This year marks KSUT’s 50th anniversary. Since launching in 1976, the station has broadcast tribal news, local and NPR news, and a range of music throughout the Four Corners region.
Here's part three of a series marking KSUT's history, told through interviews with DJs, board members, staff, and listeners who helped shape the station's legacy.
Explore other episodes in the series:
- KSUT, the early years: Launching as a tribal radio station in 1976, live from a 10x14 room
- KSUT at 50: Growth in the 1980s, the signature Blend, and becoming an NPR affiliate
Before digital radio displays and online streaming, discovering a station took a little patience. You turned your dial slowly, listening through the static until something caught your ear. That’s how former KSUT Executive Director Beth Warren first found the station in the 80s.
“You actually moved the dial, and hearing this station on the left-hand side of the dial and thinking, ‘What is this? Where is it?’ And because you don’t have commercials, you don’t have a lot of the commercial radio talk and chatter, it took a while to figure it out,” said Beth Warren.
Warren lived in Durango and worked at Purgatory Ski Resort. She remembers riding the employee shuttle while the driver played KSUT. At Purgatory, getting the signal took some engineering.
“In our office,” said Warren, “which was a little A-frame in the base area, we had a boom box. As long as we took that metal antenna and put it in between a pair of skis, and it hit the metal edges of the skis, we could pick up KSUT. And we listened to KSUT all the time.”
The red building - doing radio out of nurses’ quarters
Warren joined the station as development director in 1992. At the time, KSUT operated from a red building on the Southern Ute tribal campus in Ignacio. The building had previously housed nurses and later served as an Indian Health Service clinic. Former KSUT engineer and announcer Scott Henning says the building was a major upgrade from the station’s previous studio, but it was still far from glamorous.
“It was palatial compared to where we were in the community center, but it was old. It was a 1932 red brick building. It had been built for nurses’ quarters. Across the street was a clinic. It was very well built, but it needed some work that it wasn’t getting. It was very funky,” said Henning.
The control room’s walls and ceiling were carpeted to dampen sound. The production studio was essentially a closet.
Juana Hendren began working at Tribal Radio as a teenager.
“I remember the first time recording; it was in a literal coat closet. You could only fit one chair in there, and it was just a little desk and computer,” said Hendren.
In the 1990s, Warren helped KSUT organize more fundraising efforts via mail and pledge drives. KSUT added national programs, including NPR’s Morning Edition. But the station was still broadcasting its own shows, Americana music, Southern Ute programming, in addition to NPR news.
The “signal split”
Each morning, the Morning Edition host would leave the control room, and another host would play Native music for about an hour before the station switched to regional music programming.
For many listeners and KSUT staff, that hour of tribal radio wasn't enough.
Carlos Sena had the idea that Tribal Radio needed its own signal as a service to the Southern Ute Tribe, who are the reason why KSUT existed in the first place,” said Beth Warren.
Carlos Sena’s goal was to create two separate radio services: one for the Southern Ute community and another for the wider Four Corners region.
In 1998, according to the FCC website, the stations applied for another full-service station on Smelter Mountain, KUTE. That allowed the station to divide its schedule between Tribal Radio and Four Corners Public Radio.
Scott Henning says the opportunity came as KSUT expanded its network of mountaintop signals. One of the most important was on Smelter Mountain, north of Durango.
“It was the most powerful station at the time in our group. It’s 3,000 watts. It covers the county really, really well. It covers downtown really well. But the key thing that provided was that it allowed the split, because the translators have to play the same programming as the main station. So having KUTE allowed the split to happen,” said Henning.
Scott Henning remembers building the radio tower on Smelter Mountain.
“I worked with Dick Houston building the Smelter translator, and that tower was 60 feet. I climbed it, but I wasn't happy. I didn't fall off. I didn't get hurt, but the build didn't go well. We had to get somebody else to help us with some of that. Later, that was the first and last time I needed to climb a tower,” remembered Henning.
Southern Ute elder Eddie Box, Jr. reflected on KSUT’s signal split.
“Remember where we came from. We were a tribal radio. We came from the ideas and the thoughts of elders of the Southern Ute Tribe that wanted to give information to tribal members out, so they can understand and know what is happening in their government. Also, remember that where we are located, we do service other people other than tribal members. So we must also serve them too,” said Box.
Former KSUT staff member Bruce Campbell says the split brought the station back to its original purpose.
“The radio station started as a tribal radio station. The split allowed the station to get back to its roots and dedicate a whole platform to tribal programming. I saw it as completing the circle,” said Campbell.
The two services were produced from separate control rooms in the red brick building. Warren remembers standing in the hallway and hearing two completely different worlds coming through the doors.
“There was nowhere else in the world where you could stand in the hallway and hear Morning Edition from NPR on one signal and powwow music from another signal, both coming out of those control rooms,” said Warren.
In 1998, Tribal Radio had its own signal for traditional and contemporary Native music, Southern Ute news, and live coverage of local events. Listeners might hear wellness information from the tribe’s diabetes awareness program, and then hear Southern Ute elder and longtime KSUT host Eddie Box Jr. playing heavy metal during the lunch hour.
Meanwhile, The Four Corners signal developed its own identity, too. Its centerpiece was the KSUT Music Blend, a mix that could move from bluegrass to jazz, blues, rock, world music, or Native artists.
Campbell started as a volunteer nighttime DJ.
“It was always such a fun challenge to play a song and figure out the next song in a completely different genre, going from bluegrass to blues or jazz and making it as seamless as possible. Most of the time it worked, but there were obvious train wrecks along the way,” said Campbell.
Signal expansion leads to greater public service role
As the programming expanded, so did the station’s reach. KSUT added service in Farmington, Pagosa Springs and Silverton. And with a wider reach, the station also stepped into a new public safety role. When avalanches closed the mountain passes, local officials in Silverton could interrupt KSUT’s programming to broadcast emergency announcements.
Warren says listeners needed reliable information.
“The Missionary Ridge Fire burned for more than 40 days, and we developed a protocol. It was a public-information protocol, and KSUT did not have to retract anything on air,” said Warren.
Loris Taylor is the president and CEO of Native Public Media. She says tribal stations across the country remain essential sources of information, especially during emergencies.
“A lot of people don’t know this, but radio is a first-response team for tribal communities. They are the people that we rely on for information during storms, during crises, during emergencies. So it’s really our public-safety net,” said Taylor.
In the next episode celebrating KSUT’s 50th anniversary, we’ll learn how KSUT grew into the 2000s as a community leader.
