KSTK’s part-time Development Director Anna Angerman never expected to return to broadcasting. But when a job opened at Wrangell’s public radio station, she jumped at the chance. KSTK’s Colette Czarnecki spoke with her about what brought her here and her thoughts on the job.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
My name is Anna Angerman, and I am the Development Director here at KSTK. I’ve been working here since March. I love this job. I went to college for broadcast. However, I focused more on television. I graduated in 2011. And I just kind of had it in the back of my mind when I moved to Wrangell that I probably would not work in a field with my degree. So as soon as I saw this position open up on the radio station, I couldn’t let the opportunity pass.
When did you move to Wrangell and why?
So my husband and I met while I was in college and he was just living down in Vegas. A couple years go by and then he decided he was going to move back up to Wrangell. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to live in Alaska. I was so used to living in the desert. And you know, four, five months later, I moved up here, and here we are, almost 12 years later.
How has Wrangell treated you?
It was a wake up call for sure. When I first got here, I was just so, like, I want to just go to the grocery store and not have everybody recognize me and stop me and talk to me. It’s something you just kind of get used to. Living in a city is having this anonymity. Also, when we did first move here, the grocery stores closed at six, and they were closed on Sunday. I was shocked. Coming from Vegas where stores, restaurants, pretty much anything is open, if not 24 hours a day, they’re open until midnight.
But now that we have kids, there’s certain things that you are willing to give up to have the benefits of living in such a safe, welcoming kind community.
You’re the development director. Will you talk a little bit about what you do?
Honestly, I was not sure what a development director did when I applied.
But anyway, so what I do here as the development director is pretty much events I help facilitate and get fundraising for. I also help with underwriting, which is essentially the public radio version of advertising. It’s a lot of just writing and figuring out what’s going to work with the FCC guidelines. I love public radio, so it’s just finding the right businesses that are willing to be like, ‘Yeah, I want my business to be heard on public radio and to be known to be a supporter of public radio.’
What’s your favorite part of the job?
Just doing fun social media posts. I think a lot of people underestimate the importance of having a presence on social media.
I like having the creativity to just make a random post and kind of do whatever I want with the colors and the graphics and writing.
Who are you outside of work? What do you like to do?
I feel like if I’m not at work, I’m mom. I have three kids, and they take up 99% of my life outside of work, which is amazing.
So I’ll say hi. I’ve got Kyler, who is 11. He just started sixth grade. Maddox, who is eight and just started third grade. And then Scarlett, who is two and the only girl of the family.
Is there anything else you’d like to say?
I just really love what we’re able to do here. I feel like we offer something really fun and positive to the community, and it’s important. I know people realize how important it is when bad things happen. But I think people need to realize it’s important for the good things too. Just being able to hold an event, and people who don’t go out very often come out and have some food, have a glass of wine and watch live music and just have a fun, positive night out.
