As with many alumni here, KTRU was a major part of my life while at Rice. As undergrad and grad student, I DJed for 8.5 years (1987-1995), and acted as Jazz Director 1990-95. I think most know or can imagine how involving a period that was, so I won’t spend time with anecdotes. I want to note instead how important KTRU was to me in a later endeavor of presenting concerts of jazz and experimental music.

After leaving Rice and moving to DC, I immediately missed the personal music advocacy that was the crux, I think, of the KTRU experience. That advocacy was perpetual with any KTRU shift, and for me peaked with helping produce the KTRU Avant-Jazz Fest in 1993. In DC I hooked up with a few people that likewise lamented the lack of adventurous improvised music in town and started Transparent Productions in 1997, a volunteer and unfunded organization dedicated to presenting musicians and giving them 100% of all proceeds, working on a zero budget.

Over the years I was personally involved in presenting over a hundred concerts, with every ticket dollar going to the artists, totaling probably close to $50,000 going straight into musicians’ pockets. That bottom line would not have happened without my KTRU experience, I’m sure of that.

Vincent Kargatis

Sid Rich 1989 / Space Physics & Astronomy 1996