KFSK’s mission is to inform, enlighten and entertain. Each day the station works to provide our community with services that fulfill that mission. The KFSK Community Advisory Board meets regularly to provide staff with any concerns and needs in the community. These meetings provide staff with feedback and information that leads to development of new services. KFSK partners with the local first responders, fire, EMT-EMS, and police for informative public service announcements. We work with the local hospital to provide weekly health tips and advice. The local US Forest Service office works with KFSK to provide educational information about our natural surroundings in the Tongass National Forest.
The station manager serves on the Local Emergency Planning Committee, a vitally important role in the community’s safety and emergency response team. The local Borough government utilizes KFSK’s service daily to reach the community with public service and educational messages. KFSK broadcasts bimonthly Assembly Meetings live and provides the public access to those elected officials through monthly call-in programs. The school board receives the same access, monthly rather than bi-monthly. During the year of 2023 KFSK began monthly live broadcasts of Medical Center Board meetings as a service to provide the same transparency and public access to the governance and operations of the local hospital, clinic and nursing home. Likewise, a monthly call-in program with medical center officials is provided.
Local non-profits and the general public have an opportunity twice each week to announce for themselves any events or information of interest to the public, or promote their own organization’s mission on a live community call-in program.
KFSK partners with many local organizations and non-profits to help promote their own missions, including the local tribal organization, the local humane association, the local nonprofit museum, a local nonprofit marine mammal center, a local group working to prevent domestic violence, the Elks Lodge, the Moose Lodge, the local parks and recreation department….all of these organizations partner with KFSK and produce radio programs for the benefit of the area residents.
The Forest Service produces a weekly program in the KFSK studios – an educational program regarding the flora and fauna within the national forest in which we live. The local public library and KFSK embarked on a new weekly radio broadcast, “Homegrown Conversations”. The broadcast features oral histories of area residents and elders. The local medical center professionals come into the station to produce a program regarding health tips and lifestyle advice to lead to a healthier life. WAVE, a local non-profit produces a series of programs to help encourage victims of domestic violence and other victims of abuse to seek help. The local fire department, along with emergency medical services personnel produces informational and educational programs regarding best practices and safety tips. The local schools provide the daily lunch menu to be broadcast each morning before the school day. The local assisted living facility also provides the radio station with the evening meal menu and welcomes folks to dinner to join the residents in the dining room. One of the assisted living residents produces the daily menu in the KFSK studios for daily broadcast. KFSK’s “Frederick Soundings” is a production in collaboration with the Petersburg Marine Mammal Center. The program shares interesting facts about the mammal life in the surrounding waters. “Hooked on History” is a production in collaboration with the Clausen Memorial Museum. The community nonprofit museum researches local history and collaborates on a radio production to enlighten and educate residents bringing history to life. These radio programs are educational, entertaining and help to promote the mission these nonprofits. From the daily birthday announcements to the occasional funeral notice, KFSK informs the community on matters of interest providing local engagement. Whether from the Rotary Club, the Elks Lodge, the Moose Lodge, the Chamber of Commerce, and the many local churches and religious organizations, and the many nonprofits and local organizations – KFSK is a one-stop shop of community information with the broadcast services and online services of the community calendar. The KFSK Community Calendar online has become the default calendar for the local government, the local schools and the Chamber of Commerce. This is the definition of Community Radio and clearly shows that KFSK is a vital part of the community we serve.
Our small island community has one medical center providing services: emergency room, clinic, long term care facility, lab and radiology, oncology services, inpatient and outpatient care, physical therapy and home health. The medical center has embarked on an ambitious $90 million capital campaign to build a new facility.
The project has met significant opposition within the community. The public education campaign and opposing opinions have received significant coverage on KFSK Community Radio. It was partly due to this issue and the increased interest of the operations and governance of the medical center that the medical center and KFSK agreed to the live broadcast of the hospital board meetings.
This new broadcast service has been universally applauded by the community. It is vitally important and quite timely.
KFSK has developed two cultural programs. One program produced in collaboration with many in the Alaska Native community brings together several local organizations to help foster and promote understanding of the culture and history of local indigenous peoples. The program encompasses storytelling, music, conversation and educational themes. This has been well received in the community. Another is produced in collaboration with the local public library. It is a local Listening Project series of conversations producing local oral histories.
Petersburg is a commercial fishing community with four fish processing plants. The processors employ nearly 1,000 transient seasonal workers. This work force is predominantly Spanish-speaking. KFSK has Spanish-speaking volunteers that are familiar with our production facilities and have recorded messages for broadcast in both Spanish and English.
KFSK also has a good relationship with the local tribal government and in a collaborative effort produces many messages to tribal members throughout the year. Several messages run daily alerting tribal members to services and opportunities available to their families. Additionally, KFSK broadcasts GUNALCHEESH (THANK YOU) is a weekly program celebrating Alaska Native music and languages.
The Alaska Public Radio Network is a vital link for news and information around the state and KFSK’s dues for the APRN programming service is an important part of our overall service to Alaskans. KFSK News personnel contribute on average 2-3 news stories weekly to this statewide news service, so not only does the dues payment allow us to receive programming it provides us with the avenue to share our local content with a statewide audience. We could not afford the statewide network dues without the continued support of the CSG revenue. The interconnect fee for the PRSS system is also paid with the CSG revenue. Ongoing expenses associated with four translator signals to remote areas are also covered in the budget by revenue from KFSK’s CPB funding. Additionally, internet connectivity and associated costs are covered by the CSG grant.
