MUSIC

KUT's 50 years of not playing the hits

University's radio station built listener loyalty by sounding like Austin, delivering story behind the music.

By Patrick Beach
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, August 15, 2008

Founding documents suggest that when the University of Texas' radio station, KUT-FM, was granted a license 50 years ago this week, federal regulators might have had a little trouble locating the City of the Violet Crown: Austin is described as a collection of 132,000 people some "160 miles south of Fort Worth."

Of course, everybody knows that Fort Worth is 160 miles north of Austin, not vice versa. But the language suggests that the capital was more humble if not obscure, and so were the beginnings of its public radio station — 4,000 watts, with a signal range of maybe 15 or 20 miles, broadcasting, it's believed, from the UT Tower all of three hours a night, 15 hours a week. When the station went on the air that November, the first thing locals with FM radios (sort of the equivalent of what HDTVs were a few years back) heard was "The Eyes of Texas."

"We were short and dumpy," says Stewart Vanderwilt, who's been with the station for eight years as director and general manager.

It hasn't been so for quite awhile. With a budget just more than $6 million, the bulk of it — 85 percent — coming from listeners, the station now blasts 100,000 watts around the clock, has a staff of roughly 65 people, produces original programming — some of it nationally syndicated — and has a generous listener base that is the envy of other public radio stations across the country. In addition to KUT, there's a repeater station in San Angelo, HD radio channels, four different Web sites, dozens of podcasts and blogs and a news department that includes a full-time state Capitol reporter. The news department, which began from nothing in 2002, has won more than 50 awards, including a dozen Edward R. Murrow awards for journalistic excellence.

When Vanderwilt arrived, the station's audience was about 100,000. Today the radio audience alone is about 200,000, with about another 100,000 tuning in online or through other media. Combining local broadcast, online and national productions, KUT reaches roughly 500,000 people every week.

Of the more than 860 stations that carry National Public Radio programming, Vanderwilt says, KUT is the top-performing public station in Texas and "outpaces other Texas cities and most cities in the top 50 markets in the U.S." But, he says, it's impossible to separate the station's success from the community it serves.

A great deal of KUT's programming originates from the station — 83 and a half hours weekly, not including an average of four and a half hours weekly of local news and other original material that's inserted into "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered." That bumps the number to about 88 hours, compared with about 80 hours that come from NPR, Public Radio International, the BBC and other sources.

Jack Barton, senior director covering the adult album alternative (triple A), for FMQB, which covers the radio and music industries, says noncommercial stations such as KUT are "driven by instilling passion in its audience to become members, introducing its audience to new music, by being sensitive and aware of the needs of their own market."

"I think if you talk to labels and managers, you'll find that when they (the station) commit to the record, they commit to the artists and they sell records through airplay," he says. He also calls KUT's approach to its playlist "extremely adventurous."

"They're not doing what a commercial station does," he says. "They're not playing things because they think they're going to become hits, although they're not averse to playing hits. They're much more a leader than a follower."

He compares KUT to public radio stations in Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Seattle, which all cater their playlists to their audiences: "These are all stations that are taking chances on artists they hope will be up and coming, but basing their decisions on quality and how it affects the local listenership."

Although robust and exuding "vitality," a word National Public Radio President Kevin Klose used to describe the station, KUT also has to connect, on a daily basis, its woolly heritage with a media landscape that's changing at a baffling clip. Its devoted listener base has been tuning in to many of the same voices for decades — "Eklektikos" host John Aeilli began his fifth decade two years ago — and this base howls whenever there's a programming shakeup. Staffers are proud, if not a little self-satisfied, of being a station that sounds like and serves a specifically Austin and Central Texas audience; as many NPR affiliate stations have succumbed to a creeping commonality that makes them no more unique than your neighborhood Applebee's, KUT is producing more of its own content, not less. At the same time, in an age when cars come MP3-ready and kids are more likely to hear new music through file sharing, not over the air, the station is preparing for a time when we might not experience radio as we do today.

"We have to keep some of the old institutions but also infuse new things that invigorate the next generation of public radio listeners," says John L. Hanson Jr., who came to the station in 1974 to be a nighttime R&B; jock, served two tours as general manager and has hosted the syndicated "In Black America" show since 1980. "Having basically grown up in Austin and having had my whole radio career here, it lends a perspective to the discussion. We don't want to throw out the baby with the bath water."

For David Brown, whom some listeners still regard as that guy who came here from "Marketplace" in Los Angeles to cover Texas music three years ago, that means respecting — and documenting — a musical heritage while dispelling the myth that Austin is still, in his term, "Willie-ville." It also means, for him, bridging music and news. In a town where music is a huge part of the economy, not just the culture, that's important, according to Vanderwilt, Brown's boss. He compares music in Austin to the auto industry in Detroit.

"In the iPod era, you've got to be more than a jukebox," Brown says. "In a way, that kind of works for KUT. Other stations can play the music, but at KUT, because of its news component, it enables them to dig into these stories and connect the music side with the news side. And the original objective of (the music news series) 'Texas Music Matters' was to do something like that. We've also found we've become a platform for people who want to be heard on a national level."

This means Brown's beat can take him from discussing the late Townes Van Zandt to interviewing local indie band Electric Touch ahead of their appearance at Lollapalooza — and a whole lot of advance work on bands playing the Austin City Limits Music Festival. "Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the amount of great stories there are to tell," he says, adding that he thinks he's collecting material for "a museum that doesn't yet exist."

Still, there's that musical and personality heritage that's been a part of the station's mix ever since it shook off its classical roots.

"KUT was born out of that music culture," Brown says. "They went to the Armadillo. That was their hangout, and they would bring that voice to the air. People like (longtime jocks) Paul Ray and Larry Monroe are very responsible for what Austin sounds like."

"There is a genuine interest in the music," says Brown's colleague, Laurie Gallardo. "I have not encountered another radio station like KUT."

Celebrations planned

The folks at KUT are planning a year of activities to celebrate the station's 50th anniversary. (Go to kut.org for more details, some of which are still being finalized):

Friday: KUT Live with Patty Griffin. This show kicks off the celebration. A limited number of tickets will be given away to the public.

Nov. 20 and 21: 'BBC – World Have Your Say.' KUT will feature two live broadcasts of this show which attempts to highlight what's on people's minds by having the listeners dictate content and conversation.

Feb. 28: 50th anniversary gala at the Four Seasons Hotel.

May 28: A live taping of popular show 'Wait Wait Don't Tell Me' at renovated Bass Concert Hall.

Sept. 3, 2009: A concert with several bands at Bass Concert Hall.