Staff and Volunteers

KSKA’s service is a collaborative effort of many different talented people. Some folks work for us full time, others are part-time contractors and still others are the generous volunteers that create much of the local programming that makes KSKA a unique resource in Anchorage and beyond.

Staff

Bede Trantina
Director of Programming
Host, Morning Edition
btrantina@kska.org

Bede Trantina graduated with her BFA from Northern Arizona University in 1978. Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Bede headed to Alaska shortly after graduation and became a volunteer at KSKA within a few weeks upon arriving in Anchorage. Trantina was hired as KSKA’s Morning Edition host in 1980 and “Yippee, it’s Friday” became part of her weekly greeting within a few months of getting up at 4:00 a.m. to sign on. Bede became Program Director in 1989.

Constance Huff
Operations Manager / Assistant Program Director
Host, All Things Considered
chuff@kska.org

Constance Graffis Huff arrived in Anchorage from San Diego in 1983 and began volunteering as a board operator at KSKA in 1987. Later she began playing jazz during Just Jazz and then later during Night Music. She attended UAA and got her B.A. in Journalism and Public Communications in 1990 and was hired at KSKA in 1991. Currently she is assistant program director and operations director.

Kristin Spack
Production Coordinator and Web Editor
kspack@kska.org

Kristin Spack received her degree in Broadcast Production from Loyola University News Orleans in July 2006. Originally from Attleboro, Massachusetts she interned at her local PBS station WGBH Boston where she was a website writer and researcher for American Experience. In September 2007 she moved to Anchorage, Alaska from Denver, Colorado where she was an editor at Digital Media Communications. Upon arriving in Anchorage, she joined the team at KSKA, where she maintains the KSKA website, engineers local call-in shows and hosts daytime programs.

Len Anderson
Metro News Reporter
landerson@kska.org

Len Anderson is a second generation broadcaster originally from the upper Midwest. He has a Masters Degree in English and American Studies from the University of Minnesota and has taught various college writing and literature courses. Starting in 1975, he entered commercial radio and two years later switched to public radio, beginning with KEYA-FM on the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Indian Reservation in North Dakota. He came to Alaska in 1979 and has worked at stations in Kotzebue, Fairbanks and Anchorage. Before coming to KSKA and the Anchorage beat, Len worked on National Native News, Native America Calling, Wellness Edition and Independent Native News.

Contractors

Dr. Thad Woodard
Host, Line One: Your Health Connection

Dr. Woodard is a pediatrician and specialist in child and adolescent asthma practicing in Anchorage since 1980. He arrived in 1978 with his wife and first daughter on an assignment with the Centers for Disease Control after completing training at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine and has never left. He now has four daughters, continues to practice, and stays involved with efforts to improve asthma care in Alaska. Dr Woodard has hosted Line One - Your Health Connection since 1998.

Michael Carey
Host, Anchorage Edition

Michael Carey is the host of Anchorage Edition and Running as well as a freelance writer. Carey was born in Fairbanks and attended local schools before studying history at Ithaca College and Duke University. From 1984-2000, he was an editorial writer and eventually editorial page editor of the Anchorage Daily News. He resides in Anchorage

Volunteers

“Betsy”
Host / Producer, Something Different

Betsy Blassingham graduated with a BSN from Montana State University in 1973. A few months later she headed north to Alaska to start a nursing career with the Indian Health Service. During an assignment in Bethel she was sidetracked into public broadcasting with station KYUK where she hosted a morning radio program for many years, but was probably most notorious for being hit in the face with a pie (wielded by Corey Flintoff) while singing a song on television. She currently resides in Glen Alps with husband and music adviser Ron Brennan and works as an R.N. at the Alaska Native Medical Center.

Shonti Elder
Host / Producer, Travelin’ Music

Shonti was born in India to teacher parents, who named her a common Indian name which means peace. She has degrees from Oberlin, Boston University and UAA. She began at KSKA as a volunteer in 1978 and has had an acoustic music show ever since, during her tenure as board member (and president), and 13 years on staff as first volunteer coordinator and then operations director along with that for five years. Her current volunteer program is Travelling Music. Shonti is also a professional fiddler, and has several CD’s of original music with her friend Will Putman. She lives in the Valley with her husband Bill Frey, and has two musical children - Kluonie and Devin.

Angelina Estrada-Burney
On-Air Assistance / Spanish Translator

Angelina Estrada-Burney first arrived in Anchorage in the summer of 1991 with her husband who was stationed at Elmendorf AFB and is originally from Alamogordo, New Mexico. She is active in the Anchorage Hispanic community and is an inaugural Board of Director for the Hispanic Affairs Council of Alaska and serves as Vice President of Public Relations for Bridge Builders of Anchorage. She is fluent in Spanish and enjoys recording voice overs for KSKA in both Spanish and English. Angelina’s first experiences doing voice over work came during her employment with Northern Television where she worked from 1994-1998. She appeared in many commercials for KTVA and recorded voice overs for KBYR and KNIK. She has served as Public Relations Officer for many non-profits and as a spokesperson for political campaigns.

