KNTU flips to Indie

[victorres43]

The kids in the Dallas area aren’t the same as those who live in New England. The South and Midwest are still rock hotbeds; the problem is that they are looked down upon culturally compared to the West and East Coasts.

And Alternative radio is still in a dire state in Atlanta, Miami, and Detroit.

Not that WNYL in New York is lighting the world on fire, either. Plus, Boston and Providence have no Alternative.

I think it's becoming obvious that rock is on the decline nationwide, and that includes on college campuses.

I don't think people in Europe are as fond of rock, either, never mind people in Asia, Africa, or the Middle East. Either way, the Disco Demolition crowd will not like seeing rock being "uncool" by people.

 

[CTListener]

And Alternative radio is still in a dire state in Atlanta, Miami, and Detroit.

Not that WNYL in New York is lighting the world on fire, either. Plus, Boston and Providence have no Alternative.


I don't think people in Europe are as fond of rock, either, never mind people in Asia, Africa, or the Middle East. Either way, the Disco Demolition crowd will not like seeing rock being "uncool" by people.

Disco Demolition Night (at Comiskey Park, Chicago) happened 43 years ago. A similar rebellion against rhythmic music has not happened since. Instead, rhythmic genres have been peeling young non-"ethnic" ears away from rock for four decades.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

One of the major issues with college radio in 2022 is - if there's a training aim, what exactly are they training the students to do? It's not like there are thousands of unfilled jobs in radio just waiting for kids with experience of spinning indie on a non-commercial to graduate and fill them.

Is there a training aim though? Most college stations don't exist to provide college credits or to train students for radio careers, although that's been know to happen anyway as some inevitably find their calling by experiencing that field. It's an extracurricular activity that serves the same purpose as sports, theater and other extracurricular college experiences -- fostering creativity, building teamwork, letting students experience life skills they may never have the opportunity to do anywhere else.

There is an argument that it's good training in more general communication and teamwork skills, and my own work in non-commercial (community, not college) radio training unemployed people bears that out, but from the college's point of view, there may well be cheaper ways of doing that than running an FM radio station.

Colleges aren't corporations and they are don't necessarily seek out the cheapest way to do things. They invite curious minds to explore and learn, and that goes beyond the formal courses taught in the classroom.

Additionally, who is the target audience? Students, or the wider community? If the former, I'm really not sure how many students are packing an FM radio with them when they head off to school. Where I live, a lot of stations have been online-only for years, but many (accelerated by the pandemic and lack of access to studios) have ceased their "live" broadcast streams and now concentrate on producing podcasts related to campus events and news instead.

College stations are not motivated by profit so they typically fill niches that commercial broadcasters aren't interested in covering. The station does not need to be number one and most of them find enthusiastic audiences. I for one welcome and embrace the diversity these stations add to the radio landscape.

 

[Jay S]

I’m enjoying the new format. The only problem is the signal is not so great. I’m constantly getting interference from people’s FM car transmitters going down the road. 88.1 is a very popular frequency for them! Tropo also hits the frequency pretty hard. KATG (Elkhart) pretty much took over the frequency from SH 183 to I 20 the other day when I was driving.

This is the technical data from radio-locator.com:
KNTU-FM 88.1 MHz - McKinney, TX

I see that KNTU is only transmitting from a HAAT of 443 ft. That is lower than the standard height of a class C2 FM. They broadcast with 100 KW as a class C1. It would be nice if they could raise the antenna height.

 

[AnyHuman]

And they're on a directional antenna.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

Here's the stream URL for anyone who wants to manually add it as a favorite station to TuneIn, Sonos, etc.:
https://5a8b296144892.streamlock.net:443/live2/radiostation.stream/playlist.m3u8

 

[sox fan matt]

Got to hear KNTU a bit this weekend. I liked it.

 

[Mediafrog+]

Got to hear KNTU a bit this weekend. I liked it.

A family member who sampled the new KNTU format while driving around this past weekend told me it sounds a lot like KDGE did before the flip to AC.

 

[sox fan matt]

It did

 

[Theater of My Mind]

A family member who sampled the new KNTU format while driving around this past weekend told me it sounds a lot like KDGE did before the flip to AC.

Yes. It's funny how they're running imaging liners that state, "No corporate playlists", because indie's playlist is pretty much a straight-up alternative mix that you'd hear on any corporate alternative station. They aren't actually playing many songs that fit the indie rock category such as the ones found on the NACC college radio charts.

I suppose they can always make the claim that their "indie" name doesn't refer to the type of music they play, but refers to the fact they are not part of a corporate radio chain. Their alternative playlist sounds good in any case, but I didn't hear any jocks when I listened.

 

[E-Cam]

I already dubbed the name "ALT 88.1, The Edge" because it does sound like The Edge/Alt

 

[tested]

The campus newspaper did a pretty good story about the format change: KNTU reformats to alternative amid low ratings, funding

 

[nalyem]

“One huge advantage we have over 103.7 is we have no commercials,” Lambert said. “They will play five, six, seven, eight minutes of commercials at the top of the hour and the bottom of the hour. We don’t have that — we have music.”

