[BC] True Radio Confessions

[Chuck Lakaytis]

I wasn't there but..........

The public radio system in Alaska grew sort of like Topsy.  The stations are
each held by community or school licenses and were essentially independent
entities.  Anyway...on with the story.

The FCC showed up at KBRW-AM, Barrow Alaska sometime in the early seventies.
That was when they still had a travel budget.

After a day long inspection the inspectors presented the station with
something like 175 citations, which to this day is a record. The inspectors
were not amused. Either was the local populace which had had their fill of
white folks telling them what to do and what was best for them, etc.  The
president of the board of directors of the station made peace with the
inspectors and the town.  We promised to get a new manager out there ASAP.

The board asked the GM to leave the premises.  He refused and barricaded
himself into the studio and started a marathon air shift and commentary.
The board looked for the troopers.  At that time the Alaska State Troopers
had less the 150 members to patrol the entire state.  There were two
troopers assigned for the whole North Coast; this covered from Nome to the
Canadian border at Demarcation Point.  The troopers were nowhere to be found
as they were out tracking a murderer somewhere.

After two days or so the GM finally went to sleep, the president broke down
the door and the former GM was escorted to the airport.

One time a new GM arrived and decided to change the format without
consulting with the listeners.  Someone objected to the change in Sunday
programming and drove by the studio placing two rounds through the window of
the studio.  The new GM left that day.

O for the good old days. 

Chuck Lakaytis
Director of Engineering
Alaska Public Broadcasting, Inc.
Anchorage, Alaska
907 277 6300
907 310 4339 (cell)


-----Original Message-----
From: broadcast-bounces at radiolists.net
[mailto:broadcast-bounces at radiolists.net] On Behalf Of brew at theMode.com
Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2006 6:03 PM
To: broadcast at radiolists.net
Subject: [BC] True Radio Confessions


Last month somebody asked on the list if anybody knew of any cases of
stations with 'lapses of judgement'.  Here's one that I only heard rumors
about, followed by one that I was guilty of committing.