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Pop’Comm Exclusive: Key For Alaska’s Riches—Heartbeat Of Alaska by Bill Hoefer |
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A look at the KFAR operations console. When Harold asked me to do an article on KFAR in Fairbanks, Alaska, just because I happened to be here, different thoughts went through my mind. I hope that Alice Brannigan, who is the former radio history editor for Pop’Comm will look at this and give me her blessing. Maybe, just maybe, if I can pull it off then I might try an article on the rival rock and roll stations in the ’60s in Orlando. So I figured, sure, why not? In June I made arrangements to meet with Terry Walley, the station manager of KFAR. We sat down in one of the studios and discussed the station. It was a typical radio studio, but with photos and framed newspaper clippings of the station. KFAR, which stands for Key For Alaska’s Riches, is now called “The Heartbeat of Alaska.” It is the oldest AM radio station in Fairbanks still in existence. KFAR first started transmitting on October 1, 1939. There was another 1 kW AM station that had started about 10 years earlier in Fairbanks, but for reasons unknown was no longer in existence in 1939. KFAR, as I stated, is the oldest station in Fairbanks, but I’m still doing research on all of Alaska. I have information that KENI in Anchorage may be older. KFAR has had four different owners: Lathrop, Midnight Sun, Borealis Broadcasting, and currently New Northwest Broadcasters, which owns 48 stations throughout the Pacific Northwest. Earlier in its broadcasting, like many stations of the day, KFAR limited its transmitting to two hours in the morning and two in the evening. Their programming was live and originated, initially, from the Lathrop building which was located on 2nd Avenue in Fairbanks. Today the studios are located on Aspen Drive in Fairbanks with the transmitter running 10 kW from North Pole, Alaska, about 15 miles southeast. |
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