KTRU Love
Online readers comment on "KTRU: Is U of H About To Buy Rice Student Station?" by Chris Gray, Rocks Off blog, August 16:
Please no: It's the only music station I listen to in Houston.
Drod
Tragedy: I host KTRU's Africana show and I am shocked at this news. During the three years I have been a part of KTRU, I have been impressed by how it unites Rice and the people of Houston. Students and community disc jockeys work to bring eclectic music to Houston. Many KTRU hosts have little connection to Rice except through working at KTRU. The station is truly unique. No one combines students and community members like they do, no one plays the music KTRU plays, and no one hosts crazy events like KTRU. It is tragic for Houston to lose this gem of a station and tragic for Rice to lose such an important learning opportunity for its students. Houston doesn't need another NPR station. KUHF already has an on-line news and music stream. Do we need more bland talk? This is horrible.
Chris
KTRU Africana Show
Leave KTRU alone: KUHF already has two digital FM broadcast frequencies, one all news/talk and the other all classical/arts. They should spend a small fraction of that $10 million to advertise those broadcasts to fans of those formats and leave KTRU alone. I've been a fan of KTRU since the 1980s, when it was a major challenge to receive its then-puny signal, and I don't want this great musical outlet to disappear from the airwaves.
Philaphonicus
Bad signal: KTRU will continue on the Web. UH isn't buying the studios, just the transmitter and license. Since the station was moved way out of town by KRTS to allow 92.1 to upgrade, most people listen online anyway. So KTRU continues streaming online where people can actually hear them, and UH pays too much for an awful signal (unless you live in Humble, then it comes in great). Rice avoids having to pay the electric bill on a 50,000 watt transmitter. Take away the sentimental value for a moment, and tell me exactly how KTRU loses here?
If this were 50,000 watts from the center of Houston, yeah, I'd say this is a big loss. But if anyone's really going to lose here, it's classical music fans who will have their music move from a full power station to a half power signal that's 50 miles out of town.
If you listen to KTRU, you probably already know how to stream ktru.org on an iPhone. Now imagine teaching your dad to stream classical music because he can't pick 91.7 up in his house. That's going to be my personal hell right there.
Voice of Reason
A loss: Rice is a student-run radio station, and there are four decades of alumni who have fond memories of building the station (literally, in the case of the "new" studio) and waking up in the middle of the night to do the dreaded 4 to 7 a.m. shift. For decades, Rice students managed the station independently and made all decisions regarding programming, earning a reputation as one of the most progressive college radio stations in the country.
Julie
National prestige: What is known about KTRU by the Houston public is that the station is spotty, mind-expanding, and has been a source of uncompromising progressive and independent music for 30 years. The station's mission is to "educate the uneducated ear." What might not be known is that KTRU exists as a community teaching station serving the students of Rice University and Houston's citizens. What also is not widely known in Houston is the national prestige KTRU holds as one of the most important college radio stations in the country, as well as being one of the largest.
Matthew Wettergreen
For shame: This is a sad day for Houston. People haven't realized that KTRU is what radio should be, and now it's too late. See what happens when you take beautiful things like KTRU for granted. Shame on you all.
Greg Starks
It's alive: Radio is a dead medium in spite of KTRU, an exception to the rule of mediocrity. And why let one of the last exceptions go? Why resign ourselves to that? Of all the places I've been, I've yet to hear music so raw and alive as I've heard it at KTRU.
Jonathan
Keep on, KTRU: As both a KTRU DJ and avid listener, I know I speak for all of us when I say that the Houston airways are going to suffer a great loss. While I'm sure the majority of Rice's population will react with either apathy or overjoyed spite, those of us who spent hours at the station exploring the stacks, broadcasting our shows, and just enjoying the small escape that KTRU offered know that this reflects the unwillingness of the administration to support an organization that is held so dearly by its members and listeners. The last speck of ingenuity that Rice had to offer the rest of the city will soon be gone, and it's a goddamn shame. This is a shock, but I hope it doesn't kill KTRU entirely. As a merely Web-based station, we are left with no choice but to keep doing what we do best.
