PR Director Tru Williams Pierone
By Tru Williams Pierone
Music has always been my greatest passion. When I was young, I remember my parents would occasionally have dinner parties with a bunch of their friends. Most of those dinner parties amassed of other adults that had no children, so I had to get creative with entertaining myself. I would spend those evenings practicing a routine in my bedroom, occasionally interrupted by drunken cackles but I always enjoyed spinning around my bedroom blasting John Mayer, James Blunt… My Chemical Romance, whatever animated my little elementary mind at the time. Those evenings would conclude with me performing for them. My dad would look on encouragingly, gesturing for me to keep going when I got nervous or self-conscious. But those nights were the nights where I felt happiest. Where I had the utmost freedom. Where I was in my element.
Entering college, I had no question about what I wanted to do as my major. I wanted to and still to this day study Music: Vocal Performance at the Lionel Hampton School of Music. But coming to college was a weird transition for me. As a Californian, I had left my big liberal bubble and entered Moscow, Idaho. A small, not as liberal town, surrounded by the never-ending Palouse. It was culture shock. In my eyes, I had entered another planet. People didn’t value clothing or cars the same way they did back home. And people wore cowboy hats, not just for Halloween. I remember wondering if I’d find my people. I would sit in class watching people walk in and I’d ask myself questions in my head wondering if they would want to befriend me. It took me a moment to find what, where and with who I felt most comfortable.
Palousafest 2015, I strolled down the street glancing at booths, briefly stopping at some, and rejecting others until I came to the KUOI booth. Linzy Bonner and Masen Matthews stood there unraveling their spiel about the wonders of student run radio and I was enamored. I had never considered radio as something that I would like. In my eyes radio had become dated. The last time I remembered using the radio was when my dad would drive me to school and let me play Radio Disney, or in hours of LA traffic where I’d stare out the window while my mom would blare NPR. But those were also the fond memories that inspired me to join.
The first couple sessions were intimidating. Was I clicking the right buttons? Did I sound nervous as my voice warbled on air? Did people like what I played? I would arrive early to create playlist lineups that I hoped people would fall in love with on their drive home from class. But after a while that didn’t really matter. I began to find euphoria in spinning through the towers of music cabinets. I found the musicians that were the soundtracks to my childhood like, Massive Attack, Peter Gabriel and Adam Ant. I also discovered artists that will one day remind me of the time that I spent in the station, like Chastity Belt, Father John Misty and Jamie XX.
KUOI has an important place in my heart. It made Idaho feel like home and its one place that I will always feel like I’m in my element.