The Nome Static

Having trouble seeing the PDF embedded above? Click here to download this issue.

Speaking about something that is difficult to share and being taken seriously by others is deeply healing. Sharing teaches us we are not alone. When KNOM’s reporters – often new to Western Alaska – request an interview, it requires courage and trust to say yes. That is especially true when sharing personal stories dear to…

In a historic feat, brothers Joseph and Israel Hale are the first-ever snowmachine team with a disability to finish the 2,600-mile Iron Dog race in the pro-class. Although the team was last at the finish line, they were the first to the Nome halfway checkpoint. “We were coming into Nome, and I hadn’t done a…

Bishop Chad recorded daily novena prayers in preparation for the feast of St. Joseph. 2021 is the 150th anniversary of the declaration of St. Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church. Also, a special series of spots explains the significance of each day of Holy Week.

The Nome Airport’s weather equipment failed for five days in early March, right before a record-setting winter storm. Rick Thoman, from the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy, has more: “Now, that’s the bad news. The good news is, KNOM Radio, in their role as National Weather Service co-operative observers, recorded 14 inches of…

Several years ago, a group of women in Nome began meeting around the dinner table. Week after week, they began to share experiences of sexual assault. They concluded there was a pattern of neglect by the justice system. The women, several of them respected leaders, have compelled the community to push through awkward conversations and…

“The year is 1985, and this is Tom Busch with a KNOM Iditarod Moment. Teller’s Libby Riddles led into Eagle Island, two thirds into the race… Only west-coast Alaskans had any notion what Riddles could do… In the statewide press she was hardly mentioned…” Iditarod coverage is a team sport. In a longstanding radio tradition,…

When mushers break trail with dog teams in deep snow, new trails are created that sometimes are more efficient than the old ones. After a year of adaptation amid the fear of illness, with travel restrictions that severely impacted bush life in Alaska, Western Alaskans have together forged new trails. Some of them are burdensome…

Nome’s Native Youth Olympics (NYO) team is utilizing new technology to garner interest in the ancient games, despite being kept from competing in normally crowded gyms. The team, with the help of the tribal nonprofit Kawerak, will be mailing NYO at-home kits for students in the region to practice the games in their homes. “The…

As pandemic-related travel restrictions remain active in rural Alaska, this will be another unusual March in Nome. The 2021 Iditarod is following a drastically shortened route: no dog teams will be visiting the Norton Sound region this year, but rather turning back in interior Alaska. In lieu of the excitement the Nome finish normally brings,…