(bright music) - KUER is marking 65 years of public radio in Utah, honoring its legacy as a trusted source for news, storytelling, and community.

To reflect on that history and what it means for listeners, we're joined by station manager Cristy Meiners.

Welcome Cristy.

- Hi, Liz.

It's nice to see you.

- Nice to see you as well.

This is so exciting, 65 years?

- (laughs) I know.

When you think about 1960 and how things have changed over the years, including at KUER, this was an opportunity for us to really celebrate the station's history, the legacy, and also start looking ahead to what's coming up next.

- Wow, that is so exciting.

Can you go into how it became a chapter of, or chartering member of NPR?

- Yeah.

So the station began in the basement of Kingsbury Hall, June 6th, 1960, that was our first broadcast, and things were very different back then.

Like, you would get French lessons, you could get music instruction, someone would read a chapter of a book to you a day.

As things evolved, we became a charter member of NPR in 1970 with "Morning Edition."

"All Things Considered," came a few years later, and then we started expanding our signal statewide in the eighties, created our own local newsroom, became an all-talk format many years later after that.

So things have just evolved and evolved and evolved to, here we are in 2026, we're still here, we're still broadcasting.

Now you can find us in digital spaces.

You know, we're in lots of different spaces than we were when we began, but we're still here.

- Still here, and also about to have a huge celebration with interactive experiences?

- Yes.

So part of this, as we were thinking about 65 years, is we wanted to celebrate with the community, the community who's supported us so much.

That's really what public radio, public broadcasting, as you know, is about, is about the community.

So, this is a fundraising event.

I should be clear about that.

This is not free.

This is a ticketed event.

We are bringing people together.

We will have food, we will have Name-Your-Host trivia, we will have a DJ, we will have a live band.

The Will Baxter Band will be there, and we're just excited for people to come together and celebrate with us.

- Wow, I'm excited to see that celebration, and I know it's gonna be a lot of fun.

If you would like to learn more information and share the news about this 65th anniversary party, just head to kuer.org.

The event's gonna be at UMFA on February 27th from 6:00 to 9:30 PM.

I'm Liz Adeola, and thank you so much for watching "Contact."

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