A Life On the Air

While studying at the University of Kansas as a music major, a freshman English class rekindled her love for books and writing.

“I studied at KU for five years but didn’t finish my degree,” she said.
“I had signed up to be a VISTA Volunteer and was sent to Twin Falls, Idaho, where I worked as an advocate for low-income families. My intent was to go back and finish school, but I never did. My work was just too interesting.

“I got into journalism, purely by chance, and knew instantly that it was my calling,” she said. “I was cutting a public service announcement at a radio station, when the program director told me I had the perfect voice for news. In fact, the news director, who was desperate to go on vacation, hired me as a temporary reporter.”

“She sent me to the police station to check the blotter. Every few days, I went to the county commissioner’s office where I had once gone to advocate for needy families,” she said.

“The commissioners hid behind a sliding glass window, and after you waited your turn in line for about a half-hour, they would finally open the window to find out what help was needed.”

“Contrast that to my stint as a reporter where the commissioners invited me in and even offered donuts, my first lesson in politics and journalism,” McBride said. “We are treated differently than average people, and it’s our responsibility to look out for their interests, not the politicians.

“I would say the VISTA Volunteer experience was, for me, the best education in journalism and storytelling,” she said.

On to work in TV News in Twin Falls, Idaho and Nevada – she landed that job at KYUK, the public radio and TV station in Bethel.

With a long history of working in both television and radio in Alaska, going back to 1988, when she was news director at KYUK, and covering the region from the Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race to the revival of the Yup’ik language, to the fight to protect the subsistence way of life, McBride was immersed in Alaska Native culture and history on a daily basis.

“In places like Bethel, you can actually see the impact of your stories,” she said. “If someone is shot or killed in a car crash in Anchorage, odds are, you won’t know the subjects of your stories personally. But in a small rural community, you might know their life story.

“Also, for the most part, very few stories that are covered in Rural Alaska are trivial, whether its failing salmon runs or super storms spawned by climate change. Reporting in Rural Alaska is a great teacher about the things that matter most.

“I think those of us who have worked in Rural Alaska are really blessed, to be exposed to the beauty of Native culture and the Native people,” McBride said. “You can’t work in Rural Alaska without being changed in some fundamental way, unless you have a heart of stone.”

After almost 10 years in Bethel, McBride moved on to the Alaska Public Radio Network in Anchorage. She was also a public television producer at KAKM-Channel 7, where she hosted public affairs programs and moderated political debates. Later she worked at KTUU-Channel 2 and KTVA-Channel 11, where she covered politics, economics, rural, and Alaska Native issues.

At KTVA, McBride hosted and produced “Frontiers,” a weekly TV magazine show which won national awards for its in-depth coverage of rural Alaska and a series of documentaries on the Hiland Mountain Lullaby Project, which brought local artists and inmate moms together to compose songs for their children.

In recent years, she returned to her roots in radio to produce KTOO’s Juneau Afternoon talk show. And in 2024, she went on contract status at KNBA as a reporter and producer.

In 2022, she was inducted into the Alaska Broadcaster’s Hall of Fame and awarded an honorary doctorate at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

She lives in Anchorage with her husband, musician Michael Faubion and her son Matt Faubion, a multimedia journalist at Alaska Public Media and a musician.