Steve Grabacki & Marianne Kerr
Co-Hosts / Co-Producers, Rock Island Line

Steve Grabacki took his MS in fisheries biology from UAF in 1981, and he is a Certified Fisheries Professional. He is owner and president of GRAYSTAR Pacific Seafood, Ltd., an Anchorage-based consulting company. Steve began volunteering at KSKA in 1991, in the news department. He soon became a Saturday morning board operator, during Weekend Edition. Since 1995, Steve has provided weekly seafood industry updates, for airing on Friday mornings and evenings. Over the years, Steve has assisted in several pledge drives, and has guest-hosted Acousticity many times. His favorite KSKA activity is co-hosting The Rock Island Line, a program of classic folk music, with his wife, Marianne Kerr.

Marianne Kerr arrived in Anchorage in 1979 and shortly after that began volunteering at KSKA on the Bluegrass Festival and pledge drives. A believer in the spirit of volunteerism, she believes that everyone has something to give. She enjoys giving listeners pleasure while singing along with classic folk tunes, and co-hosting The Rock Island Line with her husband, Steve Grabacki. She is currently an agent with the University’s Cooperative Extension Service in Anchorage.

Sandy Harper
Co-Host / Co-Producer, Alaska Radio Reader Rambler

Sandy Harper is the producing Artistic Director for Cyrano’s Theatre Company. Cyrano’s Theatre Company is regularly voted “Best Live Theatre” by readers of the Anchorage Daily News and the Anchorage Press. Cyrano’s produces a different play every month continuously year-round. Cyrano’s Theatre Company has been the recipient of the Governor’s Arts Award and the Mayor’s Arts Award for Outstanding Arts Organization. Sandy and Jerry Harper are the founders of Cyrano’s Off Center Playhouse, which is celebrating its fifteenth anniversary this year. The University of Alaska Anchorage named The Harper Studio Theatre in Jerry’s honor. The Harper Travel Fund, administered by The Rasmuson Foundation, was also named in Jerry’s honor.

Mark Muro
Co-Host / Co-Producer, Stage Talk

Mark Muro’s first on-air experience was back in the early 70’s while still in high school, when he was a frequent guest on Lou Gallo’s unique and hilarious serial, “Like You’re Nobody” on WBAI, Pacifica Radio, in New York City. Mark received his B.A. in Media Arts from Queens College, City University of New York, in 1979, and since coming to Alaska in 1980, has worked in radio, television, film and as a theater, music and visual arts critic for various publications. Mark is also a playwright, poet and performer, and has been seen on and off stage in Anchorage for the past twenty years in a variety of roles. Mark was a winner of the Alaska State Poetry Slam competition in 2001 and represented Alaska in the national competition. Mark is also the proud recipient of the first Rasputin Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Ed Ratliff
Fill-in Host, Morning Edition

Ed Ratliff graduated with a BBA degree from Texas Tech University where he met and married his wife, Barbara. They moved to Alaska in 1984 as he continued to pursue his insurance brokerage career. He retired in 2000 after a 39 year career. He served on the APTI Board for 6 years and has been a longtime volunteer at KSKA, KAKM and APRN where he resumed the broadcasting activities he pursued in high school in the 1950’s in Midland, Texas.

Dick Reichman
Co-Host / Co-Producer, Alaska Radio Reader Rambler

Dick Reichman is a Cyrano’s Theatre Company regular and core member of the company. Dick’s most recent directing assignments include Doubt, Happy Days, The Ladies of the Camellias, and Hansel and Gretel. A regular performer with CTC, he was last seen in Deathtrap, The Ladies of the Camellias, War and his own work, The Bells of Geneva. Most of all, Dick loves to write plays. CTC has produced five of them including The Bells of Geneva, which enjoyed a successful reprise in August 2005 at Cyrano’s. CTC also produced his plays Money, War, Florida, and Alaska Roadhouse. Dick is President of the Cyrano’s Theatre Company Board of Directors. In his “spare time”, Dick also plays and professionally tunes pianos…and builds his own harpsichords!

Shana Sheehy
Producer, Spirit of Youth (series)

Shana Sheehy got her start in public broadcasting at KTOO - Juneau as a teenager. Since that time she’s worked with Gavel to Gavel, UAA college radio, the Alaska Public Radio Network and KSKA as an employee and independent producer. She is the producer of the Spirit of Youth radio news spots - an ongoing series that profiles the positive accomplishments of Alaska teens from all over the state. Shana is also the founder of the Alaska Teen Media Institute. She and her husband, Erik, and young son, Max, live in Anchorage.

Marvel Johnson & Sherry Johnson
Hosts / Producers, Soul to Soul and The Love Zone

Dave Luera
Host / Producer, Algo Nuevo (Something New)

Simone McMahon
Fill-in Host, Morning Edition

Jean Paal
Co-Host / Co-Producer, Stage Talk

Kirk Waldhaus
Producer / Co-Host, Night Music