KAKM Home and Travel Auction–Something for Everyone

Mon, May 5, 2008
Posted in KAKM News

Whether it is for your home and garden or you next travel and adventure, you’ll find it at the KAKM Home and Travel Auction on KAKM Channel 7 Tuesday through Thursday nights, May 6-8 from 7 to 10:30 p.m.Viewers may bid on items by calling 550-8484 or 1-800-478-5256 during the broadcast.

Auction items include goods and services donated by a variety of businesses at all price levels, including multiple donations from Major Marine Tours, Alaska Bus Guy, Taylored Restorations, Alaska Railroad Corporation, NMS Lodging-Marriott and Renown Tours.

Local media personality and KAKM Home and Travel Auctioneer Cary Carrigan will be joined by Masters of Ceremonies Bruce Bustamonte, vice president Princess Tours; Eric Hughes, on-air personality KTUU Channel 2 and Curtis Smith of Shell Oil.

A complete list of items and conditions is available online at kakm.org/auction and includes an Adirondack wooden chair, glacier cruises, motor-home rentals, round-trip rail tickets to Denali National Park, artwork, open water scuba lessons, golf passes, bed and breakfast and lodge packages, fishing charters, spa packages, wall and floor tile, flower and fruit arrangements, yard services, carpet cleaning, photography, a major seven day cruise for two and more.

Major items $1,000 and above in the KAKM Home and Travel Auction include:

Private open-water scuba lessons for one from Alaska Underwater Adventures
Turfgrass Sod from Country Garden Farms
A two-night stay for two in a private cabin in Kachemak Bay State Park from Alaska’s Sadie Cove Wilderness Lodge
An assortment of 30 window blinds in an alabaster color from Today’s Window Fashions
A seven-day Holland America Line Cruise package for two in Alaska, the Caribbean, Mexico or Canada/New England
A certificate for a luxury bath wall system from Luxury Bath of Alaska
A three-day, two-night trip for two including lodging, ground transportation and guided tour to St. Paul Island with airfare from St. Paul Island Tours and PenAir
A signed and numbered print (292/300), “Soaring,” by artist Charles Gause measuring 34 inches by 37 inches from Friends of KAKM
Six-nights Southern Hospitality golf package for two in South Carolina/Georgia including airfare from the Lower 48, lodging, meals and golf from Friends of KAKM
An Ekornes Stressless Consul chair and ottoman from ScanHome
A four-day, premiere sports fishing package for two from Waterfall Resorts including floatplane from Ketchikan, lodging, dining, guided fishing and fish packaging
A LaPavoini Espresso/Cappuccino maker from All I Saw Cookware
Round-trip tickets for two from Anchorage to Frankfurt, Germany from Condor Airlines
A gift certificate for UV window film from Eagle Glass
A three-night stay for two with all meals in a private tent cabin with deck overlooking Kachemak Bay outside of Seldovia with guided sea kayak tour, use of mountain bikes and water transportation from Across the Bay Tent and Breakfast Adventure Company and Mako’s Water Taxi
25 gallons of exterior paint by Sherwin Williams
A four day, 29-foot motor-home rental from Clippership Motorhomes

Proceeds from the auction benefit public broadcasting serving Southcentral Alaska. In addition to bidding, viewers who support the station with a $50 or more donation will receive the Northern Lights Entertainment dining and entertainment coupon.

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2 Responses to “KAKM Home and Travel Auction–Something for Everyone”

Tim Davis on May 7, 2008 at 8:00 pm

Is this the shopping channel or PBS? What happened to the regular programming? I’ve lived in Washington and Oregon before Homer AK and have never experienced once a month fund raisers from the anchor PBS stations. With everything going crazy in the world I sure as heck hope the excellent PBS Friday night news programming isn’t canceled in lieu of selling quilts. Where’s your good ‘ol boy congressional buddies when you need ‘em? If you keep interrupting regular programming, I’m not sending any bucks. Look into the “Raising More Money” program model.
Ronnie Dent on May 8, 2008 at 1:58 pm

PBS stations are funded differently around the country. KAKM is what’s called a Community Licensee. Others are operated by universities or cities. States fund their public broadcasting at different levels as well. In our case, nearly 75% of KAKM’s operating funds come from local viewers and program sponsors. Less than 4% is from the state and about 22% from the federal governments. While only about 10% of our viewers actually contribute, which is a PBS national norm, they are some of the most generous in the PBS system. We’ve made budget cuts to keep costs down including shutting off the analog transmitter overnight, reducing staff to the point where we now offer the pre-packaged PBS West Coast feed (to which we make some adjustments by inserting local programs)and most painfully, we’ve had to reduce our program acquisition budget. On-air fund raisers such as the KAKM Home and Travel Auction (which many people look forward to each year by the way) and our four annual membership drives (in keeping with the PBS windows for pledge) are important components of our fund raising strategy that includes direct mail and other industry best practices. Admittedly… they are not everyone’s cup of tea, but they help provide the funds to allow us to continue to bring you the very best in television programming every day. A really positive way to help KAKM limit its on-air fund raising (in addition to letting us know you’ve seen enough already!) is to encourage all those in your circle of influence to support KAKM for the public service that it offers the entire community–including children and others who are not able to pay for the service.
Thanks for your comments and the opportunity to talk about why we have so many on air fund raisers.
Sincerely,
Veronica Dent
Director of Programming

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