Friends and journalists

To friends and journalists, regarding my present occupation:

Radio is quite a bit different from print media. I read the news live four times every day, so I have three more chances to slander someone than I would have to libel someone working for a daily paper.

On top of slander, there’s also good, ole embarrassment. Today I read a story about sled dogs to our listeners. Unfortunately, it ended up being about a “dead slog” race.

I get five minutes between the last song of the hour and ABC national news at the top of the hour to announce the news. So I’m shortening stories in my head as I read them and hoping they still make sense. If I’m still reading at the top of the hour, ABC starts anyway, and FCC says I have to announce “KNOM, AM-FM, Nome” just before the top.

So it’s always a balancing act and a guessing game of last minute cuts and no take-backs. But that’s kind of nice because I don’t have to see my mistakes in print. I just have to know that everyone heard it real-time in Nome’s two grocery stores and one bank…

We have about 70-90 percent listener-ship. So it’s tough to hide mistakes. I’ve been changing my facial hair every couple weeks so I’m not as obvious around town.

In Western Alaska they LOVE acronyms. Here are a few I read on-air on a regular basis in stories (you may have heard some before, others, I doubt): PFD (this means both personal fund dividend AND personal floatation device here), NVFD (Nome Volunteer Fire Department), BSNC, PPT, ARC, ATV, ACES, (cr)AP – this one was coined by my news director to show his distain for the Associated Press on which we rely for our state news (without getting too deep into it, the AP content here is “garbled, vague and incorrect,” to quote Paul as he showed me around the newsroom. He was right from what I’ve seen. My theory is that the Associated Press sends their worst reporters to Alaska as punishment: stories don’t come across until noon or so, they’re missing information, have buried leads, etc. etc.) – MURK, ANWR, VA, VPSO, LIHEAP (no joke), ANCSA, BLM, BIA, PSP.

I’ve been here a month, and I’m still working on our “Western Alaska pronunciation guide.” Spelling doesn’t matter on-air, I’ve discovered. I’m a master of the pen, so I’m having to adjust.

Tikigak, Anningayou, Aketachunak, Ahnangnaoguk, Angnabooguk, Chmeilewski…

Some of those are places, some are people’s names… I think…

Interviews are easier for me. I’ve always preferred to tape my interviews. Here the phone streams right into the system and I can write down how many seconds have gone by when I hear the quote I want. Then I go back and edit that section for a sound cut in my story. It’s easier than transcribing. Much easier.

I’m going to investing pencils. Pens don’t work in extreme cold, and it’s down consistently to the 20s now.

On the up side, I work for a private, award-winning radio station that is flying me across the bush to all kinds of interesting villages. Everybody is super-cool. It’s a completely laid-back environment, but I’m also constantly aware of my responsibility to “feed” the news folder with new stories. I’m on the school board, land management and alternative energy “beats” so far.

We have four studios from which to control our signal, which is amazing. I'm writing this blog entry on a new MacBook the station purchased for me last month...

Despite the difficulties, I might be converting from print to audio media. One month down, only the next 11 will tell.

Take care and God bless. Jacob.

Bear tracks, Shishmaref, priests and U.S. Senators

Week three in the Great Land. When I arrived here, the sun shone for 12 hours that day. Today it's less than 10. We're still losing 6.5 minutes every day, and snow is on the ground now for good I think. I'll see dirt in seven months...

On Wednesday I flew in a Navajo (airplane) to the village of Shishmaref, population 600. It was a last minute decision by Paul (my boss, the news director). We got a call at around noon from the president of Kawerak (a big company in Western AK) saying there were two seats open on their plane to Shishmaref, so we left at 4:30 and were back in Nome by 8:30.

"And what was going on in Shishmaref?" you ask? Well, of course two U.S. Senators, a C-130 and an Air Force Colonel were flying in to tour the place.

No joke. I met Senators Ted Stevens and Mary Landrieu and Colonel Wilson. They came with their assistants and toured the sea wall Shishmaref is building with federal money to keep the village from washing away. It's built on a sand bar, and the last two sea walls have washed away so they have a pretty big operation going on.


