By Julia Caulfield

On a mountainside overlooking Ouray, the wind rustles through aspen leaves.

“We’re about 9,200 feet in elevation above Ouray, Colorado on the Western Slope,” says Dustin Fisher, caretaker at Gold Mountain Ranch. For as far as the eye can see “pretty much nothing but the San Juan Mountain range” Fisher adds.

Perched on the mountain is a home, old mining ruins, a zipline tour, and also, a new radio tower. KOTO Radio is expanding its signal to reach Ouray and Ridgway. This radio tower will make that happen.

“KOTO purchased the tower last January,” Fisher explains, “We picked up in February, hauled it up the mountain. We had to wait for the snow to melt off. We had about two or three feet of snow at the time. Once the snow melted off, we got a concrete contractor in here to come and install the concrete.”

Once the cement was cured, local climbers came in to assemble the actual tower.

“The only thing we have to actually do is to install the actual equipment for the radio station,” Fisher concludes.

Expanding its signal to Ridgway has been a goal for the radio station for years, says KOTO Executive Director Cara Pallone.

“But the FCC doesn’t really open filing periods very often,” Pallone says, “When one came about in 2021, Ben was like ‘we should do this’. So we did. We took that opportunity to apply for a construction permit from the FCC, and we were granted that approval in December 2021.”

Per the FCC – that’s the Federal Communications Commission, KOTO has three years to build the tower and have the signal go live. Pallone says the radio station is in phase two of that development. A lot has been done, but there’s still a way to go.

“We’re taking it piece by piece and trying to stick to a timeline that will get us on the air in 2024,” Pallone says.

Still, she says the tower going up is an exciting milestone.

“Just getting the tower up there was such a big process,” she remembers. “There wasn’t a delivery truck big enough to get it to the location, let alone up the mountain. There’s just been so much coordination done, and so to see it go up over the last couple week has just been a huge moment for KOTO.”

With the new location, and new tower, KOTO will also add new call letters. Staff decided on KOOK Ridgway. KOTO did a survey to determine the best location to place the tower and gauge where the frequency will go. Station Manager Ben Kerr says he’s excited to see just how far the signal will travel.

“You can’t really tell exactly where it’s going to go. There’s always some surprises,” Kerr says. “It’ll be interesting to see. It’ll be really exciting to put the signal up, turn it on, and then you just drive around and say ‘where’s it going. Where can we get it’. And then you’ll hear from people in strange locations ‘I’m getting it really good over here’”.

According to Pew Research Center, over the past two decades there has been a major decline in the number of news outlets serving local audiences. Pallone says the expansion to Ridgway with KOOK will allow KOTO to keep the region from becoming a news desert.

“We want to build a foundation that would prevent that from ever happening in our region. Journalism is extremely important right now. We’re independent journalism and to maintain that and make sure that everyone is getting the information and education and that they need is a top priority of ours,” Pallone adds, “we’re also the only source of local news in both English and Spanish. Being inclusive of all of our communities and making sure we’re serving everyone equally is very important.”

Kerr shares the sentiment. KOTO remains fiercely independent for the community it serves.

“It’s pure. There’s nothing really like it. You don’t have to put up with a bunch of advertising and hype and disingenuous politics and thought,” Kerr says “It’s organic. It’s real. It’s coming from the people for the people. It’s grassroots. It’s about people.”

KOTO plans to be on the air in Ouray and Ridgway in 2024. So, for the time being, this is KOTO Telluride 91.7, but soon, you’ll be in tune with KOOK 90.3 Ridgway.