dorm quits that day. Maintenance chief Bro. Ray Berube, FIC, forces a smile as the buildings begin to freeze, fixing the boiler just in time.

·July 4, 1989: Walking on the main street of Provideniya, USSR, Tom Busch encounters a young English teacher who recognizes his voice from the radio.

·August 8, 1989: Following a visit to Nome, where he stayed with the KNOM volunteers, Our Sunday Visitor editor Fr. Owen Campion writes of KNOM in his weekly column: “it is a treasure of Catholic evangelization in the United States.”

·December 21, 1989: Sitnasuak (SITT-nah-swahk) Native Corporation, which owns the KNOM transmitter site land, donates the property to the station.

Major Overhaul

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1990: It’s clear that the radio mission will not survive in its old buildings (left), which are, literally, falling apart. The “Nome Static” pleads for help and for prayer. Manager Tom Busch, engineer Timothy Cochran and local architect Rudy Rudisel work out a “survival plan,” which includes a six-page sequence of events that will allow KNOM to remain on the air while everything is replaced on the same property.

·July 1990: Although KNOM does not have money to replace them, Bro. Ray Berube, FIC begins to demolish the mission’s most dangerous buildings. He starts with Gleeson Hall (left, in 1988), and discovers that much of its wiring is charred. Some interior walls collapse after a single blow from a sledge hammer.

·November 11, 1990: A few days after demolishing the “Crooked House” girls’ dormitory, Brother Ray leaves, having completed eleven years of service as KNOM maintenance chief.

·February 1991: Snow drifts to the rooftops in Nome.

·July 1991: The staff considers it miraculous: KNOM has been given enough funds to replace the volunteer dormitory. The 50-year-old “temporary” Community House dorm is cut in two and hauled away.   Pilings are sunk 50 feet into the ground to support a new 80-foot tower for KNOM’s microwave dishes.

·August 24, 1991: Builder Pat Hahn sets the first beams for the new volunteer dorm.

It has been named “The Luella Poole Community House." (Left, Luella Poole with volunteer Mary Pat McElligott in 1977).

Luella lived in Nome from 1966 through 1979, when at the age of 83, she retired to Washington state.

She died in 1983, having imprinted loving memories in the hearts of a generation of KNOM volunteers.

·August 1991: Contractor Rod Ewing stick-builds the new tower, behind where the new radio station will sit.

·April 15, 1992: Volunteers move into the new dormitory.

·April 1992: Volunteer Jim Lawhon covers the “Hope” sled dog race from Nome to Anadyr, Russia, spending an adventuresome two weeks in the Russian Far East.

·June 22, 1992: The first piling is set for the KNOM studio building, and its first wall rises two weeks later (left).

One-third of its $438,000 cost is paid for by large grants from the Knights of Columbus and the Keller Foundation; two-thirds are provided by extraordinary gifts by KNOM benefactors, a few large ones and many, many small ones.

One donor contributes $40,000 anonymously in the form of two cashier’s checks.

·July 19, 1992: Bishop Michael Kaniecki celebrates Mass in the newly completed dorm and offers a blessing.

A donor provides an immense cake which reads “God bless this house and all who live in it, today and always.”

·September 1992: KNOM is presented with National Association of Broadcasters’ “Religious Station of the Year” Marconi Award.

·January 1993: Chief Engineer Timothy Cochran (left, with KNOM Christmas Star) begins the massive task of wiring and interconnecting the new studios.

·April 1993: Volunteer Cherie Collins travels to Lavrentia, Russia to cover the Hope sled dog race. As she telephones a report, she passes along a record request on behalf of her Russian host. Hearing her children’s names over the air, the woman exclaims “fantastic, like a fairy tale!”

·April 23, 1993. Forty staff members and former volunteers crowd the front office of the almost-completed Keller Broadcast Building, as Bishop Michael J. Kaniecki, SJ, celebrates a dedication Mass.

A flower poster is filled with handwritten prayers by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace in Bellevue, Washington. One sister writes: “each day I will pray that God’s Love will abound in your life, and that all of you at the radio station may be led to deeper love and compassion for other people.”

·May 17, 1993: Eight minutes past midnight, KNOM signs off from the old studio building; tape cartridge machines and microphones are moved, and at 5:53 AM, KNOM-AM signs on from its new studios.

Also at 5:53 AM, KNOM-FM signs on for the first time.   The low-powered FM transmits KNOM’s signal in extremely high fidelity stereo.

·October 1993: The new KNOM studio is extremely energy-efficient, unlike the old building, which consumed over 4,500 gallons of fuel oil a year. The fuel delivery man is furious, storming into the KNOM studios. “I climbed all the way up to the top of your tank,” he fumes, “and since April, you’ve only used six gallons!”

