Radio lives on

by Peter Twitchell

In 1971 Mr. Andrew Edge of Bethel was the KYUK General Manager who asked me if I was willing to take the responsibility of being the radio operations manager of our local KYUK radio station.

My main responsibility would be to talk to potential disc jockey announcers and train them with the help of then radio engineer and technician Joe Axford.

I’d sit down with each man and woman interested in working at KYUK radio about what exactly they were interested in accomplishing. Some of them wanted to operate the board and play music and some were willing to translate news or operate the board during the birthday call show or the person-to-person radio talk show in the morning. And some also wanted to translate into our native language news of local interest.

One day I decided to have a heart to heart talk with Mr. Edge about going in to Anchorage on my own and learning what I had to learn about radio operations managing. My first contact person in Anchorage was Michael Gravel, he was in charge of the Columbia School of Music for those who wanted to learn the basics of radio operations.

I took the Columbia School of Music radio operations class for four months and obtained my radio operator permit, which would be good from 1971 until 1977. In June of that year my operator permit was signed by the FCC Commissioner Harold D. Devoe, Engineer, and also witnessed by Ben F. Waple, of the Federal Communications Commission.

While in Anchorage, I listened to every commercial station radio operator that I could to learn more about announcing on radio, not for commercials, but for a plain and pleasant radio dialogue, introducing music, when to speak over a record, and when it would be improper to do so.

That helped me to introduce my own show which I called Geezer Rock with the help of Jim Barker who is a real friend and fun character to talk with on the radio about the 1960s rock ‘n’ roll music. This went well with all the geezers of the Yukon and Kuskokwim Delta region.

Announcers for KYUK radio learn very quickly not to play rock ‘n’ roll music early in the morning. Also, to tell time frequently, and when announcing weather forecast never to make it sound gloomy, but upbeat. For example, never to say “today it will be partly cloudy” instead, to say “it will be partly sunny”, which was upbeat. There was no chance of depressing any of our listeners concerning the weather.

Little things like that made radio a pleasure to listen to.

KYUK radio lives on from 580 KYUK, and I recall going to the FCC Commission in Washington DC in order to change our KYUK radio frequency to 640 AM. Thank you to all the people of the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta and beyond for making KYUK what it is today. We appreciate your input and guidance throughout the years. May KYUK have a long life in our Yukon and Kuskokwim Delta, and Our Yupiaq language.