This year’s Rocky Mountain Community Radio Coalition Conference held in October was hosted by radio station KSUT in Ignacio, Colorado. A number of media outlets in the 20 station coalition took part in the three day event.
During opening ceremonies, Eddie Box Jr. Southern Ute Tribal Elder and KSUT Board member, shared the history of the station and offered a blessing to this year’s attendees. KSUT is one of the first Tribal founded stations in North America. The blessing was followed by a performance of the Yellow Jacket Ute Indian Singers.
Tami Graham, executive director for KSUT and this year’s host station shared her thoughts on the collaborative nature of RMCR, 40 year media organization, that spans the mountain west. Rocky Mountain Community Radio editor Maeve Conran talked about the importance of the annual conference and its underlining theme.
While there was plenty to celebrate, the announcement of the departure of tribal reporter Clark Adomaitis was lamented. His position funded by a three year Colorado Media Project grant will end in December.
Other conference announcements included the hiring of Aspen Public Radio station reporter Caroline Llanes as RMCR's Rural Climate reporter. LLanes will begin reporting on climate related stories beginning mid-November.
Special guests Bruce Auster, NPR Managing Editor and Rick Holter of Public Media Company shared how NPR is building out regional news desks across the country. They currently have two regional news desks with plans to expand into the Mountain West Region. Rima Dael, CEO of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters delivered the keynote on “Embracing Adaptive Resilience in Times of Change.”
The conference featured a tour of KSUT’s innovative radio station, a wacky bowling competition, and a concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of KDUR in Durango. Daily breakout sessions for news; music and programming and station development also took place.
