December 3, 1986
A storm this week deposits ice the thickness of cucumbers on the KNOM tower and its guy wires, which sag dangerously. The tower is in imminent danger of collapsing.
Tower expert Rod Ewing immediately flies in from Wasilla, Alaska to supervise Timothy Cochran and Tom Busch as they strain to keep the structure standing by carefully tightening the stretched guys, one by one. “It was close,” Timothy relates.
Frequent visitors to our website may have noticed a new blog appear earlier this year. Our Mission Blog – that is, the blog you’re reading right now! – is home to stories, photos, inspirational spots, and updates detailing our radio station’s latest activities, and now, it’s also home to our newsletter, The Nome Static.
Starting with the Christmas 2012 issue and going forward, you’ll find every article from each new Static right here, on our Mission Blog. You’ll also be able to download a full PDF file of each issue – in color!
This blog also features additional stories not seen in our Static pages, including colorful moments of KNOM history: such as Rod Ewing carefully scaling, and painting, our transmitter tower in 1999 (pictured below).
In the summer of 1999, Anchorage tower contractor Rod Ewing steadily paints the KNOM transmitter tower, foot by foot.
July 21, 1999
Rod Ewing begins to apply a new coat of paint to the KNOM tower. How do you paint a tower? “The first thing you do,” Rod jokes, “is take a bucket of paint and pour it over your head, so you get that part taken care of right off the bat.” Actually, it’s tedious work, using cotton mittens, taking about two minutes per foot of tower.
