Anchorage Daily News

An electrical workers union has stepped up to buy Anchorage's liberal talk radio station, allowing operators to upgrade equipment, promote the station and broaden the state's political debate, Rich McClear, a co-owner of KUDO-AM 1080, said Thursday.

The Federal Communications Commission must still clear the $500,000 deal.

It wouldn't be the first union-owned radio station in the country. WCFL in Chicago, "The Voice of Labor," started in 1926 and broadcast for five decades.

Several International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1547 board members had been interested in buying a station for years, said Gary Brooks, the local's business manager and financial secretary.

About a year ago, when the most recent board started looking again, KUDO started up.

"It was good to see someone else was exploring the same thing," starting a station with a liberal bent, Brooks said.

KUDO and a sister classical music station, KLEF-FM 98.1, make up Chinook Concert Broadcasters. McClear said he and his wife, Suzi, own about a third of Chinook with majority owners Jan Ingram and Rick Goodfellow.

KUDO ran business talk programming for years before shifting to mostly national liberal talk shows as a counterpoint to conservative talk shows in Anchorage, McClear said.

The idea for the new format started in McClear's mind, he said, when he heard Alaska politicians comment that it was hard to talk about taxes because if they did, they would be shouted down by Anchorage right-wing talk show hosts.

"I thought, 'That's not heal-thy,' " McClear recalled. "Everything should be on the table."

Operators kept some local programs -- a talk show by Anchorage conservative Jack Frost and Anchorage Bucs baseball -- and added national progressive shows and New York Yankees baseball.

But KUDO wasn't making money and was being propped up by KLEF, McClear said.

Listeners report the station has broadcast calls for cash donations.

"We didn't have the money to move forward, buy new equipment," McClear said.

Local 1547 approached the broadcasters and offered to buy KUDO.

"We'll run it for them" for the next three years, McClear said, aiming to turn it into a profitable station.

"The executive board looked at it as an investment, and if there's a side benefit by getting labor's message out, then so much the better," said Ronda Robison, Local 1547's board vice president.

She said the union owns its offices but no other businesses.

If the FCC gives the go-ahead, McClear said, the union would pay $160,000 for KUDO, $10,000 of which would go immediately into transmitter improvements.

Another $340,000 over the next three years would go toward promoting the station, upgrading equipment and building more local shows.

"That's crucial," McClear said. "It's the difference between just putzing along and really being able to do something."

Chinook stockholders are also to put another $45,000 or so into studio improvements.

"We're excited about it," said the IBEW's Brooks. "We hope it will keep a progressive voice in the media in Anchorage for some time to come."

The board formed a subsidiary, IBEW Investments, to buy the station, Brooks said, and sent union members a letter telling them of the move. The reaction was positive, he added.

Brooks is retiring after 18 years in his current position and 27 years on the executive board. His next venture will be managing the subsidiary.

"I'll maintain a voice in the operation of the station for at least a year and a half," Brooks said.

Now the station is searching for the right personality to host a show on local and state issues.

"We're not trying to be an exact mirror" to conservative talk shows, McClear said. "If someone mentioned an income tax on our station, we wouldn't shout them down. We'd listen to the pros and cons."

Local conservative Frost said he may be on the other end of the political spectrum from McClear, but he agrees Alaska politics have gotten more polarized, along with the rest of the country.

"We used to have people who were at least tolerant of the other side," Frost said, but now political disagreement seems to be tied to personal distaste. "That's something I don't understand."

Daily News reporter Sarana Schell can be reached at sschell@adn.com or 257-4466.