What is happening to KTXT-FM?
Terrible news today from Texas Tech Student Media:
Texas Tech University’s Student Media department is undergoing several changes. The most significant of those changes occurred today when KTXT-FM, the university’s student-run radio station, ceased its broadcasts on 88.1 FM and ktxt.net.
Control of the radio station’s FCC license, which is maintained by the university, is being shifted from the Student Media department to Texas Tech’s other educational radio station, KOHM-FM.
No firm plans regarding the future of the 88.1 FM frequency or the related Web site have been announced.
“We agonized over this decision and looked for ways to enhance KTXT-FM’s role within the Texas Tech community, but ultimately we had to face the fact that changes needed to be made,” said Susan Peterson, director for Student Media. “We recognize this is a huge loss to those who are loyal to KTXT-FM - its listeners and its staff - but the department must grow and change in order to best serve the entire student body.”
Changes in Student Media were planned following an extensive study of departmental operations. Student input, fiscal reviews and administrative and in-house assessments factored into the decision that Student Media’s continued support of KTXT-FM was no longer feasible.
I don’t know if the budget at Student Media is going to be cut severely (I would not be surprised at this given who our Chancellor is), or if a turf war is being fought within the University over who controls KTXT (also would not surprise me), or if some other, unknown factor is at work here.
Lubbock is at risk of losing one of it’s most valuable community resources if KTXT goes away. This radio station can be heard all over Lubbock County and well into the surrounding counties. It’s how I know I’m getting close to home when I come back from a road trip. It’s how I know what day of the week it is sometimes (based on their evening specialty shows). It’s how I find new music (especially local music) and learn about shows here in town. It was going to be an integral part of my business advertising for Awesome Books in 2009.
This situation stinks. Something is going on that is bigger than a broadcast frequency being reassigned to another department of the University. Someone or some group is making a cultural play.
And don’t buy the line about KTXT losing money for Student Media. College radio stations are not for making money. They are for students to learn how to be on the radio, and they are news and culture resources for the community.
Let’s get to the bottom of this and do something about it.
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December 11th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Guess what? It was Ken Hance’s decision, folks. He thinks KTXT was too “liberal” in its tone. He’s been trying to control what appears in the Toreador. Next on the block: the Department of Art and School of Music. Shout this from the rooftops, everyone! I’m so disgusted . . .
December 11th, 2008 at 10:03 am
KENT Hance, that is. And I know it’s the SCHOOL of Art. But I was there when it was only a department. So there.
December 11th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Very disappointed in Texas Tech…
December 11th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Thank you for writing about this. I was station manager from 2005 - 2006, and while my feelings on Lubbock and Tech are sometimes not the fondest, I can without a doubt, and with only minimal hyperbole, say that KTXT saved my and a lot of kids’ lives. It stood as a bastion of culture, art and an epicenter for eclectic events in Lubbock.
Finally, you’re dead on about this not being a case of money, or lack thereof. It was a non-commercial station, existing to give experience to students and provide information and music to listeners, not to pander and make money.
Again, thank you. And if you want to keep fighting the fight, check out the facebook group, which is a wealth of information: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=40095606811
December 14th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
I suspected that it had more to do with KTXT’s liberal bent than anything to do with funding in the first place, so I easily take to the idea that Kent Hance has put up a plan to stop liberal expression at Tech. Another stupid idea that will go contrary to the goal of making Tech a top teir university. As if Lubbock was not already conservative enough. What real butts Kent Hance and others are being. Talk about trying to consolidate power–lets make it all male and all white and all about bidneis. Jeez–Tech is a major source for liberal thought in the area and now what is happening is that Tech is being re-imaged as a “conservative” university. I guess the primarys must have scared their boots off–along with the national presidential election results. They don’t know what’s hit them–do they…they’re just a bunch of frightened little boys in big boy clothes. I wonder if that has to do with having a bunch of skeletons in the closet they need to keep there? Actions are telling.
Ooops–lots of conjecture there, but I just had to do it–I’m really tired of the suppression these people put us through.
December 17th, 2008 at 8:54 am
I think the comments about Kent Hance are false. There is no reason to believe he would be heavy handed in closing the radio station. The changes in technology and media mean that, basically, no one much was listening. We have cable TV, satelite radio, text messages, the Internet, and a profliferation of radio stations in West Texas.
