Finding Alaska's Villages

Alex Hills traveled Alaska by bush plane and snow machine, braving extreme weather and rough terrain to bring telephone service to small villages across the big state. Then he developed a new public radio station to serve the people of Alaska’s huge northwest region.

In Finding Alaska’s Villages Alex tells the story of how he helped the state’s telecom pioneers bring about an innovation that would forever change rural Alaska. It took some innovative technical work – and some convincing of government officials and corporate executives – to make it happen. The innovation was the introduction of the small satellite earth stations that would eventually make needed telecommunication services – two-way medical communication, a phone in every house and business, and radio and live television programs – available in Alaska’s villages. Reading Finding Alaska’s Villages told me more about Alex than I’d learned over coffee in the last 20 years and helps me understand the human element behind our phone systems more than any other account of telecommunication in Alaska. Now I’ll be sure I don’t take for granted that phone call to rural Alaska – ever! – Mead Treadwell, Alaska Lt. Governor, 2010-2014 Alex Hills helped everyone who lives in northwest Alaska when he shaped public radio station KOTZ into an invaluable service for the entire region. Then he worked to bring modern telecommunications services to the region and to all of Alaska. His new book tells the story, and it’s a good one! -Doug Neal, CEO, OTZ Telephone Cooperative