·November 1993: The World War II studio emergency generator is replaced by a new 12 kW unit, which the staff hopes will last the mission into the indefinite future. Within a few years, they learn that a much larger generator is necessary. Operating near its capacity, a smaller generator produces a voltage waveform that is not satisfactory to computer systems.

·January 14, 1994: Once again president of the Alaska Broadcasters Association, Tom Busch presents a plaque to FCC Commissioner James Quello in the Commissioner’s Washington, DC office. FCC Chairman Reed Hundt stops by for a visit.

·July 12, 1994: A polar bear, stranded by the spring’s fast departing ice, attempts to swim past Nome en route north. Authorities ask KNOM not to publicize the bear’s presence, hoping that it will swim out to sea without endangering humans. As the bear approaches homes, however, KNOM broadcasts warnings to stay away. Word of mouth has already attracted a crowd and officials shoot the bear. The station is criticized by some for not initially publicizing the danger, and by others for later doing just that.

At 4 AM a few days later, witnesses spot a moose casually ambling down Nome’s Front Street.

·July 22, 1994: KNOM begins using the Prophet System “Wizard for Windows” computer system for recording and playing spots and news interviews, replacing tape cartridges.

·August 1994: Anne Irsefeld, RN (left) departs after a year of volunteering. She is the last of 71 generous nurses (and four doctors) who, since 1968, lived as volunteers and supported KNOM by contributing their entire salaries. KNOM is actively recruiting for more nurses, but the prospects are no longer out there.

·February 1995: Nome endures several days of -60° wind chills. At the nearby Tin City Air Force site, the wind chills exceed -100°, prompting former military chaplain, now Nome pastor Fr. John Hinsvark to recall that at least once, Tin City’s hourly weather observation was officially “blowing snow and blowing rocks.”

·April 1995: After three years as spot producer and news reporter and ten years as chief engineer, Timothy Cochran departs KNOM.

·July 16, 1995: Former KNOM volunteer Ric Schmidt rejoins the station as salaried program director, following seven years as general manager of Portland, Oregon Catholic station KBVM-FM.

·January 1996: In a casual telephone conversation, Tom Busch discusses with Les Brown the desperate need for a new transmitter building; the current one is an old highway shed that is falling apart. Brown, a former volunteer and fellow broadcast engineer, suggests that KNOM consider increasing power at the same time.

·January 9, 1996: Thanks to a major upgrade to the “Wizard for Windows” system financed by the Keller Foundation, KNOM begins 24-hour operation, 7 days a week. For the next five years, the station is only off the air a handful of nights for scheduled maintenance.

·July 14, 1996: Bishop Michael Kaniecki, SJ celebrates Sunday Mass in St. Joseph’s Church as part of the station’s 25th anniversary celebration, which is attended by several supporters and former volunteers. Nome Mayor John Handeland and Alaska Governor Tony Knowles proclaim Sunday “KNOM Day.”

·September 24, 1996: KNOM applies to broadcast with 25,000 Watts days and 14,000 Watts nights.

Since it would impact Russian territory, the application can be vetoed by the Russian government. Over lunch, four-star General Joseph Ralston, the second ranking military officer in the United States, tells Alaska broadcast pioneer Augie Hiebert that if the Russian civilian authorities cause KNOM trouble, he will ask his friends in the Russian military to change their minds.

·October 25, 1996: Rain, sleet and snow hammer workers as they drill for a new transmitter building’s first piling. The crew hits a pocket of wet sand, which greatly slows progress.

·November-December 1996: In addition to blizzard warnings, KNOM also broadcasts volcanic ash advisories, due to the eruption of Mount Pavlof, some 600 miles to the south.

·February 12, 1997: Former volunteer and news director Tom Bunger builds KNOM’s virtual domain, www.knom.org.   Bunger remains webmaster through 2000.

·March 1997: The “Nome Static” reports that in a travel agency’s survey of “pleasantness of weather” ranking 600 towns worldwide, Nome ranks absolute last.

·April 17, 1997: The FCC grants KNOM a construction permit for 25,000 Watts.

·May 1997: This is the first issue of the “Nome Static” to be available on line. Every issue from this month to the present is available at www.knom.org/static.htm.

·July 7, 1997: The new transmitter building, painstakingly shielded by silver-soldered copper screening, is sided and its interior dry wall complete. KNOM plans to switch over to the building on the Feast of the Assumption, August 15.

(Left) Linda Raab, a 1985-86 volunteer who periodically flies to Nome to help with Iditarod Race coverage and other things, painstakingly sands grounding wires for the building's screening.)

