K-UTE, the U’s campus radio station, spent Friday trying to engage new and potential listeners as part of a nationwide effort on College Radio Day.
Jacob Striejewske, director of recruiting and training, said the day is meant to give the spotlight to radio stations like K-UTE and create a platform to highlight their content for students.
“It’s a way to get us out on campus and the community a little bit more,” he said. “Everybody likes to listen to some music, so it’s nice to walk by and hear some tunes.”
Throughout Friday, K-UTE staff managed a booth outside the Union that played live music for those enjoying lunch in the area, as well as offering t-shirts and giveaways to students as they passed by.
As a student-led radio station on campus, Striejewske said the staff is focused on remaining relevant to students through a variety of programming, particularly with competition from iTunes, Spotify and Pandora. He said the difference with K-UTE is its campus connections. With everything from talk shows to music, Striejewske hopes there is something for everyone.
K-UTE is trying to stay relevant to students by working with other on-campus organizations to feature the station, hopefully exposing them to more listeners. Striejewske said K-UTE is working in part with the Union bowling alley to start streaming the station live. He also hopes the station can reach more students by becoming a source for new music discovery.
“You listen to your own music [and] it’s hard to find new music,” he said.
Kylie Estrada, a junior in physics, listens to the radio for about two hours a day, but she wasn’t aware of K-UTE on campus.
“I use Spotify radio all the time to find new stuff,” Estrada said. “I listen to BYU’s [radio] all the time, but I had no idea that the U had one.”
She said if K-UTE had more interviews with people on campus and genres of music that she enjoyed, then she’d be more likely to tune in.
It’s students like this to whom who Striejewske and the station are trying to reach out and have as regular listeners with their initiatives like College Radio Day. In addition to streaming over the air, K-UTE has a library of previous talk shows available on their website. The station also has an iPhone app and is currently working on developing one for Android smartphones.
The radio station hosts the LunchBox Concert Series with ASUU every month and will likely have a DJ at the next Crimson Nights. Students can listen to the station anytime on its website, kuteradio.org, as well as on 1620 AM.
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