Public Radio in Rural Alaska with Paul Walker - TWiRT Ep. 675

As Chris Tarr points out, Paul B. Walker, Jr. is probably the most enthusiastic supporter of local radio service and programming. Paul is the Program Director at KSKO-FM in McGrath, Alaska, but he wears almost every hat required for running a full-service FM Public Radio station. Many TWiRT fans know of Paul through the Facebook group he started, “I Take Pictures of Transmitter Sites.” Chris Tarr and Kirk Harnack talk with Paul about the challenges of broadcasting in rural Alaska, including antenna icing, Internet service, STL connections to outlying villages’ FM transmitters, and even the occasional “moose fade”.
Show notes:
Paul does just about everything at KSKO-FM, McGrath, Alaska
www.kskopublicradio.com/
The KSKO-FM high-quality web stream is here.
ksko.streamguys1.com/live
We think Reeve Air Alaska is pretty interesting as the way to get around in rural Alaska.
reeveairalaska.com/
An interactive, real-time map of Starlink satellites is here.
satellitemap.space/
Facebook group he started, “I Take Pictures of Transmitter Sites.”
/ transmittersites

[@voiceofjeff]

I met Paul Walker years ago and he's a true radio junkie, and a fun guy! He loves radio with every ounce of his being!
Glad to see hes getting the exposure he deserves!
Be well, guys!

[@KevinKidd_CSRE-AMD]

Hi Paul, Kirk and Chris... I had a local electric (Rural Broadband Fund(ed)) fiber drop installed at a MS TX March 2023. The install crew arrived and the foreman's first words were "they didn't tell us that it was an aerial drop over a creek." Of course my first thought was... Oh crap, here we go. Cancel the closing date....
Instead he turned around and yelled at the crew on the other side of the creek to get their $%&@% boots off and bring him the fiber reel. A young lineman kicked off his boots, waded the creek up over his knees and threw the reel of fiber up on the near side bank and had to be belayed up the creek bank (using the fiber...). About an hour later they had climbed and mounted the fiber on several poles, mounted the ONT and we had great bandwidth... If it would have been any of the big broadband vendors, we would have still been fighting over who had to take their boots off. These guys thought that it was great adventure.

[@DesmondNoel]

What's the price of the console

[@neilpollicino80]

MOOSE FADe