20 years ago

Twenty-five years ago, someone twirling the AM radio dial on the southern Kenai Peninsula would have heard a foreign sound — live, local radio. Until the moment KBBI switched on its equipment on Aug. 4, 1979, and began broadcasting from the gymnasium of what was then the high school, Homer’s airwaves were largely a static wasteland with occasional snippets floating down from Anchorage. Then, the rocking notes of Skybird, a Homer bar band, flooded the air, followed by Beverly Munro, one of KBBI’s founders, saying for the first time, “This is KBBI, Homer, Alaska, signing on the air.” After that Saturday night, residents of Homer and the surrounding areas could hear music, local news, weather and even city council meetings if they wanted.

— From the issue of Aug. 5, 2004

30 years ago

Either halibut have wings, or the Homer Chamber of Commerce ranges farther than anyone guessed to tag halibut worth prizes in the Homer Jackpot Halibut Derby. Or maybe a tagged halibut caught off Craig in Southeast Alaska this June really did swim all the way from Cook Inlet — a distance of more than 800 miles. The commercial fisherman who caught it didn’t have a ticket for the chamber’s Homer Jackpot Halibut Derby. But the tagged fish are only worth prizes of $500 or $1,000 during the derby season in which they were released anyway. That isn’t the most distant recovery of a chamber tag. A halibut tagged here in May 1989 was caught off Washington in May 1992 — a trip of roughly 1,300 miles.

— From the issue of Aug. 4, 1994