Flying in the bush is a different experience. Waiting in the Bering Air lobby, a scruffy looking guy with a foot-long beard and a baseball cap came over and told the clerk at the counter, "I'll take this one" (Yeah, he turned out to be our pilot). Then he came over to us and said, "So, I'm dropping you guys off to stay the night in Shishmaref?"

I laughed nervously, and the mayor of Nome (who was also on the flight) politely corrected him:

"No, you're waiting for an hour. We're coming back tonight."

"Oh, OK. Works for me."

I love the organization. At least we got it cleared up BEFORE we took off.

The flight was beautiful. I'll put the pictures up when I get a chance. It was Paul and I, the mayor (Denise Michels), the VP of the Bering Straits Native Corporation and the president of Kawerak: all big names in Nome and on the peninsula.

Shishmaref was nice. It's build on a sand bar. Again, I have pictures. A couple dirt roads and some houses. Two stores and a school. That's Shishmaref. Apparently film crews from all over the planet have been there to document the impact of global climate change on humans. They've been thinking of moving the whole village before it washes away. I've been told Shishmaref is home to some of the best ivory carvers anywhere in the world.

So we interviewed the senators and walked around town. They have some serious equipment on the shore.

We finished, and the pilot was still there when we got back. We came back to Nome heavy one passenger. Apparently someone in Shish had been trying to find a ride into Nome. We had an open seat, and Kawerak, who paid for the flight, didn't have a problem, so he hitched with us.

***

Other than that, I'm working on a few news stories. I'm on the school board and alternative energy beats, plus I'm hosting an hour-long call-in show next week where we're going to talk about Chris McCandless, Treadwell and the trend of people biting off more than they can chew in the Alaskan wilderness. So I'm doing research for that. I'll be calling experts to get sound bites. Next week I'm going to try to call Sean Penn about the movie "Into the Wild." Because, hey, I have to at least try. Wish me luck or get me his home number if you have it.... :)

Reading about McCandless has been a little disconcerting. Apparently he just roamed the United States and parts of Mexico as a bum trying to experience life. Sounds like something I'd actually be interested in doing. Although he did take a few more risks than he needed to, and the odds caught up with him in the end...

KNOM doesn't play commercials, so we rely entirely on donors to keep our signal going. Some very generous people keep this station going, and I hear from people who know about radio that our station is way more advanced than a lot of others. I'm not sure about the details, but I know we have at least four studios we can broadcast from and control the signal. All the equipment is up to and above par. And the staff is just about as laid back as you could ask for. Everyone takes their work seriously and does an amazing job, but at the same time, everyone here started off as a volunteer. So when I completely foul-up the reading of the news and play the sound cuts on top of one another and mispronounce five names in four minutes, no one says anything because they know what it's like to be new and not know what you're doing.

Getting back to the generosity of our donors: at our weekly staff meeting on Thursday, Ric read us all a letter from a donor. Her name is Mary, and she is 12 years old. Her parents are on our mailing list and she sent us a check and a letter saying, "This check is all the money I have, and I will send more when I get some."

Wow. I think everyone in the room just froze. It sure reminds you who you're working for and where your paycheck comes from. So if I'm ever thinking of doing less than my best up here, I can always remember that that would be like robbing 12-year-old Mary's piggy bank...

Our priest has been out of town for the last two weeks. That means no Mass. We had lay services last week and today. I guess this is the norm, and next week we only have a Saturday Vigil Mass because Father is headed out to another village on Sunday. Such is life in the bush until God sends us more priests.

Kristina was telling me that a woman from Diomede called the station and asked if we knew when the priest would make it out to her village. Then she asked if it was bad that she hoped he would get weathered in and have to stay. Life as a Catholic without the sacraments. Wow. Sometimes the weather will keep people in Diomede for as long as six months. No joke: a guy goes there for a weekend trip, the weather turns and he's stuck there until the spring. No way out.

Yesterday I missed Nome's one home wrestling match of the year. Teams from all over the region were here but I just didn't find the time to make it out. We drove out on the Nome-Council highway today and saw the "train to nowhere." We got out to walk around a couple of times and saw some huge bear tracks in the snow, but -- alas -- no bear. I'll put up pictures when I have time to wait for the download...

Take care and God bless. More to come soon. Jacob in Alaska.

