I attended Rice University from 2003-2007 and was a KTRU DJ for that entire time, barring O-week.  As many have already written in, I arrived at Rice a little shy – like many of my peers.  I have a pretty bad stutter, which normally prevents me from speaking in public.  Many of you know me and have heard me talk, so you know what I’m talking about.  During O-week, I saw posters around to join KTRU.  Radio has a very specific draw for new students – the mysterious “DJ Booth” that transports your voice, your music, your feelings out to a vast audience.  It’s really an incredible thing.  The internet is a great thing, but the radio is like magic.  I applied, interviewed, and lucked out.  I got a 4-7 am spot on Tuesday night – those first few nights in the DJ booth were nervewracking for me.  I knew how bad my stutter was, and it was worse when I got nervous.  Yet I played music I had never heard before, and at 4 in the morning I got calls from weirdos, other students, random Houstonians telling me “good job” for stuttering through my performance.  They admired my gumption to get on the air regardless. I spoke to other stutterers who offered advice, too.  Those first few morning shifts cemented my love of KTRU.  KTRU was where I went for friendship, company, and the quiet refuge of the ears of millions of Houstonians.

Many people have spoken about how KTRU has expanded their musical tastes.  This is true.  I never would have gone to a Polysics concert, and heard a tiny japanese man perform “my sharona” in a garage in a suburb of Houston while screaming into a vocoder.  But, in all honesty, the music was secondary.  A radio station – an FM radio station, not an internet station – has real responsibility.  There are FCC regulations to follow, you gotta follow some rules, bend others, and do so with the knowledge that your good, your bad, and your everything is being beamed into space at the speed of light.  I kept DJing, and I loved the friends I made and I loved how confident I felt at the DJ booth.  I loved coming on the air just to say “K-T-R-U Houston” every hour on the hour.  I became Sultan of Stick just to get involved, and wound up becoming Program Director and eventually Station Manager.  Being station manager of KTRU put me at the helm of a ship with over 100 crew members.  We had Will R as our astrolabe, a man whose dedication to college radio is unquestionable but who let us lead and make our own mistakes and successes, which I will forever thank him for.  But our crew made the ship.  Imagine how crazy it is for me, a 20-something year old student, to be the ostensible “Boss” of some of the DJs who have been at KTRU longer than I’ve been alive!  But that responsibility – to keep the station running, on the airwaves, to keep the DJs happy, to put on the best shows and the best music – is huge.  It feels huge.  And it feels huge because it is radio.  Real consequences.  Internet radio just doesn’t have the same responsibility, but dead air? God forbid.  I had some real lessons in leadership in that job.  But to think that the stammering gentle giant that had walked through the Sallyport could be where I was? I wouldn’t have believed you.

I have to thank Matt W for organizing the Outdoor show that year with Ratatat.  He did a lot of legwork, and we all did a lot of work on that show, but for me to stand in front of a massive crowd, next to one of my favorite bands, and blast their eardrums out will forever be etched in my memory as my crowning accomplishment (even though Matt and a lot of other people deserve way more credit) at Rice.  From my experience in the student leadership at KTRU I later got a job wherein my interviewer specifically cited my “previous management experience.”

What I’m trying to get at here is that KTRU made me who I am today, and that isn’t an exaggeration.  Without that experience, I’m not sure if I could speak in public.  But when I put those headphones on, and say those magic words “K-T-R-U Houston, 91.7 FM”…it’s f@#$#@^% awesome.  KTRU is so much my Rice experience.  I would never have believed that we could be sold up the creek like we have, and as a result I have suspended all future donations to the school, as many others have.  That really hurts me – I met my fiancee at Rice, I’m getting married at Rice, so many of my friends are at Rice.  I love that school but I love it because it promotes “Uncommon Wisdom.” But when that wisdom becomes common cynical bartering, I’m through. Even though I’m not in Houston at the moment, my dream is to return and get on the air again.  Save me a spot on that chair that says “NICE ASS KTRU”.

Love to you all,
Aaron Reese
Sid Rich class of 2007