Update: June 2012
We asked if you would prefer that we spend a shorter time on the air and some of you have already voted with your dollars – loud and clear. As you can see from our Temperature Guage, we raised over $6,000 from pre-pledges, a great place to start from. This drive is an important time to see if this new model of fundraising for KHNS has legs. it's also a great time to reflect on what KHNS means to you and why you feel it deserves your support. We've got lots of reasons we are happy to share with you but key among those reasons is that 4-5 days is a lot less painful than 7 so let's get'er done and go back to the great programming you know and love. Membership
KHNS Update: April 2012
We made it through the winter with all the usual equipment challenges due to weather…record breaking, indeed. We survived the Bad Bear breaking into our transmitter shed, maintained the vigilance required to keep the satellite dishes free of snow and transmitting clearly, both for KHNS and ARCS and overall, in spite of the heavy snowfall, someone made it to the station and/or the transmitter site and the show went on. We thank you for your patience and your appreciation for the radio on those cold, dark nights.
We have lost our longtime News Director, Tara Bicknell, who decided to take a break from deadlines and news in a small town to stop and smell the roses. Tara has been a gem. Her strong work ethic and ability to keep a journalistic distance helped make the KHNS news a broadcast you could depend on. We will all miss her friendly and energetic presence. The good news is, we hired Margaret Friedenauer as our News Director and you can hear a conversation betwee Margaret and Tara on the April 5th newscast.
This last year we replaced some major equipment between Skagway and Haines, bought new computers for our offices, replaced the old news mixing board and beefed up our basketball remote equipment, all thanks to grants and help from the Municipality of Skagway, Haines Borough, The Chilkat Valley Community Foundation and the Rasmuson Foundation as well as Alaska Public Broadcasting, Inc. These were all special projects that now allow us to operate more efficiently and with more confidence.
Thank you for your ongoing help in keeping our radio station alive and well in the Lynn Canal.
2011
Thanks go to our staff, board and volunteers, along with members and business supporters who work so tirelessly to make this the great station what it is.
- We have three new additions to our staff: Amelia Nash is our Program Director,Steve Scarrott is our Operations Director and Adam Richard is our Haines News Asst. Along with Leslie Ross, Tara Bicknell, Bill Annis and myself (Kay Clements) we handle the day-to-day workings of the station. We also rely (a lot) on our friend, John DeRosa to help us untangle our computer issues when necessary and Michael Vaughan who has been our essential engineer.
- Many thanks to Georgia Giacobbe, Byrne Power, Susannah Dowds and Gabe Long who worked with us this past year and left us more organized than they found us. Interns Blake Hamilton and Anna Jacobson did a great job and we’re grateful for their energy and enthusiasm.
Equipment – We are slowly but surely replacing or upgrading many of our radio moving parts:
- Two out of our three antenna sites in Skagway have been moved to more durable and secure locations and one of those antennas has been replaced, with another one on the list. Thanks to all the Skagway Municipal workers, AP&T and AT&T staff who enthusiastically helped us make those moves.
- We bought and installed a new phone system as part of a grant to KHNS by Alaska Public Broadcasting Inc .
- The Rasmuson Fund awarded us money to replace our main console in the studio – a very big project. We have seen a lot of our engineer during this installation…We also purchased new CD players, microphones and headphones with the money from the grant.
- Our production computer died this summer and another was on the blink so we replaced those with new computers and installed an updated version of Adobe Audition to better facilitate production of news and Epsas.
- The Haines Borough and the Haines Volunteer Fire Department together gave us $4,000 to complete the production of “Safety Talk”, a five-minute piece that can be downloaded on our website and which we hope other radio stations in the Southeast and beyond will enjoy and use in their programming. Thanks to Tara Bicknell for working closely with writer Al Badgeley to make this a great program.
- The Alaska Public Broadcasting Commission continues to support KHNS with a grant for 2012 for $131,000 – $9,000 more than we expected as it was based partially on our fundraising success of this past summer where we raised $70,000 during our pledge drive.
- The Corporation for Public Broadcasting awarded their annual gift of $95,000 and an additional $35,000 in bonus grants for a total of $130,000. CPB is part of our public broadcasting system that is under attack – their funds were reduced by 1.5% for 2012 and they are passing that reduction along to all stations funded by CPB. This threat to our public airwave funding is not over, please be vigilant in your support.
- The Municipality of Skagway has donated $10,000 on top of their annual in-kind donation of space and utilities to fund a News Asst in Skagway – we are in the process of interviewing.
- Our Summer Fund Drive garnered more than $70,000 in pledges. It was an enthusiastic success with over 600 pledges from our members and listeners, thank you!
- The Chilkat Valley Community Foundation granted KHNS $800 to help with a recent training session on our automation system.
- Our News Department was lauded by the Press Club and the Alaska Broadcasting Association for Runner-up Best Newscast in State of Alaska and Breaking News Story respectively. We’ve submitted in three categories this year and I’ll be at the annual conference in November in Anchorage to hear who the lucky winners are.
- UPDATE: KHNS and Tara Bicknell won the Goldie Award for Best News Program 2011 at the Alaska Public Broadcasting Conference in November ~ our congratulations to our fine News Director.
