I actually wasn’t very big into KTRU until I had a few friends who had friends who worked for the station. That’s what got me started in listening more closely. That was around my junior year, the same time I was really active in student government and worked with the administration quite a bit. By my senior year, I was tuning in for programs like the jazz evening, or that person’s show, etc. For a while I even thought about getting my broadcasting license and joining the ranks of KTRU; instead, I joined the Thresher. But kept listening; in fact, to this day, when I’m in Houston, I make a point of tuning in just to see what it’s up to.

KTRU is one of the ways Rice presents itself to the city. It acts, I believe, largely independent of the University as a whole, especially of its administration, in terms of what is actually said and done on the station (what music is played, etc.) which is, I suppose, why the administration has no problem selling it off. It’s what makes me interested in tuning in: to hear what that side of the community has to say. It offers an alternative to commercial radio. I suppose that would remain the same if sold to U of Houston, but isn’t the city large enough to have two public college radio stations?

I’m now a freelance musician, musicologist and DJ living in Vienna, Austria. It saddens me to think that a place as prosperous and well-endowed as Rice would sell off one of its cultural assets, and find shutting down a form of student and community expression and communication OK. Especially without having consulted the very community which values it.

Why would Rice be willing to do away with its only radio station? And where will that money go? To their arts department, or Shepherd School, or student union? Or are there other justifications for their plans?

This doesn’t speak well for Rice’s current administration. I’ll certainly think twice before donating to the University next time.

Sincerely

Erik Leidal, Sid Rich ’94 (matriculated in ’89, I was on the 5-year plan with 2 degrees)