Alaska broadcast pioneer dies at 90

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Augie Hiebert, a tireless broadcast pioneer who built Alaska's first television station and mentored future generations of broadcasters, died Thursday. He was 90.

"The great state of Alaska has lost one of its most distinguished citizens. Augie Hiebert was the pioneer of communications who brought radio and later television to his beloved home state," broadcast icon Walter Cronkite said in a statement.

Hiebert had been feeling weak and was recently diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, said family friend Al Bramstedt Jr., a fellow broadcaster.

Hiebert died at an Anchorage hospital, where he told Bramstedt he was ready to go and looked forward to reuniting with his beloved wife, Pat.

"His mind was good to the end," Bramstedt said.

Hiebert, who is survived by four daughters and many grandchildren, was born Dec. 4, 1916, in Trinidad, Wash.

Fascinated by electronics, he built and licensed his first ham radio in Bend, Ore., at age 15.

He landed his first radio job in Wenatchee, after graduating from high school, quickly moving on to a job as an announcer and engineer for a radio station in Bend, Ore.

That job led him to Alaska when he followed a colleague who left in 1939 to build KFAR radio in Fairbanks.

He built Alaska's first TV station -- KTVA in Anchorage -- in 1953, offering local news as well as popular entertainment programs and feature films. He brought television to Fairbanks two years later.