• Senator Murkowsi visits
• Congratulations!
• Chcemy byæ g³osem‚ który inspiruje i prowadzi. 
• Welcome Back!
• Miraculous
• Memorial Day
• Youth Court
• Reindeer
• KNOM Facts
• "Wire" we doin' this?
• Snow business

 Greetings from the Land of the Midnight Sun!  The stars are long gone these days--we won’t see another until late August, when the nights begin to grow dark once more.  June 21st, the longest day of the year, Nome will have a full 21 hours 29 minutes of actual sunlight. 
 In many far-flung corners of KNOM’s vast coverage area, families take full advantage of the bright summer, as they hunt and fish and gather greens and berries for the upcoming winter.  In every remote camp, you’ll find a radio, for many, their only contact with the outside world, and in nineteen out of twenty camps, you’ll find that radio tuned to KNOM. 
 Please pray for everyone’s safety during this important food-gathering period, and please accept our sincere thanks for your prayers and your faithful support for our mission!

Murkowski has been a periodic visitor to the station since his first election to the Senate eighteen years ago. 

Eleven  feet square, Studio C is a KNOM workhorse, home for call-in programs, overnight automation, frequent spot production and most of the station’s many news and public affairs interviews.  

Chcemy byæ g³osem‚ który inspiruje i prowadzi. 
In English, that’s "we want to be the voice which inspires and leads," the title of an article on KNOM in "Goé Niedzielny" ("Sunday Visitor"), the largest circulation weekly Catholic newspaper in Poland.  Written by missionary Polish priest Father Andrzej Maslanka, the topic is of special interest to Catholic leaders in that country, as Poland is experiencing a vitalization of Catholic radio. 

If you can read the Polish language and would like a copy of the article, just drop us a line! 

A hearty "welcome back" to Ross Tozzi, at KNOM on his summer break from Mount Angel Seminary in Oregon, where Ross is studying for the priesthood. 
 A KNOM volunteer from 1989 through 1992, Ross has returned every summer to help out on the air and keep the KNOM finances in order. 
 In his "spare" time, Ross also lends a hand to the St. Anthony Indian Mission in Zuni, New Mexico, where we know that they appreciate his kindness and quick humor as much as we do.   Thanks, Ross!

Inbound to the Nome airport, the plane had slammed into a snowfield near the very top of Newton Peak, a 1,100-foot hill 4-1/2 miles northeast of Nome.  While the nose, gear and cargo belly were ripped apart and the plane came to rest upside down, everyone escaped serious injury, save for one broken arm. 

The plane’s radio transmitter had been destroyed, but one passenger carried an AM radio, and for the two hours before they were located, the survivors listened to reports of the search over KNOM.

SWIMMINGLY:  Later in the day, KNOM brought listeners to the town’s east beach, where fifty hardy men and women jumped into the frigid +34° Bering Sea in Nome’s first official event of "summer." 

The air temperature was a sweltering +36°.

To get to the water, swimmers darted through boulder-sized chunks of ice at the surf’s edge.   Some years, a half-mile of shorefast ice has postponed the Memorial Day event for weeks!

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Here, high schoolers Megan Alvanna-Stimpfle and Joe Jones presented the award to KNOM manager Tom Busch.

"We didn’t do anything for them that we don’t do for a hundred other worthy organizations all the time," Tom said.  "Still, it’s great to be thanked!"

The Youth Court program, by the way, is coordinated by former KNOM volunteer Christy (Normile) Fagerstrom.
 

Typical meals were reindeer meat (thanks to the faithful donations of a reindeer herder from the village of Teller), dried potatoes and canned vegetables.  Salads?  Beef?  Once a year, maybe.

SPEAKING OF REINDEER, May is when about 5,000 head settle just north of Nome, as female reindeer return home to produce their fawns.

The animals produce a delicious, lean meat  Each year, the antlers are painlessly clipped, and sold to Korea. 

Koreans dry the antlers into chips and mix them with up to a dozen herbs, to make a tonic tea which is used to treat a variety of ailments.

(Left)6 miles north of Nome, a mama reindeer nudges her fawn a safe distance from human observers.

OUR PLEDGE TO YOU:   We are sincerely grateful for your sacrifices which make our mission signal possible.

We promise that we will prayerfully exercise the best stewardship possible with the gifts that you so generously provide for our work.

And we renew our longstanding promise that we will never give out your name and address to anyone.

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-- We’re easily heard along a thousand miles of Russian coast, too.

-- Except for very occasional grants, our daily operation is completely dependant upon contributions by people like you.

-- We beam Sunday Mass, daily Rosary, morning prayers, homilies and about a hundred inspirational spots per day.  We’re chock full of educational programming, too, and hours of news and positive, entertaining companionship.

‘WIRE’ WE DOING THIS?  (Left)  As the winter snows continued to melt, electrician Roger Augdahl  connected our emergency generator shed to the transmitter building on May 23rd.  With good fortune, we will have full emergency power in June.

Thank you to everyone who donated to make this vital project possible!

SNOW BUSINESS:   Yes, we did have plenty of snow this year, 109.6 inches so far, with a few inches still likely.  That’s the second snowiest winter on record.  Brrr!

Once again, we thank you from the bottom of 
our hearts for your prayers and for your continued
financial support.

Please consider adding missions like KNOM to your will.  May God bless you!