Rhonda McBride
KNBA News ProducerRhonda McBride has a long history of working in both television and radio in Alaska, going back to 1988, when she was news director at KYUK, the public radio and TV stations in Bethel, which broadcast in both the English and Yup’ik languages.
From the Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race — to the revival of the Yup’ik language — to the fight to protect the subsistence way of life, McBride was immersed in Alaska Native culture and history on a daily basis. It was one of the best jobs she ever had, she recalls, because she got to work alongside pioneering Yup’ik broadcasters, who incorporated modern technology with traditional story telling skills to preserve their language and culture.
After almost ten years in Bethel, McBride moved on to the Alaska Public Radio Network in Anchorage. She was also a public television producer at KAKM-Channel 7, where she hosted public affairs programs and moderated political debates. Later she worked at KTUU-Channel 2 and KTVA-Channel 11, where she covered politics, economics, rural, and Alaska Native issues.
At KTVA, McBride hosted and produced Frontiers, a weekly TV magazine show which won national awards for its in-depth coverage of rural Alaska and series of documentaries on the Hiland Mountain Lullaby Project, which brought local artists and inmate moms together to compose songs for their children.
In recent years, she returned to her roots in radio to produce KTOO’s Juneau Afternoon talk show. Currently, she is news director at KNBA Radio.
In 2022, McBride was inducted into the Alaska Broadcaster’s Hall of Fame and awarded an honorary doctorate at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
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With the deadline for public comment looming, hundreds of Alaskans are weighing in on a U.S. Department of Interior review of federal subsistence management. A Safari Club International petition is at the center of the debate. It calls for changes that rural subsistence users fear will threaten their legal right to hunt and fish and provide for their families. -
KNBA's top story: An overflow crowd and hours of testimony on the Federal Subsistence Board's future at a hearing in Anchorage this week. -
Marlene Johnson, remembered as one of the champions of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. After the passage of ANCSA, Johnson went on to become one of the state’s most influential Native leaders. She died Sunday, Jan. 25 at the age of 90. -
Native American Rights Fund and the National Congress of American Indians respond to a wave of concern across Indian country about federal immigration enforcement. -
The Department of Environmental Conservation said it has been unable to get close to the wreckage, due to worries that metal from Rig 26 might fall on response team members. -
The Alaska Federation of Natives has launched an aggressive campaign to fight the Safari Club International's effort to weaken the influence of the federal government on subsistence management in Alaska and restore state authority over its regulation. AFN says only the federal government can defend Alaska's rural priority for subsistence, and the Safari Club proposal threatens those protections. -
While Alaska Native groups hailed the U.S. Supreme Court's decision not to take up the State of Alaska's challenge to federal subsistence rights, they also worry that these protections are being attacked on other fronts. -
KNBA Top Stories: U.S. Supreme Court rejects state’s bid to reopen Alaska subsistence fishing debate. Star gazing in Bethel, as worshippers follow the Russian Orthodox Christmas Star. -
KNBA's Top Stories: Democrat Mary Peltola launches bid for U.S. Senate. U.S. Supreme Court denies State of Alaska's petition to hear subsistence case. The sights and sounds of Slaviq, Orthodox Christmas celebration. -
The U.S. Supreme Court has announced its decision on whether it will grant the State of Alaska's request to resume Alaska's battle over subsistence.
