'August' in Alaska

We’ve got our first-ever Anchorage market profile in the new issue. While (virtually) visiting DMA No. 150, we learned of local broadcasting legend August Hiebert. “Augie” launched Alaska’s first station in KTVA, says Alaska Broadcasters Association (ABA) exec director Darlene Simono, and was the ABA’s first president back in 1964.

Augie is all over the written history of the ABA on its website. In June of 2003, the ABA presented Walter Cronkite with the “Augie Hiebert Lifetime Achievement Award” at the Hilton in Anchorage.

In August of 2004, the site reads, “The Anchorage FCC Monitoring Station is moved to the Kenai Peninsula. Broadcasters will now be able to transmit at full power and not interfere with FAA operations.”

Augie played a huge part in this vital local broadcasting project. “Augie Hiebert worked for over 15 years,” says the ABA site, “to make this so.”

Augie died in September of 2007 at the age of 90. But his broadcasting legacy lives on in many ways–including his daughter Cathy working at the Alaska Broadcasters Association.