KSUT Public Radio is celebrating its 25th anniversary today, and may it have many happy returns. It has been a quarter century of good radio brought to us by good people and a bit of good luck.

KSUT went on the air June 14, 1976 with four hours of programming per day and a 10-watt signal that seemed to go straight up. Today, its mixture of public radio programming and KSUT’s own eclectic music blend is available planetwide via the World Wide Web.

The Southern Ute Tribe founded the station originally to help tribal members get around the communication difficulties inherent in the area’s poor phone service. It offered local news, personal messages and traditional tribal music laced with some pop tunes. Although worlds apart from the KSUT of today in technology and reach, that kind of variety set the tone for the years to come.

In 1984, the station’s board opted to make the move from community-based broadcasting to serving a regional audience. To accommodate that, in 1986 the tribe began the construction of the translator network that would eventually allow KSUT to serve a listening encompassing parts of four states and a population of 250,000.

With that growth came increased membership, funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and programming from National Public Radio, Public Radio International and the AIROS (American Indian Radio On Satellite) network. Those affiliations brought such now-familiar favorites as Morning Edition, All Things Considered, A Prairie Home Companion and Car Talk to the Four Corners.

In 1998, having grown into a true regional radio station, KSUT came full circle and introduced Southern Ute Community Radio, a second station specifically intended to serve the tribe and cover community events, meetings and Ignacio sports.

The end result is a one-of-a-kind entity that is part traditional radio station, part public-service project, part favorite charity and part auditory clubhouse. It both is and offers something unique.

While radio stations across the country are being bought up, homogenized and reprocessed to serve distant corporate interests, KSUT continues its focus on the people and events of Southwest Colorado. In an industry dominated by talk radio, headline news and canned music, it offers a diversity of programs and music. And, while public radio stations are too often reserved solely for high brow music and high-minded fund-raisers, KSUT remains as much bratwurst as brie.