Riding the air waves.

• Author: Berger, Michael
• Position: Radio broadcasting in Alaska

In Alaska, radio is more than entertainment and sometimes more than a business. For listeners in the Bush, it's a lifeline.

Radio stations in Alaska use names like KBEAR, KWhale, The Fox and KWolf, but the music and features they program are just like that of radio stations in the Lower 48. Alaska stations stay in tune with what's happening on the international music scene while staying in sync with diverse Alaskan listening habits.

But in a state that covers an area almost as big as the U.S. Eastern seaboard, radio sometimes provides more than just a snowy night's entertainment.

In rural Alaska, for example, radio is a lifeline, connecting Bush residents with important news items, timely weather reports and frequent emergency messages. For Alaska Natives, rural radio represents an open channel of communication -- a channel dedicated to giving back to local communities by providing useful information and promoting Native culture through Native language broadcasts.

Marcia Briggs, development director for Anchorage public broadcast station KSKA, says, "People in Alaska care. They care about this way of life and about their communities. People want to be involved with what they hear over the radio waves. And up here, they are. We get tremendous support from listeners who appreciate what we air on our station."

CONQUERING COMMERCIAL MARKETS

Broadcasting pioneers like Alvin Bramstedt of Anchorage and Austin Lathrop of Fairbanks knew way back in the 1940s that radio would play a major role in the lives of every Alaskan. Before television, radio stations like KFAR in Fairbanks and KINY in Juneau didn't have to worry about competition for advertising dollars or Arbitron ratings position. Radio stations weren't just a business, they were a necessity.

Today, however, Alaska's radio stations compete in an industry where staying in the black isn't easy. For some companies, operating one or more radio stations has proved a fairly profitable business endeavor. Other stations, particularly public stations sustained by corporate and federal grants plus membership support, constantly struggle for funds to stay in operation. Over the years, some stations have been gobbled up by larger companies. Others went off the air entirely.

Anchorage is the only market in Alaska to experience head-to-head competition on a large scale. Rural radio stations and smaller markets like Juneau and Fairbanks stay afloat by becoming community advocates, playing the hits and covering the news without forgetting what's happening in their home towns.

During oil-boom expansion in the 1970s and early 1980s, radio stations began broadcasting with specific formats designed to reach a target audience and bring in potential advertisers.

When Alaska's economy hit rock bottom in the mid-1980s, small independent radio stations found it almost impossible to operate given the reduction in advertising revenue. Corporations such as Anchorage-based Comco Broadcasting Inc., Community Pacific Broadcasting Co. out of Monterey, Calif., and TCT Communications in Anchorage bought several of the slowly sinking stations, which were consolidated under revised Federal Communications (FCC) ownership rules, known as "duopoly," written in 1992.

Under the new guidelines, according to the size of the operating market, corporations can own two FM stations and two AM stations if the combination adds up to less than 25 percent of Arbitron Rating Service's market evaluation.

Tom Tierney, president of KENI/AM 550 (TCT Communications), claims that at the industry's peak in 1985, Anchorage radio advertising sales brought in over $13 million, but sank to a low of about $8 million in 1991. However, cash sales in radio advertising revenue were up 11.6...