Funny to see the “we have music” line being used against 103.7 since that’s their whole schtick against the Eagle. Also, they mentioned former DJ’s contacting them. I’d guess Mark Schectman of the Edge, the Ticket, and 103.7 probably was one of them. He also got his start at KNTU as well. The only time I’d ever willingly tune into 103.7 as anything other than a last resort was for Mark’s local show. It was actually pretty good, Mark knows the local scene very well and is incredibly passionate about the local scene.

Right now, I can’t say I’m a huge fan of 88.1. KTCU is what I think 88.1 should sound like. However, even KXT sounds more adventurous than 88.1 does now.

 

[charles1234]

“One huge advantage we have over 103.7 is we have no commercials,” Lambert said. “They will play five, six, seven, eight minutes of commercials at the top of the hour and the bottom of the hour. We don’t have that — we have music.”

Funny to see the “we have music” line being used against 103.7 since that’s their whole schtick against the Eagle. Also, they mentioned former DJ’s contacting them. I’d guess Mark Schectman of the Edge, the Ticket, and 103.7 probably was one of them. He also got his start at KNTU as well. The only time I’d ever willingly tune into 103.7 as anything other than a last resort was for Mark’s local show. It was actually pretty good, Mark knows the local scene very well and is incredibly passionate about the local scene.

Right now, I can’t say I’m a huge fan of 88.1. KTCU is what I think 88.1 should sound like. However, even KXT sounds more adventurous than 88.1 does now.

Are they going to upgrade the signal at all?

 

[Kent]

Are they going to upgrade the signal at all?

I don’t think they can. The former KJCR is at 88.3, and I believe Ft. Worth still has an LPTV 6. At least one (if not both) of those would have to go away for KNTU to upgrade. It also has to protect KEOM 88.5.

I haven’t done the math nor checked what's in Texoma these days, but it might be able to potentially do something like move to the 94.5 tower, but I don’t think many would consider that much of an upgrade.

 

[charles1234]

I thought maybe upgrading the signal would improve the Dallas area

 

[nalyem]

I thought maybe upgrading the signal would improve the Dallas area

I think it’s fine as it is. Just finished my drive home and I got it pretty clearly until I hit the Ellis county line in south Cedar Hill. One of the reasons I was so excited about the switch was that I’d get a KTCU quality playlist without KTCU’s terrible signal. Alas…

 

[AnyHuman]

I believe Ft. Worth still has an LPTV 6. At least one (if not both) of those would have to go away for KNTU to upgrade.

That LPTV is actually on 87.9. TuneIn has both 87.7 and 87.9 listed, but when I heard the station a couple years ago last they were using 87.9.

LA PANTERA 87.9 FM FORT WORTH, TEXAS, KBFW-LP 87.7 FM, Dallas-Fort Worth, TX | Free Internet Radio | TuneIn

LA PANTERA 87.9 FM FORT WORTH, TEXAS - Dallas-Fort Worth, TX - Listen to free internet radio, news, sports, music, audiobooks, and podcasts. Stream live CNN, FOX News Radio, and MS NOW. Plus 100,000 AM/FM radio stations featuring music, news, and local sports talk.

tunein.com

 

[tested]

That LPTV is actually on 87.9. TuneIn has both 87.7 and 87.9 listed, but when I heard the station a couple years ago last they were using 87.9.

LA PANTERA 87.9 FM FORT WORTH, TEXAS, KBFW-LP 87.7 FM, Dallas-Fort Worth, TX | Free Internet Radio | TuneIn

LA PANTERA 87.9 FM FORT WORTH, TEXAS - Dallas-Fort Worth, TX - Listen to free internet radio, news, sports, music, audiobooks, and podcasts. Stream live CNN, FOX News Radio, and MS NOW. Plus 100,000 AM/FM radio stations featuring music, news, and local sports talk.

tunein.com

That LPTV is no longer on the air. Known as a "franken-FM" those stations had to flip to digital this year or go off the air. There were some exceptions made as the FCC considers whether to allow applications for FM stations on that frequency. https://www.rbr.com/a-fifth-nprm-emerges-for-franken-fm-rule-change/

However, if you drive through McKinney, someone has a solid pirate running on 87.9 with a very eclectic classic rock type of format. You can hear it up 75 from just south of 121 to right at the Buc-ees in Melissa.

 

[HTX]

That LPTV is no longer on the air. Known as a "franken-FM" those stations had to flip to digital this year or go off the air. There were some exceptions made as the FCC considers whether to allow applications for FM stations on that frequency. https://www.rbr.com/a-fifth-nprm-emerges-for-franken-FM-rule-change/

However, if you drive through McKinney, someone has a solid pirate running on 87.9 with a very eclectic classic rock type of format. You can hear it up 75 from just south of 121 to right at the Buc-ees in Melissa.

I did hear KBFW on 87.9 about 3 months ago. I’m pretty sure the 87.9 in San Antonio is still a thing