In the beginning…

When I first started at K-UTE I had no intention of progressing through the organization. In fact, I only intended to stay for a year, if not less. I actively tried to distance myself from extracurriculars when I came to the University of Utah. Four years of high school had been marching band and economics club. I was pretty burnt out on extracurriculars and the politics that came with them, wanting to throw myself into my school work.  As a sophomore I even said, “I do not want all of the responsibility and work of being station manager”. Yet, here I am finishing my tenure as Station Manager.

I felt incredibly lost my first semester of college. Not being from Utah, I had gone to school with the same people since I was five years-old, and I knew exactly one person in the greater Salt Lake area. I had friends and a lot of them are now really close friends. But at the time I felt extremely isolated. Without the confines of a group activity, space, or goal, I did not know how to interact with most people and it was difficult to find people who shared similar interests. I seriously considered transferring my first semester, enough to look into the paperwork. And then I became involved with the K-UTE.

Venture into inspiration

I was always a fan of the Adult Swim series The Venture Bros. I watched my first episode when I was seven, which is way too young to be watching The Venture Bros. But sometime in my junior year of high school, I became obsessed with it.  I must have gone through all four seasons at least five times. One of my favorite characters, Pete White, was a DJ in college and I had always thought how cool it would be to work at a college radio station. When I realized that transferring was not the answer to my isolation, I began to seriously look into K-UTE. I skipped class to attend my first meeting and never looked back.

The next four years at K-UTE

Over the next four years K-UTE became my life in many ways. I was one of the first producers, wrote the first K-UTE blog, and built the Crimson Venue brand. The station became my home away from home and out of all the buildings I spent time in at the U of U. The Union is easily the one where I spent the most of my time with all of the tabling, paperwork, interviews, music, and just hanging out. That doesn’t even include all the time  spent hauling gear, tabling at events, and attending concerts. I could go on, but the point is clear, for the past four years I have lived and breathed K-UTE Radio.

It’s a little bizarre to realize that this is it. I noticed last week when the director’s meeting shifted focus towards next year that my time was up. For the past four years I have been intimately involved with K-UTE, but if I stay any longer, I can only hurt it. Not just because I am graduating but because this station is about to make a huge leap and it’s time for us to part ways. It’s like when your Uber drops you off from a long night out with friends. You’re sad it’s over, but you’re tired, it’s now Sunday, and at some point you have to take a serious look at that backpack full of homework on your desk. I’m really happy with how I am leaving this place. It has given me so much and in turn I have helped ensure that it has bright future. This is my stop, hope you have a good time without me ????

-Just Geoff