Out North Radio KONR 106.1Out North Radio KONR 106.1

KONR-LP came out of Out North, a contemporary art nonprofit that opened in Anchorage in 1985 around LGBT work and folded in 2013 when its board ran out of money. The license survived the collapse, barely: to keep it alive, station manager Jason Sear ran a single soul album on repeat, around the clock, for months. A 2017 push put the station and a gallery back downtown with the Anchorage Downtown Partnership behind it, and it has since settled into a storefront in Spenard, run entirely by volunteers.

The grid is whatever the dozen-odd hosts bring in: Kurt Reiman's Alaska Music Show pulls entirely from Alaskan artists, Tundrastruck runs heavy to heavier with a little funk, Snake Farm Radio does alt-country and home-cooked blues, Caweska Calamka digs through Somali records, and the late shows sink into deep house and lo-fi hip hop. First Fridays go out live from the room itself.