— What you're hearing is a lifeline for a community in Alaska.
It's a newscast from the station KYUK.
The station is based in Bethel, Alaska.
It broadcasts in two languages.
English and Yupik.
That's the local indigenous language you're hearing there.
KYUK is a small NPR member station.
It also has a TV side, a PBS member station.
And they've been doing this, broadcasting in both languages, for decades.
Yuke in the Yupik language actually means real person, real people.
That is why we chose our call letters.
So we have Yuke to Yuke on Mondays, which is a call-in show.
Kristin Hall is the interim general manager of KYUK.
One of her favorite things to listen to on the station Are there broadcasts of high school basketball games?
I'm not a fluent Yupik speaker, but the bilingual calling of basketball,
it is like a very cool experience.
KYUK also provides essential information for people in this remote place,
like how to stay safe when getting around.
The river that we lie on actually becomes almost like a US highway in the wintertime when it freezes.
But in the spring and fall, the ice is thawing or still in the process of freezing,