When I came to rice in the Fall of 2000, I had already planned to join KTRU. I began listening to KTRU after my acceptance online and looked forward to joining the ranks the following year. In my mind, it was one of the touchstones of a college experience, than i knew I was going to get at Rice with a radio station to which people actually had access and which served a community.

In my second semester I shared a graveyard shift with Mark Flaum, who continues to KTRU today. In fact, he just (yesterday, I believe) got married to another KTRU colleague. I would continue at KTRU for most of my time at Rice, letting up in my senior year to pursue professional opportunities. And, in 2007 while returning to Houston to complete an internship for my Master’s Degree, I again took up a general programming shift.

I come from Los Angeles, a place where, perhaps due to the time we are stuck in our cars, we have excellent radio options that are extremely influential in local culture. With the popularity of terrestrial radio in Southern California I can not support the assertion that it is losing value. In fact, having returned to LA in the years following my departure from Houston, I only see it as a growing influence.

In my time at KTRU I met some of my dearest friends, I learned responsibility to an organization and an audience, I learned how to push limits within rules, I learned about new sounds and I learned how a 24/7 content provider works. Now, as a producer for live events, these are all key skills that I continue to draw on, and KTRU is proudly listed on my resume as professional experience, not an extracurricular activity.

I stood vigil with my classmates and community partners to keep KTRU on the air the last time it was shut-down and, with my DJ partner, I was the first live voice on the radio in Houston after 9/11. Though we do not have the reach of a top 40 station and may not have the same draw as an NPR affiliate, both of these events showed me how important the station was to many people. Playing requests for a city in shock from a national tragedy will do that.

Please don’t take this opportunity and community away from students by relegating it an online only format. Even here in Los Angeles, where radio is powerful, we recently lost an independent commercial station to the internet and our airwaves are that much poorer for it. Rice has the capability of providing for students and the greater Houston community a resource that is extremely rare these days. Don’t sell it out.

Ian Garrett

Will Rice 2004