Don’t Miss the Channel 8 Auction Feb. 11 & 12!

It’s time again for the annual Channel 8 Auction!  This year’s event will take place February 11th and 12th from 6 PM – 10 PM nightly, live on Channel 8 TV.  This is our biggest fundraiser of the year and we need your participation. We have lots of great items – and more showing up every day!  Items are donated by businesses, artists, and viewers in Unalaska and beyond.

Highlights from our Big Board include:

a 42″ flat screen TV from Alyeska Trading

a 30 minute flight-seeing tour on board Pen Air’s Grumman Goose

a Martin guitar (anonymous donor)

a private wine tasting/small plate pairing for 8 from the Grand Aleutian Hotel

a sofa sized quilt handmade by Judi Ruder

Gravel from Northern Mechanical

a 1 year family pass from the PCR

a dental exam and whitening from IFHS Clinic

a 40 lb. luau pig from Peterkin

a 4 hour island tour for up to 6 people from Extra Mile Tours
and more still coming in!
The Big Board will close at 10 PM on Friday, February 12.  Don’t miss your chance to bid on these fabulous items!

In addition to the Big Board, there are auction items for you, no matter what your interests or price range!  These include boxes of crab, various clothing items from local businesses, services such as snow removal, therapeutic massage, car rental, subscriptions, welding, and dirt work, art, pottery, photography, hand crafted items, overnight stays in Anchorage, gift cards to local and Anchorage restaurants, signed books from Alaska authors, boxes of organic produce, a sea kayaking trip out of Whittier, specially made cakes, a baby quilt, a firetruck ride, and much, much more!

A highlight of this year’s event is the WORLD PREMIERE of Channel 8’s original soap opera Dutch Harbor, 99692. The soap opera was a collaboration between dedicated volunteers and Channel 8 staff.  The
plot follows a series of dramas surrounding the crew of the fishing vessel Merlin.  Dutch Harbor, 99692 will air between auction segments.  Tune in for lots of fun as you follow the antics of our soap opera cast.
AND, in an exciting twist, you, our viewers,  will vote for the soap opera’s conclusion.  Potential endings will be posted here on our blog on Feb. 11 and you will be able to vote for your favorite scenario until 8 PM on Feb.  12.  The ending with the most votes will be broadcast after the Big Board closes.

In addition to a live on-air auction, this event is our only television pledge drive of the year!  If you enjoy the services that Channel 8 provides, it’s time to pledge your support.  Memberships are good for one year from date of purchase, so if you pledged during our radio drive in October, your membership with UCB is current.  If you joined or renewed your membership during the auction last year, it’s time to renew! Once again, we’ll be offering all pledges of $125 or higher a limited-edition KUCB sweatshirt featuring the artwork of Suzi Golodoff.  Pledges of $125 or higher will also be entered into a drawing for a roundtrip Alaska Airlines ticket to Anchorage or Seattle.  Memberships must be paid by 5 PM on Wednesday, Feb. 17th in order to be eligible for the plane ticket! Drawing will take place on LIVE television at 8 PM on the 17th.

Online pledging is quick and easy on our website at www.kucb.org. If you prefer, call us any time this week (581-1888) or during the auction and we will be happy to take your information by phone. If you’d like to donate an item or volunteer to help us during the auction, give us a call! Otherwise, be sure to tune in from the comfort of your home, pledge, and bid high!

As always, we appreciate your support and know that we could not continue to provide services to the community without you!  Thanks!

Sunspots might affect coverage

Please be prepared for intermittent outages and service degradations between the dates of February 21 and March 9.  Sun outages occur for a few days semi-annually when the Public Broadcasting satellite passes directly between the sun and the antenna on Earth.  Outages could impact services on KUCB 89.7 FM Radio, KSKA 91.1 FM Radio, and ARCS TV Broadcast Channel 4.  We appreciate your patience.

Broadcast of Barrow Invitational

KUCB Radio is pleased to announce local broadcast of Unalaska games, LIVE from Barrow.  The tournament starts on Thursday, February 4th. 

