How to help if you’re a musician
Rice University’s administration is planning to sell KTRU’s terrestrial broadcast rights to KUHF, who intends to turn us into a 24-hour classical station. You may or may not be familiar with KTRU (hopefully you are—we know who you are!) but we play a diverse array of music, including local bands, indie rock, hip-hop, bluegrass, metal, experimental noise, and more. If this deal goes through, many new and underexposed artists will lose the biggest independent voice in Houston—the 4th largest market in the nation.
The key points we want to stress:
1. The music world and the Houston community would lose out in this deal. Houston radio listeners would have less choice, less diversity, and less commitment to local and diverse artists. Artists, record labels, and clubs would no longer have an avenue to promote their work in the U.S.’s 4th largest city.
2. The decision to sell KTRU was made covertly, specifically aimed to exclude input from KTRU, Rice students, and Rice alumni. Rice students built KTRU out of nothing, supporting its growth for over 40 years. Rice’s attempt to sell it out from under the students is a betrayal of trust – if not for the students’ hard work, there would be nothing to sell.
3. Internet streaming is not a viable alternative—it is precisely KTRU’s ability to broadcast on the radio that reaches people in their cars, allows the local community to discover KTRU on the dial, and brings new music into the station.
If you choose to mention our crisis to the media, we encourage you to keep it short and sweet. Something like this:
“We’re big supporters of independent college radio—it’s a big factor in our success to date. So it’s a shame that Rice University in Houston is trying to sell KTRU out from under the students that built it from the ground up. They didn’t even consult the student body, alumni, or the Houston community in general. We encourage our fans to support the students at KTRU in their fight to derail this deal. Visit savektru.org.”
Obviously, you should find the language that works best for you.
In addition, if you could send out a blast to your fans, or put something up on your websites, that would also be greatly appreciated.
I am going to do what I can to help you guys out. Because of KTRU, I got to experience what it’s like to hear music you helped create get played on the radio. That never would have happened with KTRU. I’ll do what I can.
we love ktru and will help all that we can!!
I am a long time beneficiary and supporter of independent college and listener sponsored radio. My music has been broadcast from ktru and other non-profit stations while other stations play so called main stream popular or classical music.
In fairness ktru should be maintained in its tradition of playing diverse experimental, contemporary and world music.
This service is essential to music and musicians.