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. It is their forum to express thoughts, opinions, and ideas on a particular subject: whether it’s traditional Alaska Native cooking, regional politics, or the challenges of a changing Arctic. We’re grateful that so many in our region take time each week to respectfully share their thoughts on our airwaves.

In a region so sparsely populated – with rural communities separated by hundreds of miles – being able to share conversations means so much. Each week, you are making it possible. Thank you!

Photos: Joshua Cunningham and Margaret DeMaioribus host a Sounding Board show on climate change; news director Laureli Kinneen screens callers for the show.

This article is part of the January 2013 edition of our newsletter, The Nome Static.

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Oh God of second chances and new beginnings, here I am again.

-Nancy Spiegelberg

This article is part of the January 2013 edition of our newsletter, The Nome Static.

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The fiscal year from July 2011 to June 2012 was unique for our mission; the year saw the transition of KNOM to a new, independent nonprofit entity (KNOM Radio Mission, Inc.), as well as the first steps in our studio annex project, the Tom and Florence Busch Digital Studios. With your enthusiastic support, we finished the fiscal year in the black. Our income was $2,039,092, our expenses $1,646,678. Nearly all of this “extra” income is dedicated either to our digital studios construction or to other long-term development goals, described in further detail below.

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As always, the large majority of our income in the past fiscal year came from individual donors. 55.6% of KNOM’s overall income ($1,133,241) was from one-time or recurring donations, while 24.3% ($495,860) came from legacy gifts (funds entrusted to KNOM from wills, bequests, or estates). Legacy giving continues to provide a vital part of our operating budget.

Miscellaneous income – 17.6% ($359,668) – was higher than normal and consisted almost entirely of a settlement KNOM received in April at the conclusion of a two-year litigation against a former contractor. This money is earmarked for a long-term development plan to build financial infrastructure for KNOM’s future sustainability.

The remaining 2.5% of our funds came from interest on our bank accounts (just $826) and related income ($49,497), consisting of program underwriting from local organizations and fees from the National Weather Service, which rents space on our AM transmitter tower to broadcast its dedicated weather channel.

Both our expenses and income over the fiscal year were made higher by our digital studios campaign. While our capital campaign brought in more financial support, our expenses also included the architectural designs and plans for our studio expansion and renovation: a project that will continue, with your support, well into 2013.

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Our expenses included $361,995 for fundraising (22.0%); $115,698 for this newsletter (7.0%); $245,237 for general operations (14.9%); $239,989 for programming and technical costs (14.6%); and $683,759 for staff salaries (41.5%).

Our full-time volunteers remain an essential part of our operations, and their service – working full-time for room, board, and a small personal stipend – saved our mission about $111,000 in fiscal year 2012.

We saved, also, through new, energy-efficient technologies described in previous editions of this newsletter. In particular, the installation of dynamic carrier control (DCC) – a cost-saving method of power management at our AM transmitter site – paid for itself within three months, and we estimate that DCC will save $35,000 in electricity costs over fiscal year 2013.

As always, everything that we do is made possible through your support. Thanks so much!

This article is part of the January 2013 edition of our newsletter, The Nome Static.

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Death is not putting out the light…

It is turning off the lamp because the dawn has come.

This article is part of the January 2013 edition of our newsletter, The Nome Static.

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Every year, the response is very enthusiastic, and it’s possible through your generosity. Thanks so much!

This article is part of the January 2013 edition of our newsletter, The Nome Static.

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Keep your face to the sunshine, and you will not see the shadow.

This article is part of the January 2013 edition of our newsletter, The Nome Static.

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KNOM listenership is perhaps never greater than in the mornings. Walk down the streets of a Western Alaskan community on any given morning, and you’re likely to hear the KNOM Morning Show spilling out of automobile radios and through open windows; you’ll hear KNOM’s morning news and weather being played at the post office, the local bank, the grocery store, and in so many other places.

We’re honored and humbled that many in our region wake up to KNOM, and during the work week, that means the Morning Show: hosted by dedicated volunteers Dayneé Rosales and Lucus Keppel, pictured in our main broadcast studio, Studio A.

Despite the early hours they keep, Lucus and Dayneé have brought a fresh energy and creativity to their time on the Morning Show.

On “Breakfast Wednesdays,” Dayneé and Lucus welcome a few friends from the CAMP Department, a Nome health organization that specializes in nutrition and healthy living. Megan Timm and Katie Gonzales (pictured above) share tips on making nutritious breakfasts, and with Dayneé and Lucus, they invite our listeners to stop by and sample healthy breakfast foods: from sugar-free apple sauce to turkey bacon to breakfast quiche (pictured below).

As we go to press, Lucus and Dayneé are also in the final days of a Christmastime writing contest for schoolchildren. They’re receiving contest entries of fiction and poetry from students all throughout our region, and during their morning broadcasts, they’re also emphasizing the importance of reading and discussing prominent authors and works of literature.

Thanks to you, we’re striving to inform, inspire, and entertain our listeners, night and day. For the latest on the Morning Show, visit the Morning Show blog.

This article is part of the January 2013 edition of our newsletter, The Nome Static.

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Becoming a saint is not a goal for tomorrow, but the work of today!

This article is part of the January 2013 edition of our newsletter, The Nome Static.

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While we don’t normally detail the personal travel of our staff members in the Static, one of their recent trips stands out. In October, Father Ross Tozzi – KNOM board president and pastor of Nome’s St. Joseph Catholic Church – traveled all the way to Rome, Italy. Fr. Ross (pictured) gathered in St. Peter’s Square with more than 50 fellow Alaskans and 80,000 pilgrims from around the world to celebrate the canonization of seven new Catholic saints.

One of the new saints – St. Kateri Tekakwitha – has special interest for our mission, our staff, and our listeners. St. Kateri is the very first Native American saint, and her feast day – July 14th – is the anniversary both of KNOM’s first broadcast (in 1971) and of Fr. Ross’ ordination (in 2001).

On the day of her canonization, a homily from Pope Benedict XVI offered more details on St. Kateri:

Kateri Tekakwitha was born in today’s New York state in 1656 to a Mohawk father and a Christian Algonquin mother, who gave to her a sense of the living God… Leading a simple life, Kateri remained faithful to her love for Jesus, to prayer, and to daily Mass. Her greatest wish was to know and to do what pleased God. She lived a life radiant with faith and purity.

Saint Kateri… we entrust to you the renewal of the faith in the first nations and in all of North America. May God bless the first nations!

With your support, each of the new saints – including Saint Kateri – will be profiled in inspirational spots broadcast on KNOM over the coming year.

This article is part of the January 2013 edition of our newsletter, The Nome Static.

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