After six years on the job, Mike Mason will leave his post as news director at KDLG public radio this month. Mason, whose balanced reporting and distinct deep voice have been a daily fixture in Bristol Bay, has been hired as the press secretary for the Alaska House Minority. He and his partner Celeste Novak will move to Anchorage later this month.

"Frankly, there's nothing that's not scary about this new job," he said. "I'm a live-radio person. I do my best work when I have a live mic in front of me. But being behind-the-scenes in Juneau during the session, and helping shape the message of the Alaska House Democrats amidst our changing media landscape, should be challenging and fun."

Mason has been in the radio business since 1994, cutting his teeth as a disc jockey for a small country music station in Fulton, Missouri. He worked at several stations across Missouri over the next seven years, spinning tunes, calling play-by-play sports, and even stepping into management roles. Then, in 2001, he came to Alaska for a two-week visit.

"And I guess I never went back," he said at his desk Tuesday night after hosting the 5:30 p.m. newscast.

He showed up in Homer in April 2001, and after a visit hopped on a tender for what was supposed to be a quick 10 days to make a little money. But instead of leaving the ship at Kodiak and flying home, he stayed aboard as the tender made its way to other fisheries, including the spring herring in Togiak. That summer he worked as an expediter for Ocean Beauty Seafoods in Naknek, a season he remembers as bad for the fleet but pretty good for everybody on shore. With a season's pay in his pocket, Mason headed back to Homer and hired on as the "Morning Edition" host and reporter at KBBI. That was just a few weeks before Sept. 11, 2001.

Mason stayed at KBBI for the next seven years, working as a reporter, host, news director, and program director for the station. Then in the summer of 2009, he was hired on as KDLG's summer fishery reporter, a job that should have kept him in Dillingham for just a few months. But when he arrived, the station was going through something of a rough patch, to put it nicely. Then-News Director Eileen Goode had run starkly afoul of the local community after a prickly-worded blog she kept outside of her official duties was exposed. The town wanted her out, and she was ordered off the air. She resigned and left town within days. KDLG's advisory board, known as the Friends of KDLG, recognized Mason as a perfect fit to take over.

"His presence at the station was noticed immediately and was very well received by the public," said Dan Dunaway, current co-chairman of the board. "Mike came to KDLG at a time when the news department was struggling, and he was able to build its reputation back up again," he said.

In the years since, Mason has covered the day-to-day news of the region, keeping a particularly keen focus on the Legislature, the fishery, and of course, the proposed Pebble mine.

"I don't think there is a position more central to the discussion of that project than the news department at KDLG, and we have tried to cover it fairly and often on a daily basis," he said. His reporting on Pebble frequently airs around the state and occasionally on National Public Radio programs.

Many will remember Mason as a fisheries reporter, carrying the torch of others gone before him, especially Bob King (whose house he and Celeste have rented since moving to town).

"I will certainly miss reporting on Bristol Bay's fishery," he said, noting that the coverage doesn't start and stop with the season's opening and closing. His reporting has taken him to expos in Seattle, meetings in Anchorage, the Port Moller Test Fishery, the opening of a new processor in Togiak, a smolt counting project in Igiugig, and elsewhere around Bristol Bay.

"The fishery is so dynamic, and so important to people in the region and the fishing fleet. When I came here, it was still a little before good cellphone coverage or broadband Internet, so I made it a priority to coalesce as much useful information for the stakeholders that we could."

Accomplishing that meant keeping a good rapport and an open line with aspects of the industry, which the Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Tim Sands said Mason balanced well. "I had a good relationship with Mike right away," said Sands, who manages the Nushagak district out of the Dillingham office. "One thing I really appreciated was that I could call him up anytime and say, 'Mike, I'm getting a lot of questions about 'x', can we do a story so I can get the information out there to people.' He was always happy to do that; I think it was helpful, and I think listeners appreciated it."

A number of reporters (including this one) worked under Mike Mason over the years, watching him shoulder a heavy burden that often kept him in the office 12 hours a day, five or six days a week.

"No question, I learned a lot from Mike at my first public radio job in Alaska," said Daysha Eaton, who now works as the news director at KYUK in Bethel. She chides Mason for being a little "old school," a badge he wears with honor, but Eaton also says Mason relished the non-glamorous work that others in the business don't. "Such as covering public meetings," she said. "That is something not every journalist loves to do, but Mike is not only dedicated to it, but he really gets into the idea of being there, understanding the issues, and relaying it to the listeners. I've come to learn that's a huge service to the community. Oh, and he also has one of the best radio voices any of us may ever hear."

As to whether or not he'll ever get back to radio news reporting, he says he isn't sure. Still, he admits leaving radio is not an easy choice.

"I've always wanted to own my own radio station, so there's that to think about for down the road. But radio is tough and always changing. Back in the Lower 48, radio isn't the same that it was even a decade ago," Mason said. "My real hope is just that stations like KDLG, that serve this very unique and powerful function, tying this whole listening area together, well, I hope that they last forever."

Mason's last day on the job was Friday. A replacement news director for KDLG hasn't yet been named. He says he and Celeste may keep hosting their hour-long weekly music show Aggressive Wildlife, from afar for KDLG, if they can find the time. Stay tuned.