720 KOTZ--Local radio "redux"!!!

[PaulBWalkerJr]

I was listening to the "Request" Hour at 4pm on KOTZ Friday.. it was, uh, interesting...

 

[hipporadio]

Les... I love your posts! I guess as we get older, we worry less about a music playlist or what falls in-between. Oh-yes, that’s all cool—but nothing replaces the basics. Just as I post this, I’m home in my boyhood hometown for the holidays. My old high school just finished a victorious basketball game in a holiday tournament against the top-ranked team in the state—a four-point “barnburner” that went down to the wire. The current Governor of our state stepped in and spent the entire third quarter to provide “color” for that broadcast on our small market station. Three radios in our house were tuned to our little 250-watt local oldies station for the play-by-play. There is NO SUBSTITUTE for good local radio! There is no better friend and companion. Reading your posts about the bond rural Alaska has with their very simple stations—and listening to our local game on our local station causes me to remember how really important the trade of broadcasting really is!

Very few in the Southeast “tropics” would miss a Margarita over a snowmachine race on the Seward Peninsula—but I’m sure that event is as exciting and relevant to Nome and Kotzebue’s area residents as our just-won high school basketball game hosted in part by the Governor of our state. So much about this biz has quietly been shuffled into the “past tense file”... That’s a shame—but I guess it's reality in this XM and iPod age. I’ll bet a half-hour ago many locals here could have cared less about how full their iPod hard drive was when the team was down 2-points with a minute left in the game!

Alaska seems to be “the last frontier”—especially in radio respects. I have been a Top-40 DJ, News Director, talk host, salesperson, station owner, and consultant (GOD—let me scratch that last one)... OH, and I worked for the Catholic Church for nearly nine years—but I’d love to grab a mike after a crash course on mushers and snowmachine studs, and head out on the frozen Bering Sea to cover a race as a “vol” for KNOM—maybe ONCE! It sounds like a "hoot", and I'll bet the locals are great to hang with!

 

[AKLes]

Alaska seems to be “the last frontier”—especially in radio respects. I have been a Top-40 DJ, News Director, talk host, salesperson, station owner, and consultant (GOD—let me scratch that last one)... OH, and I worked for the Catholic Church for nearly nine years—but I’d love to grab a mike after a crash course on mushers and snowmachine studs, and head out on the frozen Bering Sea to cover a race as a “vol” for KNOM—maybe ONCE! It sounds like a "hoot", and I'll bet the locals are great to hang with!

The sled dog race reporting is quite sophisticated. One person goes "on the trail", flying checkpoint-to-checkpoint in an ancient Aeronca Sedan with a pilot who is decades older than the airplane. Tools now include a Marantz digital recorder and an Apple laptop equipped with "Audacity" and "Lame". The latter can also double as a very good recorder when used with a standard broadcast microphone through a USB adapter. Now the editing is done at the checkpoints and sent, typically via cellphone, back to the station.

The snowmachine racing is not so demanding and occasional short-term volunteers are used (when the race coverage is seriously done). One year I sent the elderly father of a volunteer to White Mountain to set up the "Engenius" phone and do the refueling reports. Of course the action was so fast that he didn't have to know the participants or anything about them, though I always provided reporters with detail "crib sheets" about each one. Those, it turns out, were used more often when one crashed than simply in passing.

Short-term volunteering is not generally encouraged; it's expensive to bring in (the station pays airfare, provides lodging, food, utilities and a basic stipend) so the general term is minimum one year. Typical maximum is two; longer not encouraged unless there is a paid staff position opening up.

I hope you'll have the opportunity to hear KOTZ do The Archie Fergueson Race!

 

[hipporadio]

We were listening to the “Rock Show” tonight on KOTZ – hosted by a local DJ who “has lived there all of his life” – GOOD JOB... So we called from ChuckTown... ‘Got a good “hail”... And a request played. This IS FAR from “corporate radio”, but GOOD... He was giving snow-machine race results in-between Led Lep and AC/DC songs – AWESOME!

He just gave an advisory that the Bering Sea had risin’ five feet in a distant community and may cause problems... He then played “Respect for Elders” presented by Native Americans from Kobuck, Ambler, and surrounding communities... In Native Language with some English... This is a VERY INTERESTING (and useful) radio station! We listened to the entire 34-minute Inupiat show – enlightening!

We now more know more about this community of proud, decent, and "family-oriented" people – includeing the place to stay and enjoy “Artic fish” at The Nullakvik Hotel... Someday, we will visit and look forward to meeting you!

 

[AKLes]

We now more know more about this community of proud, decent, and "family-oriented" people – includeing the place to stay and enjoy “Artic fish” at The Nullakvik Hotel... Someday, we will visit and look forward to meeting you!

If you actually to plan to visit....

DO NOT book an Alaska Airlines "tour" for the purpose.

Before going, months before, make contact with someone in radio in Kotzebue and try to set up something where they'll show you around. Maybe even ask outright if they or someone in the family or circle of friends would allow you to hire them as a guide for a day or two.

My wife and I were occasional tour guides for a different company in Nome and were constantly frustrated by the time limitations which kept us from showing anything but the most obvious thing and places.

I believe the Archie Ferguson Memorial Snowmachine race is today, Saturday, April 7th. KOTZ historically has broadcast the race....dunno the start time but usually this kind of thing starts at noon. I hope you're reading this early enough to start listening to their stream!