IDITAROD: Special Coverage from APRN

Disclosure: APRN and KAKM are divisions of Alaska Public Telecommunications, Inc.

Each year the Iditarod Trail Committee puts together a promotional documentary of the race and releases it for sale through their web site and other retail outlets. The 2007 video is apparently ready to roll and will be premiered on public television in Anchorage on June 2 (live) and June 6 (repeat). None other than 2007 champion Lance Mackey will be on hand for the live broadcast, offering his own race insights and thoughts along the way.

In the past, these videos have largely focused on the “horse race” for first place, and 2007 was certainly an interesting year as the lead traded hands several times. The videos have also become more technical and bigger in style as the ITC has increased its production budgets in recent years.

At this point, it’s unclear (no pun intended) whether the broadcast will be in HD, as it was apparently shot in the field, or if it will be DVD quality.

Here’s the details:

• KAKM Channel 7 (free over the air, via paid cable, via paid satellite)
• Saturday June 2 from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.; live with Lance Mackey
• Wednesday June 6 starting at 8:30 p.m; pre-recorded
  

KAKM is broadcasting the video as part of its June pledge drive. KAKM also broadcast the 2006 video as part of a couple pledge drives last year.

UPDATE: The 2006 Iditarod race video, “Mother Nature’s Turn to Dance,” won an Emmy at the Northwest Regional Emmy Awards on June 2, 2007. Details are available at the ITC site.

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The Iditarod Trail Committee (ITC) board of directors received the independent investigators report today and handed down a five year penalty to Ramy Brooks in the wake of the reported dog abuse incident on the 2007 race trail. Brooks is banned from racing in the Iditarod for the 2008 and 2009 races. For the 2010, 2011 and 2012 races, Brooks must apply for permission to be in the race and the board retains the right to allow or disallow his application each of those years. Brooks would emerge from under the probation cloud by the 2013 race.

Alaska News Nightly will carry detailed news and reaction in tonight’s broadcast, on local APRN stations statewide. We’ll post the report audio here on the site later today.

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Back on April 26, the ITC announced their independent investigation into the Ramy Brooks dog abuse matter would continue, and they noted that investigating by phone hadn’t proved effective so far. Not surprising — telephone communication with the smallest villages in Alaska can be difficult. In some villages, there’s only a handful of phones available, shared by the community. Plus, who wants to be, basically, deposed by one or more lawyers investigating alleged animal abuse? (”Who? Oh. Tell them I’m not home!”)

In any case, the only solution to the investigation-by-phone problem is to get feet on the street at the scene of the alleged events. That means flying, Alaska bush style. And that means money.

So what does it cost to fly off to an Alaskan village for a day? Well, the investigator(s) — from the “law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine” in Anchorage — would likely first catch a flight to Nome, probably on Alaska Airlines. On short notice, that’s about $490, round-trip, based on a quick fare search on the web.

From Nome you’d have to transfer to a smaller regional carrier, such as Bering Air, and fly directly (or indirectly, if they make multiple village stops) to Golovin, tucked away on the northern edge of Norton Sound. That’ll run another $190 roundtrip.

Given weather difficulties in Alaska, your safest plan might be to fly up to Nome and stay overnight, making a day trip or two to Golovin, then fly back to Anchorage. Luckily, tourist season isn’t in full swing, so rooms at the Nome Nugget Inn would probably run just about $100 a night, for a total of $200.

An investigator’s gotta eat, too. Figure a bush Alaska eating allowance of perhaps $75/day (investigating is hungry work) and you’ll add another $150 to your total.

So far, we’re looking at travel costs of $1,030 per person, assuming everything goes to plan.

What the investigator(s) are paid for their time in the field and their time in prepping the report and meeting with race officials is unknown. Perhaps its pro bono work from a major race fan. But if it’s paid time — at lawyer rates — the ITC could easily be looking at bills of $3,000 or much more tacked on to the $1,000 in flying-around money.

Let’s say two people make the trip and all the reporting work is paid for rather than donated. Travel costs would run about $2,000 and reporting fees would likely rise to about $5,000, for an investigation total of about $7,000. This is, of course, all theoretical — so far we have no specific reports from the ITC on the costs of the investigation or how many people are participating or, well… anything else beyond their statement.

Meanwhile, as we’re dreaming of visiting remote Alaskan villages and spending money we don’t have in our own wallets, let’s hope the ITC is getting their report, deciding what to do in response, figuring out the new race rules for 2008 and planning to handle unexpected media events faster and more smoothly in the future.

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