New York Times: Waning Support for College Radio Sets Off a Debate
… Mr. Yang believes the loss of a terrestrial signal will effectively delegitimize KTRU.
“As a 50,000-watt station that can be heard all across Houston, there’s a sense of responsibility to the community,” he said. “When you lose a terrestrial footprint in Houston — anyone can put out a signal that’s on the Internet — it takes away the legitimacy of what we’re trying to do.”
Despite obvious parallels between KTRU and WRVU, Chris Carroll, director of student media at Vanderbilt Student Communications, draws a stark contrast between the situations at the two universities. At Vanderbilt, he said, “what’s happening, really, is a big public discussion about is this a good idea or not, and there’s no conclusion to that yet.” Rice, he said, made the decision to sell KTRU behind closed doors — without student input.
After a tumultuous summer, groups focused on saving the stations have mobilized at both campuses. Both have Web sites — savektru.org and savewrvu.org — and Facebook pages to gather comments and provide updates.
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I saw the NYT story and it made me think about my own love for college radio. I used to live in Lansing, MI and I loved the Impact (WDBM) – MSU Student Run Radio out of the basement of Holden Hall. 5 years ago, I moved to Champaign, IL (I still have the Impact as a preset on my car stereo for when I visit Lansing) and we have a commercial college radio station (i.e. operated by students of the University, but not run as a campus unit in any way shape or form). First, the advertising, which is similar to that of a top 40 station, makes the station not appealing (I’d pay a $10 fee each semester to avoid this). Second, while it does play some obscure tunes sometimes, it is often pretty run-of-the-mill stereotypical “college radio” programming.
I miss the Impact, and the plight of KTRU really spoke to me as someone who lost a great college radio station in their life. Keep up the fight to save your station.
Joey Yang gets a paragraph in the New Yorks Times and is quoted originally. Rice President Dr. Leebron gets 3 words and is a quote from an old press release.
Winner: Joey Yang and KTRU -Crisis and stress always reveals true leaders. Regardless of outcome great job man..from the heart
Loser: Dr. Leebron; acknowleged violater of Rice’s Honor Code and ethically a smaller man than the students he is robbing. His Minister of Propaganda; Linda Thrane has no place in a modern University as even the adminstration at Vanderbilt acknowledes in the article. They would never do behind close doors what Rice has done and have bluntly said so in the New York Times Article.
Linda- Give it up old girl; time for your retirement; you don’t belong at Rice……………………..