·August 16, 1997: Missing the self-imposed deadline by one day, KNOM switches to the new building at 2:08 AM. The station is using a new Nautel 25,000 Watt transmitter, at a reduced power of 10,000 Watts.

·September 18, 1997: A new 66 kW emergency generator arrives for the transmitter site. It is stored in town, pending construction of a building for it.

·September 26, 1997: KNOM general manger Tom Busch is inducted into the Alaska Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame.

·October 1997: Four pilings are in the ground for the new generator building, but contractor Randy Pomeranz is busy with other jobs and does not begin the KNOM building before the onset of winter.

·Late January 1998: With the mercury at minus 30°, carpenter Fred Lammer prefabricates the generator building walls inside the living room of a house under construction.

·February 1998:   Bishop Kaniecki, SJ appoints former KNOM volunteer Fr. Mark Hoelsken, SJ (left) as the station’s spiritual director.

Hoelsken continues to pastor several remote villages two hundred miles south of Nome.

·February 3, 1998: The temperature rockets to near freezing. Contractor Randy Pomeranz plows the KNOM transmitter road, constructs the generator building and installs the generator unit. The temperature drops to normal, and further work is suspended until late spring.

·February 5, 1998: The FCC grants KNOM’s application to increase power to 25,000 Watts days and 14,000 Watts nights, which the station immediately does.

·May 14, 1998: A Cessna Caravan with ten people aboard crashes three miles north of Nome, in near zero visibility. KNOM broadcasts frequent live reports from search and rescue headquarters and from the scene as rescuers battle heavy snow and fog looking for the aircraft.

This is one of many crashes covered by KNOM over the years, but it is unique in that the passengers, all of whom survived with minor injuries, were following the progress of their search using a portable radio tuned to KNOM.

·June 1998: The new transmitter emergency generator is wired, tested, and on line.

·August 1998: Tom Busch is the first North American to be honored by Unda World’s Agnellus Andrew Award. Tom accepts the honor in Montreal, Quebec, with Bishop Michael J. Kaniecki, SJ by his side.

·October 1998: A fiberglass guy wire insulator at 220 feet above ground burns through, dropping the guy wire. Fortunately, the wind is blowing from exactly the right direction to hold the tower erect. Tower expert Rod Ewing rushes to Nome from Anchorage and secures a temporary line. Minutes later, the wind shifts.

The insulator and eleven others which were scheduled for replacement next year, are swapped out immediately.

·January 8, 1999: A brutal storm packing 100 MPH winds on the open tundra drops a power line. KNOM’s new emergency generator keeps the station on the air for the 26 hours it takes for crews to restore power.

·May-June 1999: Thanks to the gifts of a single donor, KNOM distributes high quality antenna boosters to 713 families in 43 villages. The project, in the form of a contest over the air, was intended to hand out only 200 boosters, but it is so popular that it is continued. The giveaway, which greatly increased distant listenership, cost approximately $35,000.

(Left) KNOM office assistant Connie Albers demonstrates one of the boosters.

·November 1999: The studio emergency generator is replaced with a much larger 55 kW new unit. Sale of the existing generator pays for 60% of the cost of the new one.

The New Century

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2000: Tom Busch calculates that in lowered maintenance, fuel and utility costs, the new buildings save KNOM an astonishing average $85,276 a year.

·April 2000: KNOM accepts its second NAB Crystal Award for Excellence.

·June 10, 2000: At a gala Washington, DC event for Crystal Award winners and others, program director Ric Schmidt meets former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Roslyn.

·July 30, 2000: Thanks to a special gift, KNOM broadcasts St. Joseph Parish’s Jubilee pilgrimage Mass from Pilgrim Hot Springs, a former mission orphanage (Nome pastor Fr. John Hinsvark distributes Holy Communion in the mission chapel, left).

The $4,000 hookup, via Inmarsat satellite, beams to Perth, Australia, and is routed through France and the Lower 48, then a final satellite hop to Nome.

·August 12, 2000: Live from Fairbanks, KNOM broadcasts the two-hour funeral Mass for Bishop Michael J. Kaniecki, SJ, who died six days earlier.

·October 2000: KNOM accepts its eighth Gabriel Radio Station of the Year Award.

·October 6, 2000: Peter Van Nort of KIAK Fairbanks (KNOM 1973-75) is named to the Alaska Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame, the second KNOM veteran to be so honored.

·January 17, 2001: Volunteer Victoria Pasquantonio flies to Anadyr, Russia to cover the inauguaration of the region’s governor, oil oligarch Ramon Abramovich.     Some 500 miles east of Nome with a population of about 7,000, Anadyr is the closest town of that size to Nome.