Thursday, Feb. 4th
3:30 PM Unalaska Raider Girls vs. Nome
5:00 PM Unalaska Raider Boys vs. Nome

Friday, Feb. 5th
6:30 PM Unalaska Raider Girls vs. Barrow
8:00 PM Unalaska Raider Boys vs. Barrow

Satruday, Feb. 6th
3:30 PM Unalaska Raider Girls vs. Skyview
5:00 PM Unalaska Raider Boys vs. Skyview

The Show Goes On

Rain and sleet didn’t slow down taping of the “Bollywood” scene for our upcoming soap opera, Dutch Harbor 99692.  We really appreciate all 25+ dancers, 2 camera men, and Pam the choreographer,  who braved the elements to participate in this historic event!  A dedicated cast of actors has been working hard with our Production Manager, Pipa Escalante, on the production which will air during our upcoming fundraiser.  That’s right, it’s nearly time for the Channel 8 Auction!  Our biggest fundraiser of the year will take place on February 11th and 12th.  If you’d like to donate an item for this event, or volunteer, please give us a call!

Speak Up, Unalaska! a big success

KUCB listeners and concerned citizens submitted 17 questions to this week’s episode of “Speak Up, Unalaska!” the KUCB public affairs call-in show.  People wanted to know about the city’s financial future given the smaller fish quotas along with the larger number of expensive projects. They inquired about energy issues — what’s with the power house engines? where are we with geothermal? Mayor Shirley Marquardt and City Manager Chris Hladick supplied what answers they could during the half-hour long conversation.

Listen to it all on the news page at www.kucb.org . The file quality was lowered and the show was split into two parts to help with downloading speed issues.

Also, join us for another episode of “Speak Up, Unalaska!” on Feb. 2 at 9 am with Rep. Bryce Edgmon and Mayor Shirley Marquardt, who will be visiting him in Juneau. This is your chance to learn more about your government. Send questions ahead of time to news@kucb.org.

The Traveler TV Premiere

 

Unalaska Community Broadcasting is excited to present the world premiere of The Traveler on Channel 8 TV on January 23, 2009 at   7:30 PM.    This is a rolling world-wide broadcast, starting in Australia and ending in Unalaska.  24 community stations will be premiering the program, with a potential viewing audience of over ten million people in eleven countries! 

The traveler starts in Sydney, Australia and visits 16 community television stations across the globe, including stations in New Zealand, Finland,  Sweden, Austria, South Africa, UK,  Ireland, Texas, and Indiana.  Watch during the local premiere, and participate in UCB World Trivia!  During breaks, we’ll feature trivia questions.  Answer all five correctly and you may win a prize.  Send your answers to channel8@kucb.org.  A drawing of correct answers will take place LIVE during Flash! Unalaska on January 27th.  The Traveler will rebroadcast after Flash! Unalaska on Saturday, January 23rd and Sunday, January 24th. 

Unalaska’s portion of the production was limited to four minutes, which was quite a challenge since we have so much we would like to show!  Thanks to Roger Deffendall for being the traveler’s tour guide, to Aaron Adams, Rosie Pound and Lynda Lybeck-Robinson for allowing the use of their compositions from “Hearts and Hands,”  the City of Unalaska, the Ounalashka Corporation, the  State of AK  D.O.T.,  Pen Air and all volunteers who assisted in this production.

If you’d like to learn more about this production, please visit the project website.

Speak Up, Unalaska!

On Wed., Jan. 20, it’s time for another episode of Speak Up, Unalaska!, KUCB’s call-in public affairs show. This time we’ll feature city manager Chris Hladick and Mayor Shirley Marquardt. This is your chance to ask anything you want about city issues and politics. You can call in your question live at 581-2161 during the program and either ask it directly or have our host, Anne Hillman, ask it for you. You can also email your questions in ahead of time to news@kucb.org. Or, just tune in and listen. You never know what you might learn!

Speak Up, Unalaska! will run from 5 to 5:30 pm on Wednesday, Jan. 20 on KUCB 89.7 FM. Call in and speak up!

Unalaska Bay trawl closure

The state’s Board of Fisheries is considering closing Unalaska Bay to all trawling year round. At present, the pelagic trawl fleet is allowed to harvest in the Bay during pollock B season, from June 10 to November 1. Many local residents and the Unalaska/Dutch Harbor Fish and Game Advisory Committee want the area to be closed to all trawling year round. This week, city council also unanimously approved a resolution supporting the closure.

