March 8, 2002
Volunteer Ryan Conarro produces a series of KNOM Profiles on the impact of modern technology in bush Alaska.
One of the persons Ryan speaks with is Barb Pungowiyi, coordinator of Native programs for Nome Public Schools. “Some people might say technology is one of the reasons why our culture is being lost,” Pungowiyi tells Ryan, “but I think it can be used to an advantage.”
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.
The Catholic church in Little Diomede.
Diomede does not see a priest more than one or two Sundays a year. On this day, a Sunday, Cherie climbs up the steep, icy hill to the town church to pray with the villagers. She remembers:
To my surprise, they turned on KNOM! For over a year as a KNOM volunteer, I had sat behind the audio console in KNOM’s Studio A while we broadcast Mass from Nome’s St. Joseph Church, but I had no idea what an impact it made hundreds of miles away. In the isolated Little Diomede church, there we were, celebrating Mass along with our friends in Nome. I wondered how many people in other villages were also listening and praying along with KNOM.
It was an incredible experience, the kind that gives you the chills… One woman told me that they had once tried conducting their own Eucharistic liturgies, but they preferred to pray with the radio Mass because it helps them to feel connected with the outside world. Living so remotely, you can start to feel very alone. But thanks to KNOM, the distance between friends and family in other villages doesn’t seem as far. And that was exactly how I felt.
I don’t think I had ever realized the full power of KNOM until that wonderful moment.
February 22, 2000
Once again, it’s time for the Nome region’s great gathering: the Bering Strait Elders & Youth Conference. Now three days long, the 2000 conference explores the theme “Elders reviving traditional festivals and ceremonies.” This year, there are many round table discussions not suitable for airing. Still, KNOM’s live broadcasts total 14 hours.
February 16, 1968
At the request of pioneer Alaska broadcaster Augie Hiebert, Washington, DC communications attorney Joseph Hennessey agrees to provide free legal assistance. Hennessey continues to help the mission at no charge through 1990.
A polar bear on sea ice in northern Alaska.
February 5, 2002:
As he does every morning, engineer Les Brown drives to the remote KNOM transmitter site, walking the final 400 feet through deep snow in the morning darkness. Les is unaware that someone in a nearby cabin spotted a polar bear prowling the area overnight. Thankfully, Les finishes his work and returns to KNOM studios without incident.
February 4, 1973
KNOM volunteer support nurse Candy Gleason, RN delivers her first baby “solo.”
An advertisement for the Cromemco Z2 computer (very similar to one of the computer components used by KNOM in the early 1980s), as seen in the July 1977 issue of Byte magazine.
January 23, 1981
KNOM places a $16,435 order for a Cromemco Z2-H computer. Running at 4 MHz and with a 64k memory, the system includes two terminals. Using Structured Basic programming language, Br. Normand Berger, FIC, writes a program for keeping track of donations. One terminal sits in reception, the other in the manager’s office. The computer, paid for by a diamond engagement ring that had been donated to the station years earlier, makes a tremendous improvement in KNOM’s office efficiency.
January 16, 2000
A blizzard packing hurricane-force winds drops power lines at the KNOM transmitter site. The station’s emergency generator keeps it on the air for 16 hours before electricity is restored.
January 5, 2004
This month’s edition of the magazine St. Anthony Messenger features a six-page article on KNOM, noting that the station “brings a message of hope and companionship to some of the poorest, most isolated and culturally devastated people in America.”
December 26, 2003
A board member of Alaska’s Breast Cancer Detection Center writes, thanking the station for its free announcements that help to make a village mammogram program a great success:
Many of the patients reported that they had heard about it on KNOM… This was the first time we had tried to market village trips using radio, and I assure you that we will continue… There is absolutely no more powerful medium in these towns and villages than radio, and KNOM ranks at the top. I do not think any other station can top the respect and trust of your station, and it was an exciting experience for me to finally have proof!
