After 40 years, any enterprise – a career, a business or a marriage – has earned some bragging rights. So it is for Ignacio-based KSUT, which went on the air in 1976 as a communications service for the Southern Ute Tribe.
It has grown its signal and its audience for four decades. The popular station, best known for National Public Radio news and an eclectic mix of music, expanded its coverage in the 1980s. And, as Four Corners Public Radio, began attracting devoted listeners – and financial support – across the region.
KSUT now serves communities in four states. It also stays true to its original mission by operating Southern Ute Tribal Radio, featuring programming focused on the Southern Utes and Native American issues.
Forty years to many would invite hindsight, but KSUT is looking forward. That is important for a station that receives two-thirds of its budget from individual contributions and businesses. Fundraising in public radio is a more-than-full-time job.
KSUT invested well with the recent hire of Tami Graham as executive director. A Fort Lewis grad, Graham is a local dynamo and knows the region intimately. She also knows public radio and KSUT, having served as the station’s capital campaign coordinator since 2013. Previously, Graham spent seven years as station manager at Fort Lewis College’s KDUR.
It is hard to imagine a better hire: KSUT needs those capital funds to move from the station’s current home (a 60-year-old building with maintenance issues) to the yet-to-be-built Eddie Box Jr. Media Center, a $2.1 million proposal. Graham used her experience as a producer to organize a concert series to celebrate the station’s 40th birthday, which wraps up Saturday with a show headlined by Michael Franti and Spearhead at Three Springs. She has also been tested, taking her new position in the same month the Southwest Colorado Television Translator Association terminated its on-air lease with the station, removing KSUT from the airwaves in Montezuma County.
That situation has been resolved, Graham reports, with KSUT again available in Montezuma County at a new spot on the dial, 106.3 FM. Yet another reason to celebrate.
To join the party, find concert and ticket information at ksut.org.