·May 2001: Eastlan Resources conducts a scientific audience measurement survey in Nome and five villages. Nome has three radio signals besides KNOM; each of the villages has at leas one. One of the villages gives KNOM 100% of its listenership. Overall, KNOM’s audience is 80.1% of the region’s adult population.

·June 29, 2001: Following six months of educational leave, KNOM news director Paul Korchin returns to the station, having earned a PhD in ancient Middle Eastern languages from Harvard University.

·July 14, 2001: KNOM’s thirtieth anniversary coincides, not by accident, with the ordination to the priesthood of former KNOM volunteer Ross Tozzi, in St. Joseph’s Church in Nome (left).
Links to many images.

September 2001: KNOM receives the Alaska Broadcasters Association's highest honor, the Community Service Award, for its March 2001 series "Kids Behind Bars." Over five days, the blitz of programs detailed many issues surrounding bush Alaska's juvenile justice system.

October 2001:   Tom Busch flies to Washington, DC to discuss the station's unorthodox request for higher night-time power with the FCC's top engineers. At San Antionio, Texas on that same trip, he accepts KNOM's sixth straight Gabriel Radio Station of the Year (left, as Dallas Co-Adjutor Bishop Joseph Galante and entertainer Vikki Carr look on).

January 2002: Busch is summoned to Miami, Florida, where America's bishops have called a meeting of New Evangelization of America, a group formed at the request of Pope John Paul II to organize Catholic radio and television stations.

August 22, 2002: In a broadcast produced by former KNOM'er Peter Van Nort with Fr. Mark Hoelsken, SJ providing commentary, KNOM airs the ordination of Bishop Donald Kettler live from Fairbanks.

·October 2002: Nobody has been keeping an exact count, but sometime this month, KNOMers estimate that the station broadcasts its 1,000,000th inspirational spot.

October 19, 2002: In Universal City, California, Tom Busch accepts KNOM's tenth Gabriel "Radio Station of the Year" Award. He acknowledges the mission's excellent staff and faithful contributors.

October 29, 2002: Transported via National Guard Blackhawk helicopter, KNOM volunteer Julia Dunlap accompanies U.S. Senator Ted Stevens on an overnight visit to incredibly isolated Little Diomede, Alaska (left). It was the first time that the tiny village in the Bering Strait had hosted a statewide elected official. "I didn't realize you were this remote," Stevens said.

·March 17, 2003:     Thanks to a narrow window of opportunity just announced by the FCC, KNOM applies for thirteen translator stations, low-power transmitters to bring a clear signal into some of the more distant villages, or points which have difficulty hearing the station.

(Left) This image notes all of the proposed translator locations.

KNOM has tried to establish such repeaters in the villages of Kaltag and Shishmaref for two years, but the FCC has "frozen" applications for several years. Consulting engineer Jack Mullaney suggests that KNOM take advantage of this unusual chance, and apply for more. Except for Shishmaref, which is Lutheran, all of the translators would be located at a village's Catholic church.

·April 2003: In Las Vegas, Tom Busch accepts KNOM's third Crystal Award for Excellence in Community Service. (Left) Before making a few brief remarks to the audience, Tom is photographed with National Association of Broadcasters CEO Eddie Fritts and Radio Board Chair Virginia Morris.

·August 29, 2003: KNOM files the final applications for eleven of its proposed translator stations. Two of the villages, Chefornak and Nightmute, had been accidentally removed from a list of approved locations by the FCC, and are to be filed sometime later.

·October 2, 2003: In Philadelphia, Busch accepts KNOM's second Marconi Religious Station of the Year Award from the National Association of Broadcasters.   In his speech, he notes that his father had been born 102 years before, just six blocks west of the convention center.

·March 16, 2004: The KNOM crew are shocked. As part of a broad stroke that eliminates 14,000 applications nationwide, the Federal Communications Commission dismisses all eleven of KNOM's translator applications.

·April 16, 2004: KNOM files for reinstatement of its translator applications. As with the original applications, the work is donated by Washington, DC consulting engineer Jack Mullaney and attorney Chris Ornelas of Wilkinson, Barker, Knauer LLP.

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·May 24, 2004: “Praising an esteemed son’s admirable response to Jesus’ call,” Boston College confers upon alumnus Tom Busch an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters.
Two dozen KNOM benefactors join in the celebration.
The night before, speaking at a black tie dinner attended by 500 university bigwigs and top benefactors, Tom publicly shares the honor equally with wife Florence and with all of KNOM’s present and past staff and benefactors.

·June 15, 2004: Tom flies to Anchorage to have dinner with FCC Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy, who is touring Alaska.
Abernathy agrees that the agency should not impede KNOM’s translator project, denying award-winning educational programming to impoverished minorities.
A week later, an FCC staffer calls Tom with word that KNOM’s applications are in order and are likely to be approved.

