This week we’re hearing from KSKA’s long-time program director Bede Trantina. Bede is retiring today after 39 years of public radio service. Now that is a very long time to work somewhere, and Bede has enjoyed just about all of it. Unfortunately, she did have one small but disturbing surprise just before she left.
TRANTINA: Well, knowing that my last day was coming up, I realized “Jeez, I’ve got to clean out my desk, clean out my office. So I came in on a Saturday, and I got the vacuum cleaner, and I’m moving some stuff around. And I found some coffee beans under the heater area, some old candy behind my file cabinet.
And then I’ve got these cloth bags, underneath my desk with like a change of clothes, and a towel, and some soap. In case, you know, we get stuck here with an ongoing story, and I hadn’t looked in those things for a long time. And there on the bottom of this cloth bag, I thought, “Oh look, there’s a little fuzzy key chain. I don’t remember getting that.” Then I looked at it a little bit closer, and I thought, “That’s not a key chain. That’s a dead mouse.”
It was all wrapped up, all curled up. And I looked at it and I thought, “Oh (expletive), what is that?” And I dropped it, and I took all of the stuff that I’d taken out of that bag just like it was contaminated. And I put it back in that bag and put it upstairs and dropped it in the garbage can. I don’t remember anything else that I found. Certainly nothing that was that gross. But, I like to think of myself as a pretty good housekeeper. But, maybe not such a good officekeeper.
Dave Waldron began his radio career in 2000 as a volunteer DJ at UAA’s radio station KRUA 88.1, where he hosted a weekend music show. In 2004 he was hired as the station’s music director, and held the position until his graduation in 2007. He was hired by Alaska Public Media in 2008 and since then has worked as an audio engineer, editor, and producer. He currently runs his own small business AK Audio Pro, and is a host of Alaska Public Media’s Hometown, Alaska.
