As an alum, I’m outraged that Rice is considering selling KTRU and is doing it in a covert way to exclude input.

The value of KTRU is not merely in its music, as it would be at a commercial station.  It gives a greater thing to Rice students: experience in leadership.  The skills learned in running a radio station with a huge transmitter and the responsibility of FCC filings translate directly into skills needed in running a company, running a university, running a nonprofit, or running a country.  Experiences in public speaking to a large FM audience during the busy 4-7pm drive-time shift are directly applicable when addressing a union, a faculty, a staff, or voters.  Learning how to not be a fawning idiot around rock stars backstage at a concert is good training for learning how to not be a fawning idiot around nobel prize winners and CEOs.

I am now a Professor of Chemistry, and an Associate Dean for Research Activities for the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington.  Sure, my Rice physics degree taught me how to do homework problems and research.  But my leadership experiences at KTRU made me, and others, ultimately successful.  A sale of KTRU would rob future students of similar opportunities.  An internship at somebody else’s radio station is not the same.  Before geeks can take over the world, we need training in serious job skills, coupled with real responsibility.  These are on offer at KTRU and I hope they will be far into the future. If the Thresher or the RSA or any other student organization had builds up a resource, would Rice disband them as well?

Moving KTRU to an all-internet format is not viable.  Without an FM frequency and a transmitter, bands would not visit the station to play in the studio, and record companies would not send KTRU samples of new music.  KTRU’s valuable music library would stagnate and it would become an oldies station not out of choice but out of necessity.  There is no technological reason why an internet radio station cannot be as successful as an FM station, but there are huge financial reasons why not, driven by the modern music industry.

I think that it is not relevant to argue about whether any of us would play the same music as KTRU’s dj’s currently do for its rock shows, or its jazz shows (Sunday) or its blues shows (Wednesday) or its world music shows (Monday) or any of its other diverse shows (see http://ktru.org/schedule.shtml).  Sometimes we would, sometimes we wouldn’t.  My own personal taste in music has certainly evolved as I’ve grown older and more boring.

Most importantly, Rice students created KTRU from scratch, and continued to put time and effort into it for over 40 years, as a gift for future students.  If we had meant for that extraordinary resource to be used to buy a kitchen, we would have simply given to the general fund.  In fact, a lot of us KTRU alums have indeed given to the general fund because of our close ties to Rice through KTRU, but we won’t donate anymore if the sale goes through.  At this moment, the Facebook site called “Rice Alums Pledging to not Donate if KTRU is Sold” has over 100 members.  My loyalty to Rice is first and foremost through my loyalty to KTRU; whenever another alum asks which college I was in, I always say “KTRU”.

I particularly admire the thoughtful, well-written letter by Daniel Mee at http://www.nonalignmentpact.com/2010/08/an-open-letter-to-rice-university-president-david-leebron.html/comment-page-1#comment-14878. Ideas on how to help oppose the sale of KTRU are at savektru.org.

Sarah L. Keller, Ph.D.

Rice B.A. Physics ‘89