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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An SD card ,with an almost unimaginable story, turned out to be the key to the murder trial of Brian Smith, a killer who targeted vulnerable Alaska Native women. During the trial, it was revealed that footage on the card came from a cellphone, stolen from Smith. Family members and advocates for Kathleen Henry and Veronica Abouchuk had to hear sounds from Smith's videos and see images that were horrific. And yet they came everyday to seek justice, to remind the court that the women were someone's daughters — and in Abouchuk's case, a mother and a grandmother. -
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After three weeks of testimony, the trial of serial killer Brian Smith came to a quick conclusion Thursday. The jury convicted Smith of all counts against him in the deaths of two Alaska Native women, who he targeted for their vulnerability. National media has followed the Smith murders closely, dubbing them the "Memory Card Murders." During the trial, the jury saw footage and photographs of the killings. -
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The murders of two Alaska Native women, Kathleen Jo Henry and Veronica Abouchuk, have a lot in common. Both women are from Southwest Alaska and each battled homelessness and addiction in Anchorage. The same man, Brian Smith, a South African immigrant, has been charged with their murders. -
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