Juneau, Ketchikan, and Sitka radio stations sold to California company

1. Be interesting to see what comes next.

   KINY has always been pretty locally focused. If you really wanted to know what was on Juneau’s mind, Problem Corner is it.

   Maybe now KJNO can ditch Sean Hannity. Dead air would be more interesting.

2. Who cares? the Juneau stations are all rebroadcast stuff from somewhere else anyway and frankly I’d be shocked if anyone is listening.

   • Actually the music and news are all live/local. Only sports and news talk are canned.

     And our local stations are pretty popular. Especially in the smaller villages.

3. Listen, properties change hands! The market is always working wonders! All desired things and services have “exchange values.” Nothing is so “sacred” that it can’t be had for a dollar or two! This is America! Anybody who thinks otherwise is nothing but a dumb commie. Buckle up: what’s your price?

   • Problem is, the further stations move from local ownership, the less response they become to the community they serve.

     The broadcast airways belong to “the people” and are managed as a public trust. Especially in isolated parts of Alaska. Hard to serve the public when you aren’t part of it.

     With every change of ownership, the Empire gets less and less attached to Juneau. It may as well be USA Today. The same can happen to local radio.

     • Avenger, what’s it with the “public trust?” It’s an empty trope. Yeah, yeah, “we, the people!” What do you think the sleazebags do in Washington, feast themselves for the common good? Do you think the country is in an uproar, because our public servants are being maligned and mistreated? Public service, eh? Get a grip!

       • Edit (Comma dropped after the word uproar.): “Do you think the country is in an uproar because our public servants are being maligned and mistreated?”

     • Never mind that there are more ‘public radio’ stations in southeast than there are private….

4. What could possibly go wrong with a California company ??? Who owns ADN? Who owns the Peninsula Clarion? Outside companies!!!!!! I’m a conservative but I do try really hard not to be insulting or degrading or offbeat. I’ve written 3 letters to the editor to ADN and only one being in print. And one to the Clarion with it being not in print. ADN is such a liberal rag that I’m so thankful for MRAK!!!!! Keep up the good work Suzanne!!!!!!!

   • ADN and Peninsula Clarion are a both waste of trees. Their websites are a waste of electrons.

5. For news and politics in JNU, the dominant radio station is the Public station. It tells a lot about the politics of the State government that you’ll see a lot of KTOO mugs, pins, and posters in State offices in Juneau. As much as I detest communist broadcasting, I would even listen to their news whenever I had something controversial going on. They’d always have one of the union goons on pounding his chest. I never had to do much planning to deal with them because they were so arrogant that they’d go on their pet radio station and brag about what they were planning to do.

   KINY, a regional AM station used to be a powerhouse because of its range. It was the only one you could hear if you were much out of sight of town and it has the repeaters in the smaller towns and villages. All the daytime programming was live and the announcers/DJs were well known in the community. All the KINY icons are gone now, so I don’t know what it is like anymore.

   Remarkably given JNU’s politics, conservative talk on KJNO had a good audience in my time in JNU. Anyplace you went where people did work that could get you dirty, you could hear KJNO in the background.

   The problem with the FM stations is that the geography of JNU means that to listen to one of them in your car from The Valley to town requires you to change the station two or three times and none of the FM stations reach more than a few miles from town. The public station has repeaters around the area if you’re inclined to listen to communist propaganda. I already had Sirius for my boat and finally just got a Sirius receiver for my truck and pretty much said goodbye to local radio.

6. But, what about Leningrad? :*( Or, Zichau, Germany? Who is propagandizing them? :*(

7. Live personalities: Wiley, Ryder, Mann, James, Burns, Morgan, Egan, Carran, Davis all gone! Peres is the only one of the old timers still on air . . . for now? Hometown Radio ain’t what it used to be, for sure!

   • “Uncle Fats!” – sd

8. Nobody in Juneau knows where the Stevenson Building is located, but EVERYONE knows where the PLYWOOD PALACE is, because Warren Wiley (Uncle Fatz) coined that descriptive term, as he viewed the construction of what is now the State of Alaska Department of Labor Building from the window of the KINY Radio control room. And, who can forget the most functional fishing aid ever devised in southeast Alaska, the “12 gauge halibut fishing gaff”? Announcers today wouldn’t dare suggest such a concept!

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