R.I.P. KTXT (1961 - 2008) Options

[blaarg]

KTXT is no more. Student Media Department didn't inform anyone on staff and changed the locks during the "final" broadcast before pulling the plug on the last day of finals.

http://www.kcbd.com/global/story.asp?s=9502063

[cmac]

this is an absolute outrage

[Hartmann]

Financial reasons?! What is so expensive? The annual AM costs?

[cmac]

Expenditures for KTXT-FM's equipment and maintenance operations over the past four years, on average, have consumed more than 41 percent of Student Media's financial resources. During that same time period, the station has generated less than one-quarter of 1 percent of the department's revenues.

http://media.www.ktxt.net/media/storage/pa...7077.shtml#more

But changing the locks and doing it during a time where the UD, DT, or whatever it's called, isn't in publication. Shutting out the student's voices. Pathetic

[rabble]

I sent a strongly worded email to the office of student media, and the president of the university. I plan to follow up with a phone call to both parties.

[blaarg]

Yeah I sent them a e-mail to Michael Shonrock (VP of Student Affairs) and they sent a reply back:
"THANKS for your most thoughtful comments below regarding KTXT-FM … I am copying both Susan Peterson and Dr. Jan Childress … "

[Mommy]

I think that the reasons "cutting off the student voice" and "KTXT had great programming" are the GAYEST reasons EVER to keep that radio station up and running.

First off, the students still have the free speech zone. Secondly, the newspaper isn't going anywhere for a while, and if it does it will be replaced with a web version of the news. Finally, KTXT played really crappy music that nobody gave a damn about except the few people that worked there and their friends.

The ONLY valid reason to keep that station up and running is that it is excellent training for those majoring in radio and tv broadcast or whatever they call it. It's great experience. That's the sad part. Now those students won't have anywhere to work or intern because I am sure the few local stations are already scraping the bottom of the barrel to get by. Radio and TV are a dying industry. So are newspapers. What they SHOULD look into is an internet broadcast. How many students sit there and listen to music on their computer while they type a paper? Internet is the way to go. If they weren't generating a profit, than it is because they were being poorly managed. They should have started other advertising schemes and other broadcast methods. Hell, even Podcasting so students could put it on their mp3 player and listen to it. They also should have stopped being so artsy fartsy. It's cool to play obscure. It's not cool to play a bunch of trance music that no one even likes.

[Mommy]

"First off, the students still have the free speech zone."

It's laughable that you think free speech should be relegated to a small "zone". You fail at basic human rights. The founding fathers would put a dunce hat on you and make you stand in the corner.

It seems kind of suspicious that they shut the station down without notifying the students or even telling the KTXT employees of their plans. They just changed the locks? Yeah, something is fishy.

Campuses in general are a mostly free speech area. Personally, other than religious and political points, I can't think of anything that wouldn't be allowed in other places on campus. Guess what? Unless a religious or political group buys time on a radio station, they aren't allowed to talk about it on radio either. In fact, I don't see how radio even allows for free speech since radio is under the domain of the FCC, and the FCC is strict as shit. Don't talk to me about basic human rights. That's just nonsense when it comes to radio.

[cmac]

Finally, KTXT played really crappy music that nobody gave a damn about except the few people that worked there and their friends.

this is highly subjective. i think if you took a look at some of their listener numbers you would be surprised. i read an article a while back about how ktxt was 4th, maybe 5th in terms of listener ratings in Lubbock. i'll try to find that...

[Oasis]

In the one summer session I listened to KTXT when my friend was a DJ, I heard exactly one decent song - some Thrice song. Nothing they talked about on-air was ever worth listening to. When I went to some of their parties are the house on the other side of University, it was a bunch of counterculture emo nerds dressed in way-too-tight-for-their-waifish-bodies-sweaters, way-too-tight-for-their-waifish-bodies-jeans, and way-too-pseudo-intellectual-wannabe-black-framed-glasses. They were losers who hung out with other losers of similar ilk

Who cares

[Mommy]

this is highly subjective. i think if you took a look at some of their listener numbers you would be surprised. i read an article a while back about how ktxt was 4th, maybe 5th in terms of listener ratings in Lubbock. i'll try to find that...

And how many radio stations play music in Lubbock? 4th or 5th is actually really bad in that area if you think about it.

[Oasis]

this is highly subjective. i think if you took a look at some of their listener numbers you would be surprised. i read an article a while back about how ktxt was 4th, maybe 5th in terms of listener ratings in Lubbock. i'll try to find that...

4th or 5th sounds right. That's second-to-last or last out of the English speaking radio stations in Lubbock

[Mommy]

4th or 5th sounds right. That's second-to-last or last out of the English speaking radio stations in Lubbock

lol

[cmac]

93.7
94.5
96.3
98.1
101.1
102.5
105.7
106.1

just some of the popular ones i can remember. i think 4th or 5th, for a college radio station, with no clear channel support, and very little advertising is more than exceptional. still looking for that article....

[Hartmann]

I think campus radio is important, not just because it gives students a "voice" but because neither print or radio journalism are going anywhere anytime soon.

Maybe the professors need a lesson in monetizing their station and getting ads. I'm sorry but Ralph's Records ads aren't going to keep a station afloat. The overall production of the station needed work and I tried to get this point across in a few e-mails. KVRX (UT's student media station) and KLSU (LSU's station) have decent listener numbers.

KTXT was trying not to be "mainstream" but maybe they needed a little of that to get people interested.

I'm sure someone will blame it on iPods or something...