KSTK news director tries Alaska after Michigan and Colorado

A year and a half ago, Colette Czarnecki, the new news director at public radio KSTK, had been a trainee in NPR's Next Gen Radio, a five-day, audio-focused journalism project which finds, coaches and trains journalists for public media. Her mentor on the project advised her to try looking for jobs in Alaska.

As Czarnecki checked out public radio jobs in places like Petersburg, Ketchikan and finally Wrangell, she said, "The people that interviewed me, they kept on contacting me and constantly told me, 'Hey, this station is hiring. You should apply.' ... It just felt really supportive of a network, and I don't think I've actually experienced that elsewhere."

Czarnecki's first day of work at the radio station was Nov. 20, the day of the deadly landslide, which put her to work on the town's biggest story in years. Almost two months later, she says she's learning a lot on the job. "I really like it there. It feels very supportive."

Accompanying her on the long journey here, including a car ride from Colorado, then ferry ride from Bellingham, Washington, was her 8-year-old dog Alice, who she earlier described in a KSTK interview as "a beagle-pit bull-lab mix."

"She's my baby," Czarnecki said. "We're together in this for the long haul."

Making the switch from print and longer forms of audio journalism, Czarnecki has had to adjust to the unique nature of being an on-air reporter writing for radio. "There's live broadcasting, I'm learning that," she said. "From my experience, everything needs to be more condensed. Whereas podcasts can be (at least) an hour long, but with radio, it ideally would be like between three and five minutes for a story."

Originally from southeast Michigan just outside of Detroit, Czarnecki said she later relocated to that city "after a little moving around," and added that having spent about 13 years there provided her with a sense of community. While there, she earned a bachelor's degree in environmental science and urban studies from Wayne State University.

When Czarnecki was still living in Detroit, she worked on a variety of multimedia projects, which included making films using old-school methods, with 16mm footage. "That can get expensive," she said.

One of her main projects was what she called "documentary shadow-puppet shows."

"I helped my friends with their shows. I also created my own show. I got a grant for that, and that was a lot of work, under the mentorship of a professional Russian puppeteer," she said with a laugh. "So that was before I actually started doing journalism."

Once Czarnecki determined her current career path, she attended grad school in 2020 at the University of Colorado where she got a master's degree in journalism. "What I wanted to do was audio, once I realized this is what I want to do," she said. "So I created audio packages. I've also created short documentaries, and then of course print."

Before arriving in town, Czarnecki had been working at The Journal newspaper, based in the Four Corners region, the only spot in the United States where four states (Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico) come together.

Coming from Colorado, she likes living in Wrangell, but as she got here in mid-November, she has so far only experienced the town in winter. "I don't know what it's like in other seasons."

She said she doesn't mind the extended periods of gray, rainy days, although she did enjoy seeing the sun on the first Saturday in January. She also admitted that the long winter nights here sometimes make it difficult for her to get out of bed in the morning, but she has found at least one way to help her compensate. "I do have a therapy light at home."

Czarnecki said that she has committed to working at KSTK for at least a year. As for what the future holds, "All I can say is, I'll see what happens next."