·July 2004: KNOM volunteer Clinton White flies 250 miles north of Nome, the last hundred above the Arctic Circle, to visit the Red Dog zinc mine.
Tucked away in a remote corner of northwest Alaska, it’s the world’s largest zinc mine, believed to hold the largest deposit of the metal in the world.

This month, volunteer Amy Flaherty becomes a salaried staff member, with the title public affairs director. She continues to anchor the KNOM morning show.

·August 2004: Into her second year, volunteer Anna Dummer switches jobs, from music director to archive specialist.
In addition to deejaying afternoons, Anna digitally preserves and catalogs KNOM’s hundreds of hours of tapes from the past, including programs, spots and jingles.

There’s troubling health news.
KNOM reports on a study released by the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.
According to the group, while Lower 48 cancer death rates declined during the 1990’s, cancer death rates among Alaska Natives increased.
Sixty years ago, cancer did not kill many Alaska Natives. For the most part, people died of infectious diseases.
For example, in the 1940s, 43 percent of all Alaska Native deaths were due to tuberculosis. By the 1990s, cancer had become the leading cause of death.
Smoking may be a factor, as may be Arctic pollution.

·September 21, 2004: The FCC grants all eleven village translators. KNOM has three years from this day to construct them.

·October 2004: The debut episode of “Elder Voices” is honored with a Communicator Crystal Award.

This month, KNOM volunteer Katie Ringenbach is in the village of Wales, just 27 miles from Russian Big Diomede Island. She’s there to research “Eskimo baseball.”
“It’s a bit like cricket,” Katie says, unable to fully explain the rules.

·October 10, 2004: Bishop Donald Kettler is in Nome to celebrate today’s Sunday Mass, broadcast by KNOM.
It is a Mass of Reconciliation.
The bishop appeals to anyone who may have been abused in any way by a representative of the Church to come forward to seek healing.
To those who feel angry and betrayed, he asks that they focus on the words “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed.”

·October 19, 2004: A powerful storm centered west of Nome raises the ocean level by ten feet. Its winds stir up ten-foot waves on top of that.
The town loses electricity as ocean water floods homes and tosses immense logs and rocks the size of watermelons across Front Street, Nome’s main road (left).
Powered by its standby diesel generators, KNOM is a conduit for emergency information, providing live continuous coverage as anxious listeners tune in for news and information using battery-powered radios.
For the first time in its history, KNOM activates the Emergency Alert System.
Forecasters call the storm surge a “once in a hundred year” event.

·October 22, 2004: In Los Angeles, program director Ric Schmidt accepts KNOM’s twelfth Gabriel “Radio Station of the Year.”

·November 5, 2004: Ric Scmidt (left) is elected president of the Alaska Broadcasters Association.

Among KNOM’s Goldie Awards is Best Radio Web Page, for the fourth year in a row.
Once again, an Andrew McDonnell-penned Christmas play, “Miracle on 35th Street,” wins Best Radio Entertainment Program.
Now teaching in Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, Andrew writes 2004’s opus, “Warm Globally, Swim Locally,” which volunteer Liz Recchia produces.

·December 1, 2004: Amy Flaherty airs the first “Alaska Native History Day by Day” spot, based upon a book by the Cook Inlet Region, Inc. Foundation, using the material with CIRI’s permission. At first, Amy produces a new spot every two weeks.

Topics discussed on KNOM this month include cancer detection and treatment, underage drinking, fire prevention, Native teachers and employment, food preparation, mammograms, winter safety, domestic violence prevention and treatment, prenatal health care and the responsibilities of citizenship.

·December 24, 2004: A deadly storm is approaching and KNOM broadcasts ten minutes of weather warnings every hour. The gale strikes at 11 PM, dropping visibility to near zero until suppertime Christmas Day. Residents estimate that as it funnels and gusts around the buildings of Nome, the wind’s velocity exceeds 80 MPH.

·January 2005: Tom Busch installs a new mixing console in Studio C. Some of the areas underneath the counter that need attention are physically awkward to reach, and volunteer Anna Dummer offers to hook up the most difficult spots (left).

·January 18, 2005: The Matthew Owens murder trial begins in Nome Superior Court.
KNOM receives Judge Ben Esch’s permission to record the trial, and news director Paul Korchin is allocated a seat in the front row of the courtroom.
Paul produces two lengthy news summaries each dayh, and doubles as reporter for the Associated Press.

This month, Amy Flaherty is in Savoonga for a community wellness conference, aimed at combatting serious problems in the village, among them, a recent rash of teen suicide attempts.
She learns that the whistling one hears in the villages of Gambell and Savoonga is actually a way of communicating in Siberian Yupik, the language of St. Lawrence Island.
Amy produces a "KNOM Profile" on the subject and discovers that the whistled language comes as news, even to some experts in Alaska Native languages.