More boats began trawling in Unalaska Bay in 2002, taking any where from 400 to 57 hundred metric tons of pollock. That’s less than half of one percent of the total harvest; in some years it is less than a tenth.

Along with the harvest came varying rates of salmon bycatch. According to Alaska Department of Fish & Game biologist Forrest Bowers, the pollock harvest from Unalaska Bay in 2009 was 1488 metric tons and 287 Chinook and 530 chum were caught as bycatch. That gives rates of 0.19 Chinook per metric ton and 0.36 chum per metric ton. Over the past six years, Chinook salmon bycatch rates in Unalaska Bay ranged from 0.03 to 0.69 Chinook per metric ton of pollock. One of the highest rates for the entire Bering Sea, in 2007, was 0.09 Chinook per metric ton.

Bowers said when fishing in the bay, the pollock fleet is catching juvenile salmon from other places, not local salmon. But community members and local subsistence fishermen, like Walter Tellman, are still concerned about where the boats are going.

“For one thing, they’re trawling pretty close to Broad Bay and Nanteekan Bay. Those are pretty important salmon rivers here. As the fish are coming in to spawn, they’re out there dragging these huge nets around.”

Tellman said he’s seen changes in general since trawlers started fishing in the bay more frequently, too. “With all that activity, all that fishery activity, it’s putting a lot of catch effort against the amount of fish we have in the bay. We’re seeing less and less fish, and I suspect it’s due to all the effort.”

The trawl boats are also catching gear from smaller boats. Unalaska residents who subsistence and commercial fish in Unalaska Bay say they have gear conflicts between their longlines and pots and the larger trawl nets. Residents argue that it’s hard to take smaller boats and skiffs far from town to fish whereas large trawlers can travel out past the bay more easily. Supporters of the closure say Unalaska Bay should be reserved for the community as it traditionally was.

Tellman also said that the trawlers could affect the local marine mammals, such as sea lions, seals, and otters that live here year round and the pods of whales that transit through in the summer, when the pollock fleet is allowed in the bay.

However, at last weekend’s fish and game advisory committee meeting, Sinclair Wilt from Alyeska Seafoods said that many in the trawl fleet dislike the proposed closure. They fish in the bay because it takes less fuel and time to catch the fish, and they get more money for their catch because it is fresher.

The only person to speak against the closure at the city council meeting was Dave Boisseau, who heads Westward Seafoods. He said his boats rely on pollock from the bay, and the community relies on that revenue. Boisseau argued that it’s an extraordinary measure to close an area to fishing without data saying that it hurts the bay.

The Board of Fisheries will decide whether or not to institute the closure at their meeting in Anchorage on February 2. They are accepting comments on the issue on January 19. You can send them to:

ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME
Boards Support Section /Board of Fisheries
P.O. Box 115526
Juneau, AK 99811-5526
Or can be faxed to 907-465-6094

You can also comment here!

Celebrating Russian Christmas in Unalaska

This is a special time  for the Russian Orthodox faith, as the Nativity is celebrated in our community.   Please contact Father Andrew at 581-5883 for more information about the following events:

Thursday, January 7

5 PM     Vespers at the Holy Ascension Cathedral with Starring to follow

Friday, January 8

10 AM  Synaxis of Theotokos at the Holy Ascension Cathedral

Noon    Potluck at the Senior Center with Starring to follow

January 9

Starring (call for schedule)

We wish everyone a happy Christmas.

Unalaska Participates in Statewide Test of the Emergency Action Notification System

Stop! & Chill!  It is just a Drill! 

On January 6th at approximately 10 a.m.,  the state of Alaska, including Unalaska,  will participate in the first ever test of the EmergencyAction Notification System that can alert the entire nation in the event of an emergency.   The test will  be heard on KUCB radio and seen on Channel 8.   Audio will indicate that this is a “test,”  but what viewers see on their TV screens may not.  Please listen carefully to the audio portion of this alert.  This test will last for a full 3 minutes. Please go to www.ready.alaska.gov/test to give your feedback on your test reception.