Some of the best ideas start in a basement.

Like UT’s student radio station WUTK, for instance. A team of professors, engineers and students volunteered their time, building the station from scratch.

“I had to make an effort to at least preserve what the first song was, how it started,” Troy Davis, a class of 1982 UT alum, said.

Davis, a broadcasting major, fell in love with the idea of being on the radio, being one of the first to sign up for the project of getting WUTK up and running.

“I thought, ‘if I were to do something everyday, I want it to be fun, and energetic, and silly, and different,’” Davis said. “I can’t stand a routine. I require spontaneity and all of that — it seemed to be exactly what radio was from what I’d seen.”

Davis’ drive and passion for radio led him to sign up for WUTK, a decision that shaped the rest of his time in college and led to a successful run in Knoxville’s commercial radio scene for decades.

When preparation started in the fall semester of the 1981-82 school year, Davis joined the brand-new staff of WUTK to get the radio station up in running for January of ‘82. He’d heard rumors for years about a possible station, but never imagined he’d be a part of one at the college.

“It wasn’t something that would be planned, it just kind of fell in our laps, and we took it and ran with it and did the best we could,” Davis said.

Davis, alongside student Kevin McGee, became the first two music directors of the station. They were selected because of their respective experience working as a service representative for MCA records and at Music Jungle, a music store chain in the area.

“We were tasked, together, to put together music for that. We started gathering, and we asked for donations and staff brought in albums, and we contacted all the record companies we could get addresses from. We had the fall semester to [prepare] and gather,” Davis said.

Throughout the fall semester, the new staff had roughly three months to make WUTK into a functioning station. The team built the station from scratch, although none of them had any real experience in radio at the time. They had guidance from professors, but the students came up with the ideas for the on-air shows and studio management.

“As the stuff came in, we would carry it down in the boxes, and as we brought it in, the engineer would set it up,” Davis said.

Piece by piece, in the basement of Andy Holt Tower, students assembled WUTK. Across this decades-long stretch, the station has been a place where people have felt a range of emotions, but the most consistent one is excitement. For students, the joy of getting to go and do something they love has kept the space vibrant and a source of creativity.

“It was an extra energy, because we were really excited and flattered that we were chosen for these various positions and such. We had a whole lot of energy, sorta endless, really, because we had so much to do. You don’t know how many little things you need to have to get a radio station up and running,” Davis said.

Alongside all of the technology needed, an array of knowledge on different music genres was necessary to build up WUTK from scratch.

“You’d come in with albums and new stuff and new ideas and talk to everybody about it, and there was just a buzz going. There were people there all the time,” Davis said.

After working endlessly throughout the fall semester and over the break, the station was ready to be put on air in January of 1982. The question Davis and his friends now faced was what they wanted the first song played on the air to be.

As a collective, they came up with the criteria: the band would need to have women in it, as WUTK had a mixed gender staff; it would have to be niche, yet well known and not top 40; and it should be more rock n’ roll than pop. Then, they turned to Davis to pick the exact song.

After going through stacks and stacks of music, listening to vinyl after vinyl, he finally found the one.

“(There’s a) band called Night, and it had a female singer and stuff, and … there was a song called “Love on the Airwaves,” and I thought it was really good for us, and I listened to it, and it’s a rockin’ song, you know,” Davis said. “It was never a real big hit, but that was exactly what we wanted.”

From that moment on, WUTK has played obscure music and album cuts, oftentimes being the ones to introduce upcoming bands into the Knoxville music scene.

“We could get something in the mail, listen to it, be like ‘oh that’s good,’ and put it on the air immediately. We were the ones who played The Stray Cats first, we were the ones who played Men At Work, because we didn’t have restrictions like the commercial stations,” Davis said.

For the next couple of months, early WUTK members worked hundreds of on-air shifts, providing students with hidden music gems, weather updates and news reports.

“We got through the winter quarter and then the spring quarter, then a lot of people were graduating and I felt ‘man we just got this going good,’” Davis said. “I had one broadcasting production class (left before) graduation, so I figured ‘I’m going to stay through the summer quarter,’ so I intentionally did not complete a class.”

McGee, Davis’ co-music director, graduated that spring. Left alone, Davis spent a lot of time helping the next music director figure out the ropes, providing him with the contacts needed to be able to keep the ball rolling.

“Aug. 22, I graduated and left with sort of a sadness but a joy at setting out to accomplish what we intended to do,” Davis said. “We wanted to make the university proud for having faith in us. I think we did that. I think we accomplished our goals early on and passed it down to the next generation.”

Multiple generations of college students have cycled through WUTK since Davis’ days, yet, at its core, it remains the same. Sherleen Mwaura, a music business administration senior, is WUTK’s current station manager and carries the same mission as those who have come before her: to foster a creative environment for anyone in the community to join, connect or relate to.

