Word: rice
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Conceptions of the station's identity cleaved on the issue of representation: university suits saw the station as fundamentally responsible to its (material) supporters, while DJs saw the station answering to its listeners. In 1996, aiming to gain the upper hand in this conflict, Rice University formed a committee of faculty and students to examine KTRU's role as an "asset to the university." KTRU members bristled, fearing the loss of their programming autonomy. The committee's eventual report recommended that KTRU should add several new types of programming, including interviews with faculty, recordings of visiting speakers and, especially, more...
Serious troubles started this past fall semester when Rice's Athletics Director asked that KTRU double the number of baseball and women's basketball games it broadcasts. The Advisory Committee eventually decided on a formula halfway between the status quo and the proposal. Simultaneously, two Rice DJs lodged a public protest. The two arrived for their punk-ska shift on one day in late November and discovered that a women's basketball game had not yet ended. Angry, the two decided to broadcast their show right over the basketball broadcast stream...
...next day, the Rice vice president for student affairs decided to shut down KTRU. He had locks placed on the doors, disabled the KTRU website and instructed that an outside network's programming be played indefinitely. Malcolm Gillis, president of Rice University, defended the decision, pointing out that KTRU's FCC license agreement stipulates that the university president is entitled to "continuous supervision of the broadcasting...
Student protests and rallies followed all week. About 140 people lined up outside Gillis' house with KTRU bumper stickers covering their mouths. Rice's Student Association, in a moment of grandeur, condemned the shutdown and invoked a "clear line of authority from the Student Association Senate to KTRU." To all this bluster, the administration expressed, they said, "no strong reaction...
...agreement on a new operating policy. The treaty nominally recognizes KTRU as a "student-run radio station" but acknowledges its accountability to the university. The deal also meets most of the athletic department's demands and provides that the KTRU station manager (a student) should be elected by all Rice undergraduates, since they fund the station. In essence, KTRU members lost the game...