KTRU Debate: Rice Says Internet Radio Better Than 50K Watts

• I agree with the Fact_Comment. Traditional radio will continue to be around, just in different formats. The concept of live streaming and a personality behind the music you're hearing will always be a large critical factor in discovering new music and creating a following. But at the same time, the medium is changing. So while the majority of people listen to radio in the car, soon radio will be available everywhere, and this sort of convenience will be responsible for a growth in radio overall, rather than completely diminishing radio altogether.

• I love how the Rice administrators always make the students and alumni feel so good about their "wonderful minds" and their boundless "creativity". But if the students and by extension the alumni are so wonderful and creative, why were they completely excluded from the decision making regarding the sale of KTRU? We did the Rice administration only use consulting companies "familiar with the sale" of radio frequencies, instead of getting some input on what alternatives might exist? Let's face it, Leebron and his mouthpiece, Thrane, are twisting themselves like pretzels in an effort to continue this sales job while ignoring the big problem: they lost control of their budget and had to raid KTRU, its 40 years of volunteer labor, and its 1991 gift of a 50K watt transmitter (the cost of which was paid through an non-university endowment) to get back on budget. Disgusting.

• Copa- KTRU already has an internet radio presence, and in fact station manager Will Robedee has been a champion of the medium and helped fight national legislation that would handicap internet broadcasts in the past. So KTRU never needed a push to get on the internet. What Rice has done is divorce KTRU from the Houston community and destroy the volunteer culture that keeps the station functioning. All the talk about technology available in the future doesn't change that fact. Right now FM bandwidth is still valuable (as shown by the sale price) and Rice chose to sell a student asset for short term profit. This decision to sell KTRU is as shortsighted as, say, selling off the Rice Media Center, which plays rare (i.e. unpopular) films to a small but loyal audience. A university should be in the business of fostering an wide array of unusual institutions that provide a one of a kind experience to students and the community, not selling these institutions off to build more dining halls or parking spaces. One last point - the KTRU radio broadcast has never been any more expensive than an internet broadcast for Rice. The transmitter was donated to the university and operating costs came from an endowment. Which makes the sale of this asset all the more shortsighted in my opinion.

• The primary audience for radio is people in cars. The above quoted person speaking for Rice appears completely uninformed on the subject and totally unqualified to comment on internet car radio. I was expecting that Rice would at least trot out a faculty member from the engineering department to try to put some lipstick on this pig of a deal.

• "But you just don't understand: "[A] 50,000-watt signal has geographic limits, while the Internet is global," she wrote in the Rice Thresher. She's right!! That "blog" your dotty aunt has of cat pictures, the one she hasn't updated in two years? It's global, baby!!" It's funny, that's essentially a variation of the argument a lot of KTRU supporters (particularly current or ex DJs) use. You know, the ones that say they are reaching millions of Houstonians with their programming, when in fact they are reaching a tiny, ratings-inconsequential audience. "I too am sick of all those Rice Graduates. People like Annise Parker, James Baker, and Larry McMurtry." I'm pretty confident none of those Rice graduates did much for KTRU. For that matter, the overwhelming majority of Rice students and graduates at any given time (a) don't have anything to do with KTRU and (b) never listen to KTRU (except maybe for baseball games). And before someone comes up with the "what do you know about Rice?" comment, I graduated from there.

• 5 bucks says Realist is on welfare.

• Record companies send records to 50,000 watt FM stations, not internet stations. Once KTRU loses access to new music, it will likely die a slow death. Maybe not so slow.

• Rice radio already is online...

• "If the internet is better and cheaper by itself, why then is the University of Houston (who already streams its programming on three seperate streams) willing to shell out $9.5K for a 50,000 watt tower?" First off, I'm not defending UH's purchasing decision or claiming its a smart financial move on their part. But terrestrial radio makes a lot more sense for nationally syndicated content with broad appeal, like NPR or ClearChannel bullshit than it does for eclectic, student-produced programming.

• "I'm not following your argument here, Richard. We agree that 50,000-watt stations are less common, but that certainly doesn't make them better." Let me answer that with a question. If the internet is better and cheaper by itself, why then is the University of Houston (who already streams its programming on three seperate streams) willing to shell out $9.5K for a 50,000 watt tower?

• No, No, Richard. Realist has a serious point. I too am sick of all those Rice Graduates. People like Annise Parker, James Baker, and Larry McMurtry. What a bunch of undisciplined and lazy bastards!!! They do little more than sponge off the taxpayers and have never done anything beyond live off their parents trust fund. It's about time somebody as reasoned and worldly as Realist spoke out the awful truth surrounding this matter. Thank you realist for openign our eyes to the Rice Scourge.

• "Any swinging dick with the right software can have an Internet station, while 50,000-watt stations are a lot less common" I'm not following your argument here, Richard. We agree that 50,000-watt stations are less common, but that certainly doesn't make them better. Linda is correct on most of her points. Internet radio is hella less expensive, and allows students to produce as much content as they like, much more than what can be accomplished on a single-channel station. Her remarks about accessing the Internet from cars is kind of dumb. Shows can be distributed in podcast form, which do not require an active Internet connection, just an $80 music player and a $20 cigarette lighter adapter. Daily dead-paper editions of college newspapers are also dying out, in favor of web distribution. We can spend our waning years bawling about it, or we can see the upside in letting students distribute more and better content for less money.

• What about getting off the lawn?

• Even better--you immature little brats who've never worked an honest day's living in your life can grow up, stop sponging off the taxpayers and your rich parents' trust fund, learn discipline, manners and respect to elders and superior authority and start listening to ADULT music.

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