YOUNG VOICES ON THE AIRWAVES
Nathan Bilow
KBUTEENS AND THE KBUT KIDS CLUB PUT YOUNG PEOPLE BEHIND THE MICROPHONE AT THE PUBLIC RADIO STATION. By Mamie Rijks
With Kelley Dole, KBUT’s program director, Oliver Van Tiel and other KBUTeens take over the airwaves. 14
When I was a teen in the 1990s, co-hosting a radio show on KBUT with my friend Pierre was incredible. We read notecards with ads for Angelo’s Pizza, ride-shares and the local lost-and-founds in between playing our favorite songs. It was thrilling to sit in that small, quiet room in front of the microphone, knowing that every word I said could be heard by anyone in the valley listening to the public radio station. A lot has changed since Pierre and I hosted our show – from the number of people KBUT is able to reach, to the equipment used to broadcast music. Change is good, though, especially for young people who are interested in radio broadcasting. KBUTeens and KBUT Kids Club are the passion projects of Kelley Dole, the station’s program director, DJ coordinator and host of the “Bohemian Daybreak” radio show. “I’ve always been interested in alternative forms of education for youths,” Kelley said. When the opportunity arose, Kelley coordinated with the Crested Butte Community School Enrichment Program to create the two programs for local young people to learn about community radio. The KBUT Kids Club is a six-week session that takes place twice a year for third through fifth graders. It offers children
the opportunity to see behind the scenes of a radio station. Kelley said, “The goal is for these kids to learn the connection between speaking into a microphone and the community.” KBUTeens is more involved and takes a much greater commitment on the part of the young people. “The teens participate in the program year round and learn about diction, public speaking, marketing, radio copywriting and what community radio really is,” said Kelley. As they learn these skills, they also gain self-confidence and build camaraderie with their peers. This camaraderie was important during the pandemic. “KBUTeens started in 2019 but soon had to pull back on its activities due to Covid. The isolation of the pandemic was hard on people, especially children and teenagers,” Kelley said. “KBUTeens gave the teens a time and place to reunite safely outside of a school environment.” As soon as it was safe to do so, the program returned full force to give the teens a much-needed outlet for their skills and creativity. At first, the KBUTeens focused on producing weather segments and community service announcements. From there, they worked their way up to creating
