Augie Hiebert

August Gottlob "Augie" Hiebert (December 4, 1916 – September 13, 2007) was an Alaskan television executive. Hiebert is credited with building Alaska's first television station, KTVA in Anchorage in 1953. He is often called the "father of Alaskan television."

Augie Hiebert was born in Trinidad, Washington. Fascinated with electronics as a teenager, he built his first amateur radio in Bend, Oregon, when he was only 15. He landed his first job in Wenatchee, Washington, at a radio station after graduating from high school. He worked his way up from an announcer to a station engineer at another radio station in Bend.

In 1939, Hiebert followed one of his Bend, Oregon, co-workers, Austin E. "Cap" Lathrop, to Fairbanks, Alaska, where they built the city's first radio station, KFAR.

On December 7, 1941, Heibert, at his KFAR radio station in Fairbanks, was the first Alaskan to hear the news of the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. He alerted the military.

Hiebert helped to set up KENI, another AM station, in Anchorage in 1948.

Additionally, Hiebert established Alaska's first FM radio station, KNIK, in Anchorage in 1960.

Hiebert's first Satellite AM radio station was KBYR programmed and formatted by Broadcasters Hall Of Fame Inductee Rod Williams.

Augie Hiebert founded Northern Television, an Alaska-based production and broadcasting company. Hiebert and his small company would help found many of Alaska's original television station. (Hiebert sold Northern Television in 1997.)

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