For a few days this month, volunteer Anna Dummer flies north to Barrow to cover a more positive event, a series of basketball games.
Volunteer Liz Recchia is in the village of White Mountain for the opening of a new learning center, and volunteer Jenny Holtorf is also in the air, to the village of Stebbins for their annual Yup’ik dance festival.

·February 11, 2005: Tom Busch is called to the stand in the Matthew Owens trial. Thanks to meticulous records kept by the KNOM news department, Tom pins down the exact minute that Julia Dunlap’s first news story aired, alerting Nome that young Sonya Ivanoff was missing.

·February 21, 2005: Anna Dummer is aboard a KC-135 tanker bound for two days in Hawaii, part of her work with Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve. There is no cost to KNOM.
Not surprisingly, she is the first KNOMer in the station’s history to be dispatched to Hawaii on official business.

·February 28, 2005: The Owens jury deadlocks in a mistrial.

·March 2005: Paul Korchin files 147 interviews from along the Iditarod Trail. Over the 15-day course of the race, KNOM broadcasts 171 scheduled updates and carries live 61 of the 63 finishes.

This month, discussion at the station focuses on an increase in daytime power to 50,000 watts.
Doing so will allow many translators to be fed by a radio receiver, rather than by satellite, at a savings of up to $10,000 per location per year.

·April 12, 2005: Tom and Florence Busch move from Nome to Anchorage, Tom remaining KNOM’s financial officer, development director and preventive maintenance engineer.
Ric Schmidt becomes general manager, and Kelly Brabec is promoted to program director.

·April 17, 2005: In Las Vegas, Ric Schmidt accepts KNOM’s fourth Crystal Award for Excellence in Community Service.
Only two other stations, WUSL Philadelphia and KIRO Seattle, have been given four Crystals since the award’s inception in 1987.

·May 17, 2005: Tom Busch installs a Nautel FM-1 transmitter, raising KNOM-FM’s effective radiated power to 1,000 watts.

·August 3, 2005: He’s third in line for the United States presidency, and Secret Service agents sweep the KNOM building before Senator Ted Stevens arrives to conduct a press conference.
A picture in the Nome Static of Stevens with a KNOM mug is reminiscent of the Associated Press image of November 13, 1980.

·September 22, 2005: For the second year in a row, Nome is hit by a “once in a hundred years” storm.
The town loses power, and KNOM’s transmitter site generator keeps the station on the air for 134 hours until electricity is restored.
General manager Ric Schmidt, on the East Coast to accept a Gabriel Award, dashes home early.
The storm rips siding off the west studio wall.
More than eighty feet above ground, the KNOM Christmas star is hit by flying debris and severely damaged.

·September 24, 2005: In Silver Spring, Maryland, program director Kelly Brabec stands in for Ric Schmidt, receiving KNOM’s 13th “Radio Station of the Year” Gabriel Award.

·October 25, 2005: A second Matthew Owens trial begins in Kotzebue, 180 miles north of Nome. Paul Korchin is there, returning home only on weekends. It’s the first time that the station has so extensively covered an event that occurs outside of Nome.

·November 4, 2005: For the seventh time, the Alaska Broadcasters Association presents KNOM with its “Best Service to the Community” Goldie Award.
At ABA’s annual convention in Anchorage, Ric Schmidt is elected to a second term as president (left).

·December 6, 2005: The Owens verdict is guilty, and KNOM scores another first, as listeners hear it read live in the Kotzebue courtroom.

·December 12, 2005: The people of Nome miss the KNOM Christmas star. Volunteers Eric Guthier and Liz Recchia locate the star’s power switch and flip it on to see what happens. The star is in tatters, “extremely sad” in Amy Flaherty’s words, but townsfolk say it’s better than nothing.

Business manager Lynette Schmidt suggests a spiritual parallel. "Jesus comes to us so we may bring light to those around us,” she says. “Sometimes, our light isn't perfect, but it's light nonetheless."

·January 2006: Due to rising fuel costs, KNOM’s monthly utilities now total a staggering $9,500.
The mission faces a dilemma. Satellite costs to feed the station’s pending village translators has been priced at $130,000 a year. Increasing daytime power to 50,000 Watts would cost about $40,000 a year and would eliminate several translators. Currently, there is money for neither project.

With the Alaska legislature back in session a distant 1,100 miles away, volunteer reporter Jesse Zink revives “Juneau Journal,” a weekly program that discusses bills that could affect rural Alaskans.

·January 12, 2006, 12:21 AM Alaska time: a radio hobbyist in Sherwood, Oregon is the first person in KNOM’s 35-year history to hear the station from the Lower 48.