Reindeer vs. Caribou

Tonight marks my fourteenth night in Nome, Alaska. Two weeks in the great state, and a lot has happened since my last dispatch.

A week ago Tuesday I witnessed the skinning, gutting and quartering of a reindeer on the gymnasium floor of the recreation center in town. It was during a weeklong cultural conference and all the teenagers gathered around to see how it was done. Two men with knives just started cutting and talking as they did it. They pulled off the hide and then pulled out the guts in one heap.

The smell saturated the whole building, and it didn't help much when they turned on the fans.

I have ventured out into the tundra a few times, seen a couple herds of caribou, eaten reindeer tongue soup and made a fool of myself on live broadcasts while reading the news in front of thousands of western Alaskans. So it has been a productive week, as usual, in the life of Jacob Buckenmeyer.

I'm settling in well. Nome was dusted with our first snow of the year this morning just before sunrise. I'm still looking for a parka online... if anyone knows some good Web sites for discount parkas, let me know. I already checked out Sierra Trading Post and LL Bean...

"Isolated snow showers becoming rain showers after midnight. Lows around 35. West winds at 15 to 20. Your regional weather forecast from the National Weather Service."

I read the weather on air every day now. It's kind of important around here, so we try to keep people up to date in case they're flying, hunting, driving or out doing whatever. That's kind of how the station works: we provide what people need, and that's our ministry.

I'm still learning the pronunciation of the places here: Kuskokwim Delta, Kobuk, Romanzof, Unalakleet, Anvik... That's mostly how I've been making a fool of myself reading the news...

The culture here is different from the lower 48. The elders in the villages have the decision making power. Everything starts and stops with them. Many of the families rely on subsistence living, which means they gather berries and go hunting during the summer to get food and supplies to survive the year. It's simple.

In the lower 48 people have pop radio stations and the weather channel and comedy central and CNN, but up here there are two stations, and the other one plays only Christian music. We're pretty much it for a lot of people in the villages. We become all things to all people. We announce high school sports results and flight advisories and happy birthday hotlines (listeners call in with messages and we read them over the air. Sometimes it's "Happy Birthday Joey from your family in Teller," but sometimes they're more serious, like "To Dave in Unalakleet, call your family in Anchorage, Mom's in the hospital") .

KNOM isn't much like Catholic radio down in the lower 48, but it's of use to the people in western Alaska, so it's exciting work and it's worth doing.

As far as music goes, we play everything from Gwen Stefani, to Crosby, Stills and Nash, to "Hey there Delilah," to Third Day to the Everly Brothers. We try to mix it up too, so sometimes groups like that are played back to back. Only on KNOM.

Then people need weather and local news, so that's my department. We let them know what the conditions are like so they can decide whether it's safe to go hunting or boating or fishing or whatever. I'll be working in the afternoons and evenings mostly, going to meetings and announcing weather and news at noon, 1, 5 and 6.

The living situation is a blast so far. The three other volunteers are in the "production" department, preparing spots for broadcast and deejaying. I'm a "newsy," so I spend my hours downstairs in the news "room" (extended closet with a window), while they lounge upstairs in the production pad.

Here are the characters: (and yes, they all might read this, so I'll keep it short...) David is a Harvard grad and is in charge of producing our "inspirational spots" which are like public service announcements, only about the saints and sacraments and various feast days, among other subjects. He does the morning show at 5 a.m. Mon-Fri.

Laura is from Virginia and is our music director. She reviews all the promotional CDs that the labels send us and deejays in the afternoons/evenings

Then there's Kristina. She's the production director and does a little bit of everything, or maybe a lot of everything...

I'm going to be deejaying Monday and Friday afternoons for the next month while Kelly is in Nebraska getting married.

Jesse Zink, my predecessor in the news department, was superman. He was here for two years, and from what I gather, he was just about the most popular guy in Nome. He was a volunteer EMT and now he's in South Africa working in a medical center. So I have some big, insulated boots to fill -- 'mukluks' are the native boots here, so some big, insulated mukluks....

I hope that gives you a better idea of what life is like up here! I'll keep posting. Take care and God bless. Thanks again for your support. I would write more to you individually, but the connection just takes so long and I have so little time. I will keep trying. Jacob