KTRU
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| KTRU-FM | |
| City of license | Humble, Texas |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Greater Houston |
| Branding | KTRU 91.7 Rice Radio |
| Frequency | KTRU: 91.7 MHz K218DA: 91.5 MHz |
| Format | Variety |
| ERP | KTRU: 50,000 watts K218DA: 10 watts |
| HAAT | KTRU: 150 meters K218DA: 47 meters |
| Class | KTRU: C2 K218DA: D |
| Facility ID | KTRU: 72685 K218DA: 93168 |
| Callsign meaning | Texas Rice University |
| Owner | Rice University |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | www.ktru.org |
KTRU is a 50,000 watt radio station broadcasting from Humble, Texas operating at 91.7 FM, founded and run by the students of Rice University in Houston, Texas. It is simulcast (on translator K218DA) at 91.5 FM from Houston to improve reception in the Rice area. According to the KTRU constitution, the mission of the station is "to educate the station membership, the greater Houston community, and the students of Rice University through its progressive and eclectic programming in the spirit of the station's non-commercial, educational license."
Informally speaking, the goal of the station is to play genres and artists of music and sound unavailable on other radio stations in Houston, and often, the US. This is accomplished via free-format shifts during most of the 24 hour broadcast day. DJs are encouraged to play a wide variety of tracks in sequence, from modern classical to reggae to indie rock to spoken word to local experimental noise for example. During evening hours, the station broadcasts specialty shows exclusively devoted to particular musical genres and themes.
KTRU promotes and sponsors independent and local music through sponsoring shows at local venues and on the Rice University campus. The station organizes a Rice battle of the bands and an outdoor show featuring local and touring bands during the spring semester.
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[edit] History
The roots of KTRU began in February 1967 in a residential college at Rice, Hanszen College, where several students broadcast music in the Old Section part of the dorm as a 2 watt AM station, using the call sign KHCR (Hanszen College radio) and the wiring of a buzzer system. The next fall, the station transformed into an AM carrier current station with wires running through the steam tunnel system connecting the dormitories to a studio located in the basement of the student center, known as the Rice Memorial Center. At this time, the call sign KOWL was used, an owl being the Rice University mascot.
Soon, the students began planning the move to an FM broadcast station and asked the university Board of Governors to submit an application prepared by the students for an FM broadcast license to the FCC; this was agreed to, with the provision that "The installation be at no expense to the University." The application was approved in February 1971 and a broadcast license was granted to the university. However the KOWL call sign was already allocated, and KTRU was chosen as a substitute. The station began operating in 1971 at a low power, 10 watts, jumping to 250 watts in April 1974 and 650 watts in October 1980, with the broadcast schedule gradually expanding from just the evening hours to 10 to 12 hours a day on weekdays and most of the weekend.
In 1981, concern about being forced into a frequency sharing arrangement triggered an effort to expand the broadcast schedule to 24 hours a day. In 1987, a major of expansion of the student center was completed and the station's studios were relocated to the 2nd floor of a new wing.
In 1991, Mike Stude, the owner of Houston-area radio station KRTS and an heir of the founders of Brown & Root, wished to upgrade his station from 3,000 watts to 50,000 watts. However, KTRU's location just to the south of downtown Houston and FCC spacing regulations designed to prohibit broadcast interference prevented such an upgrade. As an incentive to move KTRU to the far north of Houston, Stude financed the relocation and an upgrade to 50,000 watts, with an operating endowment.
Up until this 1991 relocation, the technical operation and maintenance of the station and transmitter had been performed completely by volunteers, students and alumni, but the distant location of the transmitter and increased power required professional maintenance for it, even though studio engineering and day to day operations continued completely with volunteers.
In 1997, a report was released recommending expanding coverage of university programs to 12 hours of the broadcast day, the hiring of professional staff, and increasing marketing of the station, in addition to studio expansion and technology upgrades. In 1998, at the insistence of the university administration and the recommendation of the '97 report, a professional General Manager was hired. He was the third choice among a bevy of candidates. But the Station Manager is still a Rice Student and volunteer.
In late 2000, as the Rice University administration was working to raise the profile of its athletic programs, it told KTRU to more than double the number of sports games it broadcast. This fiat was highly unpopular among KTRU's student and community volunteers; a temporary increase was agreed to while a longer-term solution was sought. On 2000-11-30, student volunteers arrived for their evening specialty-show shift to discover that a sports game was being broadcast and they were expected to operate the studio. In protest, they broadcast music concurrently with the game for an hour. When the student manager refused to reprimand those DJs, the university administration responded by locking students out of the station, effectively shutting it down. Due to student protest (and consequent media coverage), the station was reopened eight days later, and a KTRU Friendly Committee established, resulting in reform of the management of the station and reevaluation of the station's relationship with the athletics committee and community volunteers.
[edit] Notable station alumni
- Stan Barber - Vice President of Engineering Operations, Product Management and Engineering, GIN-US, NTT America and a significant contributor to nntp, the Network News Transfer Protocol
- John Doerr - venture capitalist with Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers
- Scott Hochberg - cofounder of Logitek Audio and a member of the Texas Legislature (representing House District 137 since 2003)
- Rob Sides - Record Executive
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- KTRU Website
- Rice Thresher article on KTRU's origins
- article from the Chronicle of Higher Education on the 2000 dispute
- Article from the Houston Press on the 2000 shutdown
- Query the FCC's FM station database for KTRU
- Radio Locator information on KTRU
- Query Arbitron's FM station database for KTRU
- Query the FCC's FM station database for K218DA
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