Kent Hance doesn’t have any skeletons to hide. The Freedom of Information Act is available to anyone that wants to check out any records at Texas Tech. I am very offended by these stupid comments that “guess” that Kent must be evil because he is a moderate conservative. The reason I am so offended, is that I do not wish for Democrats to make comments like Dr. Don May aka Mr. Conservative aka Dr. Doom aka Lying Don May and his half-retarded henchman, Chris Winn. If you think some highly successful person, like Kent Hance, must be evil if he votes differently than you do, then you aren’t much different than Don May. I am banned on Mr. Conservative.
I defy the lying letter writer to prove in any way that Kent Hance has made any move whatsoever to censor the Daily Toreador. That would have to go through certain layers of very loud students and faculty. When you make up a lie, you are acting like Don May and Chris Winn. If you have any proof, please post it.
Johnny Hughes
December 17th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Johnny,
There were plenty listening. Go to the facebook page that garnered over 2000 members in less than 24 hours. Granted, I don’t know that much about Kent Hance and what I”ve experienced of his personality seems amenable and welcoming, however, the style in which KTXT was shut down strongly invites speculation as to what the real reasons were. They closed it at the end of the semester when students were mostly gone without letting anyone actually involved have an idea of their plans and the chance to make adjustments and create closure. That seems very heavy handed and controlling. Why? Why not allow the involved students to be a part of the problem solving so that what is really a very valuable community resource and long standing one not just suddenly and unexpectedly disappear?
Broadcasting is not disapearing itself, it is becoming more competitive and thus a greater need for working laboratories that provide real experience like KTXT has been all these years–and one of the best at that. I found this regarding broadcast jobs outlook at the US Bureau of Labor Stitistics site:
Job prospects. Keen competition is expected for many jobs, particularly in large metropolitan areas, because of the large number of jobseekers attracted by the glamour of this industry. Job prospects will be best for applicants with a college degree in broadcasting, journalism, or a related field as well as relevant work experience, such as work at college radio and television stations or internships at professional stations.
So it seems to me that the competition creates a greater need for KTXT, not lesser.
Danna
December 17th, 2008 at 9:45 am
The link to that quote above is: http://www.bls.gov/oco/cg/cgs017.htm#outlook
December 17th, 2008 at 10:25 am
Dana, this was your statement, “I suspected that it had more to do with KTXT’s liberal bent than anything to do with funding in the first place, so I easily take to the idea that Kent Hance has put up a plan to stop liberal expression at Tech.”
I find it ridiculous.
December 17th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Finding it rediculous is fine with me. As I stated in my second post, I don’t know Kent Hance, and I say here, I don’t know that Kent Hance had anything to do with the decision or how it was carried out, but the method used to carry it out does spur conjecture and suspicion. I had also read the AJ cheif editor’s editorial on Sunday in which he had stated that Tech was a conservative school. I was a little alerted when I read that, because Tech is not a conservative school, however, it can be made to be so if it is marketed as one, thus attracting more conservatives as professors and as students. It can also be bent conservative if liberal expression is suppressed. Meanwhile much of the Tech community currently is a large portion of the liberal community in the Lubbock area. I can imagine that there are people in this community that were a bit frightened by the number of people brought out by the Democratic primaries and by the national elections in general that went to the left. That could spur them to want to control the main source of liberal thought in the area–and that would be Tech.
Rediculous or not, I don’t think it is a good idea to simply let this sudden closing go by without a serious fight.
Danna
December 18th, 2008 at 8:58 am
If some top donors could be persuaded to earmark money for the station, it would be rescued. The campaign to rescue the station is just getting started good. I do hope they bring it back.
December 29th, 2008 at 11:38 am
I do think that it is ridiculous to shift responsibility from the university to the students to garner the financial support needed for college radio.
I remember dancing to my first reggae song on KTXT in 1987, when my mother had just started graduate school at Tech. Later, 88.1 became a launching pad for friends who later went on to careers in radio and tv. While I no longer live here, 88.1 is the first thing I turn on when I’m picked up from the airport. It’s the primary way I learn about new music, shows and gatherings over the holidays. And its an absolute necessity to bring amazing acts to this town, primarily because it IS able to draw in the crowds.
Does Mr. Hance understand how central this station is to musicians and music-lovers in this town?? And not just to those living here, but to the thousands of Lubbockites living across this country who come back over the holidays to find that their favorite radio station has been shut down for no apparent reason. How strange that certain decision makers seem to value the old and dead musicians from lubbock, but have no faith in the talent and potential of today’s generations when empowered with their own tools.
In an age of global corporate media, where every pop station plays the same 10 songs, the “local” becomes ever more precious. I miss 88.1. :(