Over the next few months, KNOM receives an unusual number of reception reports from abroad, indicating that Jesse Zink’s voice was heard in Sweden, Ric Schmidt’s was heard in Australia, Amy Flaherty’s was heard in Norway, and all three were heard in Japan.

·March 2006: Nome Static Transmission 486 shows business manager Lynette Schmidt and daughter Rosa opening their family’s “freezer”. It’s a Rubbermaid tub on their back porch. On the average in Nome, temperatures don’t rise above freezing until mid-April.

This month, general manager Schmidt’s life includes contrasts. One week, he is in Washington, DC lobbying Alaska’s congressional delegation. The next, he’s teetering on a 13-foot stepladder in 50 MPH winds, throwing salt on KNOM’s rooftop satellite dish, in order to melt snow and ice that were blocking its signal.

Meanwhile, the station plans for a power increase to 50,000 Watts.

·May 2006: With migratory birds arriving from Asia, a focus of KNOM’s public affairs programming is to prepare listeners for the possibility of an avian influenza pandemic.
The effort is capped with a marathon 75-minute call-in featuring top state game and emergency officials.

·May 19, 2006: Schmidt, financial officer Tom Busch and thirty other broadcasters spend the evening with FCC commissioner Deborah Tate in Anchorage.
Ric moderates the informal session, and Tom conducts a Power Point presentation on the unique nature of rural Alaska.
This month, KNOM passes a full “alternative” FCC inspection by engineer Ken Benner, who calls KNOM one of the finest of the 8,000 stations he has inspected over eleven years.

For KNOM office assistant Robyn Woyte and young children Steven and Gracie, it’s a short but joyous Hawaiian get-together with huband and dad John, who is halfway through a one-year tour of duty in Iraq. He’s a major in the Alaska Army National Guard; she’s a retired National Guard captain who once piloted Black Hawk helicopters.

·June 2006: KNOMers think it’s cool when volunteer production director Eric Guthier answers the phone, and it’s long distance from Tokyo, Japan, asking us to send a birthday greeting to a listener in the village of Gambell.
After checking, they discover that Tokyo is only 2,997 miles distant, closer to Nome than Moose Factory, Ontario!

This month, tower rigger Josh Morris gives the KNOM tower new coats of aviation white and orange paint. Josh and his dad Bill plumb the 236-foot structure, and note that the north guy anchor, a chunk of concrete, is shifting in the permafrost. It’s not immediately serious, but will need attention in a few years.
Les Brown has repaired the KNOM Christmas Star, and Josh remounts it atop the 80-foot tower at the studio.

·July 2006: Public affairs director Amy Flaherty is in Barrow, covering the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, a once-in-four-years gathering of northern peoples from around the world.
During her week there, 520 miles from Nome, she bumps into several Prudhoe Bay workers who are regular KNOM listeners.

Tom Busch is 180 miles south of Nome in the village of St. Marys, scouting locations for a translator in the village. St. Marys is the only town in which KNOM’s signal might be strong enough for a translator to be fed audio by a souped-up receiver.

·August 2006: This month, public affairs programming includes mining and possible risks to the environment, reindeer herding, and youth subjects, including the alarming child suicide rate among northern peoples.
KNOM also airs interviews with gubernatorial and Lieutenant Governor candidates in Alaska’s primary election. For most KNOM listeners, it is the only way to learn of their stands on rural issues.

This month, Ric Schmidt and Tom Busch are back into business suits, for two Anchorage dinners, one for new FCC commissioner Robert McDowell, the other for National Association of Broadcasters CEO David Rehr. As before, Ric officiates and Tom gives his animated lecture on bush Alaska.

Meanwhile, there’s great news from office assistant Robyn Woyte. She’s expecting a girl, just before Christmas, after husband John’s return from Iraq.

·September 2006: With help from KNOM spiritual director Fr. Mark Hoelsken, SJ, Tom Busch installs KNOM’s first translator in St. Marys.

With hikes in power costs, this month’s electric bill is $11,007.97. The mission clearly cannot afford to double its power, and plans for 50,000 Watts are shelved.

On this day, Robyn Woyte’s baby stops moving and she is medivaced to Anchorage.

·October 19, 2006: Doctors wait as long as they can, but they can’t wait long, and they deliver 2 pound 4 ounce Sophia Woyte, 28 weeks premature. At the age of one day, Robyn and Sophia are visited by John Woyte, whom the National Guard has flown home from Iraq.
Little Sophia holds her own, and is home by Christmas.

