After being a marketing manager and program director at several radio stations in the Seattle and Spokane Washington areas, John Davis moved to Anchorage in 1967 as a morning-drive announcer on KFQD and KHAR, and was hired as General Manager of KSRM on February 1, 1968. He has set the programming tone of our stations for more than 35 years.
He and three partners formed KSRM, Inc. in 1972 and purchased KSRM-AM. The corporation built new studios and offices at Mile 6.5 K-Beach Road. In 1976 they put KWHQ-FM on the air as the first FM on the Peninsula. John Davis purchased the corporation in 1982 and then added KSLD-AM and KKIS-FM to the group in 1994.
In addition to doing morning drive on KSRM for over 25 years, John Davis created two of the stations most popular shows, Sound Off in 1970 and Tradio in 1969, and brought Paul Harvey News “live” to the Peninsula in 1975, the first to do so in Alaska. He was the first broadcaster in the state to install 1) Random Access Automation (1971), and 2) Digital Computerized Automation and Recording (1991), both which were later used widely by Alaskan broadcasters.
His philosophy on radio is “ local community service”, first and foremost. He believes that “in news, sports, music and weather, our radio stations must be “the hub of the wheel” in our community, with the spokes of community service reaching into and serving every meaningful area of our listeners lives”.
He married his first wife Lois in 1961 and they raised seven children until her untimely death in 1993. He married his wife Mary Jo in 1996 and they have two children. He is a Commercial Pilot with over 8,000 hours Alaska flight time , a Registered Alaska Big Game Hunting Guide, C.E.O of three corporations: KSRM, Inc., Lake Country Air, Inc., Soldotna Business Plaza, Inc., and owned and operated Lake Country Lodge, Inc, from 1985-1998. He cut and sawed all the logs to built his remote cabin at Port Alsworth, after floating them down the Tanalian river, in 1974.
John Davis has given back to his community as a Borough Assemblyman for 13 years, and membership in the Soldotna Rotary Club, Kenai and Soldotna Chambers of Commerce, Alaska Broadcasters Association, Kenai-Soldotna Chapter of Safari Club International, the National Rifle Association and his church, Peninsula Bible Fellowship. John is an avid hunter, sport fisherman, downhill skier and gardener. He loves Alaska, the Peninsula and especially the many remote areas to which he flies each year in his Maule M-7 and Piper Super Cub.
Mr. Davis was recognized for his success in radio broadcasting by the Alaska Broadcaster’s Association in 2004 being inducted into the Alaska Broadcaster’s Hall of Fame.