Visible for miles, KNOM’s current Christmas star sits at the very top of our FM transmitter tower in midtown Nome.
November 26, 1970
A 3-foot, lighted Christmas star tops the 49-foot studio tower. Like five successors over the years, it is blown apart by wind before the end of the holidays.
(The star’s modern successor – pictured at right – has proven to be much more wind-resistant!)
The photo above was taken on the future site of the Tom and Florence Busch Digital Studios, our studio annex project. From left to right: Father Ross Tozzi; Eva DeLappe; Lynette Schmidt; Lucus Keppel; Kelly Brabec; Betsy Brennan; Rolland Trowbridge; Dayneé Rosales; Joshua Cunningham; Laureli Kinneen; Ric Schmidt; Laura Collins; Margaret DeMaioribus; David Dodman.
We can’t thank you enough for all you do for our mission. From all of us at KNOM Radio, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Like so many Catholic churches around the world, the parish two blocks away from KNOM studios – St. Joseph Catholic Church – features a manger scene and Christmas tree during this Advent season. But the Nome creche (pictured) bears a touch of rural Alaska: the baby Jesus, Mary, and Joseph wear traditional parkas fit for our region’s harsh winters.
Throughout the year, KNOM broadcasts live Catholic Mass from St. Joseph’s whenever Father Ross Tozzi, the church’s pastor, is in Nome. Due to the dire shortage of priests in Alaska, Fr. Ross – among his myriad duties – divides his ministerial efforts between Nome and other communities in our region. (He’s also president of KNOM’s board of directors.)
Through your support, thousands of our listeners will be able to join the celebration of Christmas Mass by listening to KNOM. Across hundreds of miles of snowy tundra, the joy of Christmas will keep spirits bright – thanks to you.
An inspirational spot from the Christmas 2012 edition of our newsletter, The Nome Static:
Sweet Child of Bethlehem, grant that we may share in the profound mystery of Christmas. May Your peace shine upon the world forever.
October 19, 2006
Mother and child: Robyn and Sophia Woyte.
In Anchorage, 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. Tom Busch takes pictures of mother and baby and e-mails them to Lynette Schmidt in Nome, who prints and gives them to Sophia’s small worried siblings, to assure them everything’s okay. At the age of one day, Sophia and mother Robyn are visited by John Woyte, whom the National Guard has flown home from Iraq. Little Sophia holds her own and is home by Christmas.
