From Alum Gene Hinyard
I was around in the late 1960’s when KTRU was started as a pirate radio station. It arose during the “Bat Masterson” crisis when the Board selected Dr. Masterson to become President of the University, without any public comment or consideration. The ruckus that arose involved a clear majority of the student body at the time. After a few days, Dr. Masterson withdrew his name from consideration or resigned his position. At that time, there was no real campus-wide means of communication and rumors of all kinds were circulating wildly. Some industrious students set up the little pirate station to serve as an information clearing house, with a signal that served virtually all of the Rice campus but no more.
Subsequent to the resolution of the Bat Masterson crisis, the student who initially set the station up and ran it decided that they liked it, so it continued to broadcast music, have call in shows, and even hosted student “talk” radio.
KTRU was born as the result of actions being taken by the Board, presumably in secret because they knew that their decision would not be a popular one. Now today, the identical procedure has been followed, again knowing that the decision would not be a popular one. Whether it is the right thing to do or not is beyond my capacity to judge; however I can assure anyone that in my opinion, this is not the way the University should be conducting its business if it has any interest in retaining the support of this alumnus.
Gene Hinyard
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