When Phil Kukawinski was asked by the high-school yearbook staff before his graduation where he wanted to be in 10 years, he said, “Somewhere that’s not as weather-crazy as Michigan.”
Well, it's not yet been 10 years since he left Notre Dame—actually only five—but 2008 NDP grad Kukawinski is still living in Michigan, and while the weather in the state he was raised in continues to surprise and sometimes shock its residents, the real "craziness" comes from Kukawinski's way-cool job at radio station 89X (88.7 FM).
Kukawinski—his on-air nom de plume is "PK"—hosts his own show on the popular Windsor, Canada-based station Saturday and Sunday mornings from midnight to 8 a.m., and Sunday nights from 10 to 11 p.m. He says he's always crazy busy at the station, and not only when he's on the air.
"Actually, the glory of my job is that my work is my fun," he says. "I’m able to go to concerts and meet many different bands and artists because of my work. I have met some amazing people in the industry, and I’m fortunate enough to attend musical events like Rock on the Range in Columbus, Ohio, and travel across the U.S. for a lot of different reasons, whether it’s to check out new music or attend conferences."
Phil Kukawinski ’08 (NDP)
"I finished another semester at GVSU and then transferred to Oakland University, where I could continue interning in the studio," Kukawinski says. He changed his major to communications and graduated from OU in 2011.
Like most interns, Kukawinski's goal eventually was to secure a paid position. And like most interns can tell you, it's not an easy process. "My first 'real' radio gig came after three long years of interning," he says. "I started off working in a real job as a music director for AOL Radio." But 89X was going through a lot of staff changes, and Kukawinski was able to jump on board again there and move up the ladder relatively fast. He was hired in as a programming assistant and then an on-air DJ, doing the overnight shift on weekends.
The nickname “PK,” he says, came about in a funny sort of way. "The higher-ups at the station decided that 'Phil' was a little too boring. All my life I had no idea," he says with a laugh. "And I couldn’t go by 'Phil the Intern' since I technically wasn’t an intern anymore. So after some brainstorming with friends and family, I settled on using my initials. Nice and simple, and pretty hard to forget!"
Also hard to forget, Kukawinski says, is his time at Notre Dame Prep.
At NDP, "I always enjoyed seeing how long I could let my facial hair go before I would get in trouble," he recalls. "Thankfully, Father Strasz was fairly lenient with some of the rules!" And he really misses his teachers. "I had a lot of classes where even if I didn’t necessarily enjoy the subject, I enjoyed being in the class because the teachers made it fun to learn."
Many Notre Dame teachers come to mind, he says. "Mr. McCaskey, Mrs. Kochenderfer-Preiss, and although I never had her for a class, Mrs. Kotzan was always awesome."
They all must have been doing something right, according to Kukawinski. "Even though NDP didn’t really push me into radio, the goal of high school is to help create a well-rounded individual, and I feel as though the teachers did just that for me. There were plenty of classes at Prep that taught me different skills that I'm able to use every day," he says. "I am still able to apply those skills in my daily life."
It's a fair bet he'll be applying them well into his next five, 10, or many more years of his life—whether he's living in crazy weather or not.