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KTCU/KNTU.

T

taylor1958

With all the vitriol spewed about KEOM in recent postings, I'd find it interesting/entertaining/perhaps informative/perhaps damning to find out what y'all think about the learning/training/obfuscating abilities of KTCU and/or KNTU to serve the business as a training ground. Any takers for the opinions I look quite forward to reading?
 
Doesn't KNTU already have such a training program in place? It's not like every public school district has its own radio station in DFW.
 
I know Richland College has a station, but it's only for Richland College and I think on the internet as well. But what do I know. I got my 3 to 4 day training in a lousy rundown radio station at the campus of Texas Tech University.
 
The station Tech has now is pretty nice. The one they had when I was out there was old, but about as good as the stations in the small towns around Lubbock.

Jay :)
 
gk779 said:
I know Richland College has a station, but it's only for Richland College and I think on the internet as well. But what do I know. I got my 3 to 4 day training in a lousy rundown radio station at the campus of Texas Tech University.
Click to expand...

I actually am a Tech student currently working at 88.1 KTXT. Yeah, the equipment in the studio is old (but still fully functional). And another side note: not many college stations get 35,000 watts of power. The only stations in TX that I know of that have more power than us is Rice. For a college station, 35,000 watts is quite a bit.

And as hard as it may be for some people to believe, many actually like the stuff we play.
 
KTCU has a pretty decent mixed format(faculty during the day/students at night) and what I remember really damn good equipment, better than some local radio stations, as their RTV department gets alot funding from the alumni(http://tiny.cc/KTCU). KNTU cant get over the fact not everyone wants to listen to jazz, ive been a big critic of how they've never let students program the station both during school/holidays periods. They allow them to program a maximum of 1-2 hours a week if that.
 
EggsOverEasy87 said:
I actually am a Tech student currently working at 88.1 KTXT. Yeah, the equipment in the studio is old (but still fully functional). And another side note: not many college stations get 35,000 watts of power. The only stations in TX that I know of that have more power than us is Rice. For a college station, 35,000 watts is quite a bit.

And as hard as it may be for some people to believe, many actually like the stuff we play.
Click to expand...

I remember when it was 10 watts on 91.9. But on a 600 foot tower, and with the flat terrain, you could hear it all over Lubbock just fine, and occasional tropos got it into Midland. The first time I knew about the frequency change was in the early 90's, I was driving from DeLeon Springs, FL to Ormond Beach, FL, and heard it perfectly the whole way!
 
I went to TCU and did alot of work with the KTCU. The KTCU station wasnt that great 3-4 years ago, but Russell Scott their new PD has really turned the thing around and they have a pretty good station going.

I gained alot of experience by doing my shifts there.

KTCU>KNTU
 
EggsOverEasy87 said:
I actually am a Tech student currently working at 88.1 KTXT. Yeah, the equipment in the studio is old (but still fully functional). And another side note: not many college stations get 35,000 watts of power. The only stations in TX that I know of that have more power than us is Rice. For a college station, 35,000 watts is quite a bit.
Click to expand...

KACV Amarillo is 100,000 watts at 1,109 feet. The format is and always has been alternative/college rock.
 
Hey All,
I love KTCU but do not like KNTU. KTCU sounds like a college radio station. KTCU plays music the students of the college like. KNTU needs to be run by the Radio/TV department not the UNT board and UNT College Dean. KNTU sound a lot better with college rock/Smooth Jazz(New Jazz music like THE OASIS played/student's music picks like KNTU JukeBOX and like more Radio students as DJ's. One Major KNTU PLUS is the WFAA Channel 8 weekday 6PM news. KNTU should change their OLD WAYS!!! It is Late 2000's NOW!!! KNTU need to be a COLLEGE RADIO STATION!!!!

Dan-The-MAN!
The North Texas RADIO MAN!!!
 
Dan you make excellent points on KNTU, the major issue with them is the university board runs it as a side, not as a real teaching tool like other universities in this country. KTCU is about the only "real" programmed station in this area by a major university that is a true learning lab.
 
When I was at North Texas in the late 80's, KNTU was completely run by students under a faculty-member general manager. It was a decent training ground at the time.

It seems from earlier posts that the station no longer acts as a tool for students to get hands-on experience in the broadcast field. If that is indeed the case, it's a shame.
 
TrapperJohn said:
When I was at North Texas in the late 80's, KNTU was completely run by students under a faculty-member general manager. It was a decent training ground at the time.

It seems from earlier posts that the station no longer acts as a tool for students to get hands-on experience in the broadcast field. If that is indeed the case, it's a shame.
Click to expand...

Not to mention a real waste of money. I could see KNTU shutting down for good, especially in these economic times.
 
I used to listen to KTCU with a big FM beam pointed at FW back in the early 80s when they played jazz, seems like it was more fusion-light jazz, that's where I first heard of Neil Larsen. Somewhere in a box I have some cassettes of KTCU then.
 
I hate to interrupt your little roast here, but has anyone bothered to notice how many people in this market are KNTU alumni? Just check out Mike Shannon's website to see how many notables have been connected with the station over the years. Not to mention the new crop that have been put out there within the last ten years.

Some one mentioned earlier that KTCU gets a lot of money from their alumni association. Must be nice. KNTU doesn't. They get a small piece from the University of North Texas for basic operational stuff, but not enough alone to stay on the air. KNTU has pledge drives.... organized mostly by a small staff of students a couple times a year.

Therefore, KNTU relies mostly on its audience for financial support. If 88.1 were your run-of-the mill, checkerboard format college station with your typical college audience, how much money do you think they'd actually cough up every six months?

Many of the loyal listeners who give money to KNTU HAVE the money to give. A lot of metroplex jazz fans, musicians, and former UNT College of Music students. People also listen online from all corners of the world.

Speaking of the UNT College of Music... They happen to have one of the BEST jazz studies programs in the WORLD. Real music people already know this. They also associate Denton with the annual Denton Arts and Jazz Fest, from which KNTU students broadcast live on location for the entire weekend. Wouldn't it make sense that one of the world's greatest jazz schools should have a jazz station to support it?

I forgot to mention that KNTU also has a news department. Students put on a thirty-minute newscast every weekday and use the same newsroom software that you'll find at a few of our major newsrooms in DFW.

But I'm just sayin'...
 
Without reashing too much, heres my two cents:

Jack, Im just of the view that a station needs to be more than just an "financial extension" of a university, which the current(read: not former) KNTU takes the appearance of. Without getting into a shouting match,none of us here doubted that KNTU and UNT has put out alot of talent into the market. But im also of the belief that the station has become less of a student-ran station, as the case with the programming. I guess I come from the school of thought that if you're going to be running a college radio station, it should be a true voice of the WHOLE student population, not just one or two sectors as the station at present is. I dont have an issue with jazz programming, in fact I think its great and wish it had more of a presence on the commerical side of the FM dial. But I also believe that after 6-7p at night and weekends, you should switch the format over to the students and put a mix of formats out there for the campus and townies as a whole.
 
Here's a question: Should college radio teach radio....or teach music?
If teaching radio is the goal, then does the music matter?

I understand that if you present a type of music the students like, they're more likely to want to be part of the radio station, however, you can't simply let them play everything they want....shouldn't they be instructed to follow fomat, and shouldn't they be taught how to get into/out of stopsets, how to read the weather, traffic, news, sports, liners etc....
 
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