“(We honor) keeping student voices first and foremost at a radio station that has a vibrant legacy in the Knoxville community, definitely making sure to keep the vision intact by working alongside people that are in their roles because they care, and they’re intentional about wanting to execute a shared vision and be a part of a collaborative process,” Mwaura said.

A WUTK member for all four years of college, Mwaura has ascended up the ranks, starting as an on-air host before joining the music department and now holding the role of station manager.

“I would say being in a leadership role has definitely helped me keep an ear to the ground about the needs of our community, and being in a student-facing position has helped me to work one-on-one with our student volunteers,” Mwaura said.

All of the different student volunteers have received real-life, hands-on experience through WUTK.

“We didn’t have a radio station to train in. We trained in little booths in the communications building, (so) we knew what a wonderful thing it was to have an actual radio station to train in,” Davis said.

Davis and his fellow students in broadcasting cared deeply about the success of the station. They understood the vast difference between practicing alone in a booth versus being on live air to an entire city. They wanted to do WUTK right, Davis said — to create an opportunity that would help not only their own learning experience, but that of all the students who would come after them.

“I think WUTK offers a great opportunity for students to get practical hands-on experience in radio and media, so that was why I wanted to get involved, to be able to gain those opportunities at an entry level. I think it’s a really cool learning lab for students of all backgrounds. I liked that it was welcoming for people,” Mwaura said.

“There wasn’t pressure or anything, it was just a vibrant energy,” Davis said. “It was just a blast doing something we grew to love. I grew to love radio. It was a lovely career after I left WUTK, but all of the foundation for my career grew right there in the basement of Andy Holt.”

After graduating, Davis started working at WRJZ, a local Knoxville station. What began as a weekend slot turned into a weekend on-air show that grew quickly in popularity. WATE-TV, Channel 6 was a local TV station at the time whose PM Magazine show put out a poll to the city asking about the locals’ favorite radio DJ.

“After only six months, maybe seven months, on the radio … I was the No. 3 DJ in the city, and the No. 4 personality was Barbara Jackel. She was the news director at WUTK. That many students voted for her,” Davis said.

According to Davis, within a year of its founding, people associated with WUTK appeared twice in the top five poll of DJs in the city — one alum and one current student.

“That gives you an idea of how much influence it had, and the students were loyal to it, we had a wonderful listenership to it,” Davis said.

At every stage in the process, students learn skills that last them long past their days at the station, whether they go into radio or not.

“You had to trust yourself, you learned to be spontaneous, to be creative, and what I learned at WUTK was to have confidence in my own ability. None of us had that in the beginning, but we learned,” Davis said.

Mwaura credits experiences she’s had at WUTK with learning how to align her actions with her goals and intentions.

“Working with people is a lifelong mission of mine. I want to be at the center of creative spaces, so leading projects and programming at WUTK has prepared me in practical ways such as organizational and leadership, and it’s also fostered a creative spirit and force in my life that’s been very fruitful, because it’s honored the intentions that I’ve set in my own life in being able to give back to the community that’s raised me and given the soundtrack of my own life,” Mwaura said.

The experiences that both Mwaura and Davis had, though different, taught both of them lessons that shape the way they interact with the world and others.

“WUTK will always be in my heart,” Davis said. “I cherish the memories, and it was fun, and it was a big part of my life, and I am very content with it.”

For Davis, those three quarters of WUTK began a whirlwind of radio success — yet he doesn’t hold it close for that reason. For him, the passion he found for radio within the four walls of the station is what makes it so meaningful.

“It was a wonderful thing to be part of. There were no superstars. We were all students,” Davis said.

For Mwaura, one of the beautiful things about WUTK is that anybody can join — no radio experience required. The only things people need going in is an interest and a willingness to learn, and there will be a spot for them.

“I want people to know that WUTK is a space for everyone, because it works to encompass the voices of our students, our school and our community. In honoring those stories, it enriches the livelihood of everyone,” Mwaura said.

Telling these stories has meaning, for both the person whose story is told and also for the one who helps them to tell it.

“(It’s) something that had a lasting sort of legacy, and I hope all the other kids who come through, who train and learn and move on, can look back with the same type of pleasantry, cause it was a wonderful, wonderful experience,” Davis said.

Even 44 years later, Davis still reminisces on his time with WUTK. As Mwaura prepares to graduate in May, she reflects on her time with the station and the lessons she will carry with her into future projects, passions and careers.

“It’s been the greatest joy to be able to immerse myself in that way and keep an open mind about the opportunities, because they really are endless at the station,” Mwaura said.

The station has been a gateway to opportunities for students since its inception.

“I hope the students that come behind at WUTK, I hope the world greets them and meets them and presents them with the same opportunities that it presented me,” Davis said.