https://www.facebook.com/groups/KBHRSOUTH/ Just a couple of months before Moosefest 2015 the Northern Exposure Mooseheads heard some devastating news, KBHR had to be dismantled and moved after 25 years of being virtually untouched in its original location since the show ended. As you could imagine there were mixed emotions of anger, sadness, disappointment, and acceptance. The town of Roslyn even put a petition together gathering 300 signatures, but wasn't enough to detour the progress. The only good thing is that the event planner negotiated for KBHR to stay until after Moosefest so the fans could experience it one last time in its entirety. Then we heard more good news, KBHR wasn't going away, it was simply being moved one window space over, compliments of a local proprietor named Amanda who owned the business within the same building as well as the Roslyn Grocery store that was run by Ruth Anne in the show. To this day her compassion to preserve the KBHR legacy is admired and appreciated by all. The following Monday morning I made my way downstairs to the Redbird Cafe to grab breakfast and encountered Kurt (The Moosefest organizer and owner of KBHR) talking to Amanda explaining how he had given himself a week to make the transition of KBHR from the original location to Amanda's location and that he was doing it all by himself. Since we weren't leaving til the next day, we offered to help.
After breakfast we went downstairs and started getting prepared for a long day of hard work, I took my video camera and set it up to document the process. It wasn't long that some Roslyn locals and other fans that lingered an extra day or two like we did, joined in on the transformation. It turns out the new location was significantly smaller than the original location, so Kurt had to make modifications for a snug fit, the goal was to make a "Mirrored" image of the original, as authentic as possible. By the end of the day, and after all of the modifications, we had accomplished what Kurt allotted himself a week to do. The newly transformed KBHR seemed to be 98% complete as far as the structure itself goes. Even though we hated this having to happen, the consensus was that we were impressed. Now that being said, there was clean up and unfortunately we had accumulated a trash pile on the side of the building, mostly comprised of the floor inside of KBHR, layers of wood panels held together with large screws to ensure there were absolutely no squeaks or creaks during filming, however, there was a good quarter of panels and a wall left and Kurt had asked if we wanted them, keeping them from the trash pile was a no brainer and since our trip was by truck, we jumped to the chance and had it all loaded within 15 minutes. We had to leave our tailgate down, so we bought straps and a tarp at the local Roslyn hardware store.
Later that night Pam and I decided to call off the 6 days left of the trip and head straight back to Texas the following morning since it's a good 30 hr, 2,000 mile drive with precious cargo and the tail gate down. We got lucky and didn't hit any bad weather, smooth sailing all the way.
Once we got home we started really assessing the potential, we picked out a corner that was to be our canvas and placed the first wall.
We used as few screws as possible keeping in mind this is a TV show set and not a permanent addition. It was no longer going to be exposed to UV rays or inclement temperatures and can still be somewhat easily transferred. Our goal was to recreate KBHR but a 1/4 of the size using probably around 70% original walls, panels, and tiles. We matched original tiles to acoustic ceiling tiles and color matched the best we could. The panel with the window had two screws holding the window in so it could be removed to get camera shots of Chris's back overlooking the town. Coats were hung on the hooks above it to conceal the window when not being used. This was going to be the centerpiece by which the other pieces would be built around.
So now with the walls put up it was time for the enclosure. Luckily we're friends with our neighbor who owns a glass company so we got started on the frame, paint, and door.
Next up was to cut the 'Minnifield Communications Network' Decals for the Door.
It all came together nicely, just took time, quite a bit of time. We mentioned to Kurt as we were loading it up that we would do right by it and we hope you Mooseheads out there approve, cause we had you in mind every step of this surreal project. We wanted to create what we would've liked to had seen if one of you took this project on. It's all about that Cicely Love.
We do plan on ordering the KBHR neon, but as you could imagine it gets pretty pricey, but it will happen. In the meantime we decked it out in LED's to give it the same kind of Vibe.
Kurt had given us the rest of the KBHR contents that didn't fit in the new location i.e. Radio Carts, Vinyl, and Postcards to keep everything together and original. We're so thankful for that gesture, it's a testament to the kinship that this great show brings to the table. Since I've been doing live internet broadcasts locally for our music scene here for 7+ years, I figured the best way to be able to share this place with Mooseheads is to broadcast live out of it. You can follow along and join in the fun in the facebook group here https://www.facebook.com/groups/KBHRSOUTH Or follow on Twitter and YouTube @TooleyLives and also follow on Instagram @KBHRSouth
We now do regular Broadcasts out of KBHR after the beginning of the New Year and will be announced through the above Facebook and Twitter pages, feel free to like and follow and stay connected as we want to connect with you all. Hopefully we can all meet and celebrate this show again at Moosefest 2018, gives us a year and a half to plan. As anyone that's been will tell you, you won't leave the same, and Moosefest is like the Woodstock of Northern Exposure, no place else will you see 200+ Mooseheads together in Roslyn Cicely AK.
