Durango remains blessed to have not one but two left of the dial radio stations. Which most fans of music know that’s where you go to avoid the low-hanging fruit of sounds.
While for some radio has taken a backseat to streaming services or podcasts, many still use the medium as a reliable outlet for music, news and information, and stations like KDUR at Fort Lewis College (a station this writer happens to manage), KSUT in Ignacio or KSJD in Montezuma County continue to offer music that flies just a hair under the radar, tunes made by artists who may never have a major mainstream break, music that remains an artistic offering. If Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have 2,000 songs to their names, commercial radio beats you to death with the same 20, while the aforementioned two stations will wow you with the other 1,980. Their human-selected songs are the original streaming service.
If you go
WHAT: KSUT 50 Year Celebration with Shinyribs
WHEN: 7 p.m. June 12
WHERE: Ska Brewing, 225 Girard St.
MORE INFORMATION: www.ksut.org
KSUT first went on the air June 14, 1976, and the station will celebrate 50 years of broadcast with a series of events throughout the summer, the first being Shinyribs playing a free show June 12 at Ska Brewing.
Shinyribs’ frontman Kevin Russell is no stranger to Durango, having played here throughout the early-aughts with his band the Gourds, which turned into numerous KSUT-booked shows with Shinyribs over the last decade.
“After Shinyribs launched, I suggested we reach out and book him to play our Pagosa Folk and Bluegrass Festival when that was still happening. And we’ve been trying to get him back ever since. We wanted to book a band that the station had a relationship with to honor those first 50 years,” said Chris Aaland, KSUT development and music director. “We didn’t just want a singer-songwriter. We wanted a party. Well, Kev is a walking, talking good time.”
It wasn’t always about producing good-time concerts; KSUT’s early days were solely to serve the Native American community, which was the operation of its first few years before expanding into a station broadcasting National Public Radio and more music.
“Eddie Box Sr. wanted a vehicle to deliver important health messages or tax or business or social messages over the airwaves in the Ute language. So that was why the station formed in 1976. And to be part of an entity that celebrates that cultural heritage means a lot to me,” Aaland said. “And one of the reasons it means (a lot) to me is being a Fort Lewis alum and a student. And a KDUR alum, KDUR always had a Native influence on air and still does. And Fort Lewis, of course, honoring its sacred trust that it had with Native American communities. I was educated a little bit into this, and so when I arrived at KSUT, I was proud of that heritage serving the Southern Ute Tribe, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. We also serve portions of the Navajo Nation and nearly all of the Jicarilla Apache Reservation. So that is important.”
While the delivery of news and local information remains a vital part of the station’s mission and broadcast, it’s also been producers of a series of shows in its half-century of existence. Other KSUT celebratory events taking place this summer will be Dirty Dozen Brass Band performing after 4th of July Parade in Buckley Park (another free event and a partnership with the city of Durango), and MarchFourth and Cha Wa for its ticketed “Party in the Park” again in Buckley Park on July 25.
It’s all about celebrating the people who tune into KSUT on the regular.
“KSUT thrives on its listeners,” Aaland said. “So, let’s do a couple of events that are free. Show on up and have a great time.”
Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. Reach him at liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.