·October 20, 2006: In Los Angeles, Ric Schmidt accepts KNOM’s 15th Gabriel “Radio Station of the Year” Award. In his speech, he honors the hard working and dedicated staff, and emphasizes the importance of each of KNOM’s contributors, “who together in gift and prayer keep our mission station alive.”

·November 2006: For the first time in years, KNOM begs for extra help. 2005’s Hurricane Katrina has siphoned away contributions, and since July, the station has sunk $109,432.10 into red ink. Contributors respond with generosity.

·November 8, 2006: At 8 PM, KNOM switches from Associated Press to ABC Radio for its hourly network newscast. Of late, AP’s programs had grown less “newsy” and more entertainment-oriented.

·December 22, 2006: KNOM estimates that 10,000 listeners hear their names during the annual 7-hour Christmas greeting program. Host Ric Schmidt adds an extra twist, with audio greetings from 33 Western Alaska soldiers stationed in Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq.
One woman calls to wish her Middle-East-stationed husband happy birthday. She records the KNOM greeting off the air and sends him a tape of the broadcast.

·January 2007: 1988-1990 volunteer Betsy Brennan returns to KNOM to help in the office. Following her time at KNOM, she remained in Alaska, married and served as a fish and game biologist before her children came along.

·January 8, 2007: A brutal storm rakes Nome with heavy snow and hurricane-force winds, and the town virtually shuts down. Wind at the transmitter site, as it often does, exceeds 100 MPH.
The site loses power for 67 hours, but remains on the air, calming listeners and relaying emergency information, thanks to its backup generator.

·February 2007: KNOM estimates that the 1992 and 1993 building replacements are now saving the mission more than $115,000 a year in maintenance and utility costs.
The 2003 replacement of tower lights with Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are saving the station an average of $4,100 per year.

This month, KNOM reports that just outside of Nome, the high school ski team had to divert course after encountering a herd of several hundred reindeer that refused to relinquish the right-of-way.

·March 2007: Amy Flaherty is 284 miles south of Nome in the small town of Bethel for the Camai Native Dance Festival. Pronounced “juh-MY,” the word is a friendly hello in the Yup’ik language, often used when greeting people one hasn’t seen in a long time.
She returns with dozens of performances to add to KNOM’s repertoire of 684 traditional Alaska Native songs.

·May 2007: KNOM spiritual director Fr. Mark Hoelsken, SJ, has left Alaska for Nebraska to continue his studies.
With the approval of their provincial, Fr. Vince Beuzer, SJ (left in photo) and Fr. Armand Nigro, SJa gree to become spiritual advisors for the KNOM mission. Fr. Armand is about to enter his 62nd year as a priest; Fr. Vince his 60th.

·June 2007: KNOM reports that in villages, gasoline costs more than seven dollars a gallon. Business manager Lynette Schmidt, who feeds a family of eight, points out that in Nome, a gallon of milk iks now $7.34.

·June 11, 2007: The Bering Sea off Nome remains littered with ice, but thanks to a rare temperature of 70º, Nome endures a rip-roaring thunderstorm.

·July 2007: It’s a normal month for educational spots. Nome Static Transmission 504 notes that this month’s topics include aviation safety, personal floatation devices, arthritis, carbon monoxide, mold, youth leadership, Alaska biology, exercise, multiple sclerosis, suicide, sexual abuse, domestic violence, earth science, nutrition, telephone courtesy, Alaska Native reflections, recovery from alcohol abuse and mental illness,.
General manager Ric Schmidt continues the 25-year series “Today in History.”

Meanwhile, topics covered in the daily “KNOM Profiles” series include Native language preservation, climate change impacts on Western Alaska, village erosion and relocation, high rates of sexual violence against native woman, a future Beringia museum of culture and science, rural students and college preparation programs, enveronmental remediation at former military sites, whaling, commercial salmon fisheries in villages, and brain injury prevention.

·September 2007: The Nome Static reports that as of this month, the KNOM staff share 100 years of broadcasting experience, 93 of those in Catholic radio. Adding Les Brown, who helps out now and again, would add another fifty years to that

·October 26, 2007: In Los Angeles, general manager Ric Schmidt accepts KNOM's 16th Gabriel "Radio Station of the Year" Award.

Two weeks later, he is in Anchorage, as KNOM is honored by the Alaska Broadcasters Association for best public affairs program (the weekly "Sounding Board" call-in program), best live sports broadcast (Paul Korchin's Iditarod finish coverage) and best entertainment program ("Coldest Heart," KNOM's 2006 Christmas drama).

"Coldest Heart" was written by 2000-2002 volunteer Andrew McDonnell, who continues to pen KNOM's annual Christmas play from a distance. It is the fifth McDonnell-written play to win this award.

You will find lots of information and hundreds of additional photographs in the Photo Gallery and Nome Static links below.