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The Rice Thresher
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by Olivia Allison and Elizabeth Jardina Thresher editorial staff
May presented a proposed broadcast schedule that would increase the number of women's basketball games on KTRU from 13 to 26 and the number of baseball games from 18 to 35. The first game on the proposed broadcast schedule is a Nov. 10 women's basketball game against the University of South Carolina. The total time May requested for athletic events' broadcasts is five to seven hours per week in most months. December's games would consume only two hours per week, while February's events would average 9.5 hours per week. 1999-'00 KTRU Station Manager Meg Smith, a member of the advisory committee, said she is worried about the proposed increase in the amount of university programming on the station. "My biggest concern is that the university is going to force a decision upon KTRU, which completely violates the spirit of a student radio station," Smith (Wiess '00) said. In 1996, President Malcolm Gillis created a committee to evaluate "the current KTRU structure, programming, equipment and facilities, the station's position relative to the University's other educational assets, including electronic media, and the present pattern of audience it serves," according to the committee's report. The committee, which included faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate student members, recommended that "university programming," including Shepherd School performances, public lectures, athletic events and interviews with Rice faculty, staff and students involved in newsworthy events, be incorporated into KTRU's programming for up to 6 to 12 hours per day. KTRU's mission statement says the station is meant to be educational in nature. May said he thinks broadcasting sports fits into this goal because it would help expand KTRU's programming. "The university appears to be seeking to broaden the programming offerings that are currently available on KTRU," May said. "I look at KTRU as a tremendous resource that could really be utilized to a much greater extent to the betterment of the whole Rice community," May said. "And right now, there's not that much of an opportunity to sort of pick up on what is going on at Rice or to share what's going on at Rice through that station," he said. Associate Vice President for Finance and Administration Neill Binford said he believes athletic programming fits KTRU's mission statement, although the definition of "educational" is not entirely clear. "The challenge is that they don't see [broadcasting athletic events] as much of an educational activity," Binford, the chair of the KTRU advisory committee, said. "I look at the whole university and everything we do is somewhat educational. We've embraced athletics, it's part of us, and from a general standpoint, it's part of this educational institution's activities, and we need to appreciate that." Station Manager Johnny So said broadcasting athletics on KTRU interferes with their specialty shows, which generally happen between 7 and 9 p.m. "A lot of them fall on prime-time slots which, unfortunately, are when most of our specialty shows are," So said. "And those are the shows that typically have the largest listenership and the highest listener loyalty. And our fear is that if we have these games come on and then [the specialty shows are] on there one week, and then they're not, and the next week they're there, we're going to lose a lot of listeners because they can't figure it out. "And I don't know that that really weighs that heavily with the administrators on the committee," So said. Binford said that "it is a difficult thing to answer" who will ultimately make the decision regarding KTRU's athletic programming but that the advisory committee makes recommendations to Vice President for Student Affairs Zenaido Camacho. The advisory committee includes Binford; Wiess College Resident Associate and Electrical Engineering Professor Bill Wilson; Dean of Continuing Studies Mary McIntire, who chaired the 1997 president's committee; and members of KTRU's staff, including So and Smith. However, neither So nor Smith seemed clear about what the committee's role or responsibility is. "It's really hard to say what real power we have at all on the committee," So said. Binford and May said they could not estimate student demand for the broadcast of athletic events. "I don't have a good feel for that," Binford said. "I suspect there'd be a pretty good interest, particularly in games that are away. There's probably as much or more interest from alums and others who follow baseball in the Houston community." Since KTRU is a noncommercial, educational station, it doesn't collect statistics about its listenership, So said. Commercial radio stations have Arbitron ratings that enable them to gauge the value of their advertising space. However, So said he does not think athletic events would draw more listeners than the specialty shows normally broadcast during prime time, which he said is comparable to the 8,000 to 9,000 listeners a men's basketball game usually garners on a commercial radio station. "It's not like you're increasing listenership in any way, you're just shifting it," he said. Women's basketball games will generally occur on Fridays and Sundays, with the most common time slot for games being Friday at 7 p.m. The KTRU show during that time slot is "The Mutant Hardcore Power Hour" hosted by two DJs from outside of the Rice community. KTRU Social Director Abi Cohen, who is in her fourth year of DJing for the radio station, said she is concerned about how well suited the station is for sports broadcast. "It's a waste of an FM signal to broadcast sports, which is talk, talk, talk," Cohen, a Hanszen College senior, said. "It's better suited to AM, which is a cheaper medium. FM is almost exclusively, in general, for music. _ A bat hitting a ball in FM doesn't sound any better than a bat hitting a ball in AM." So said he is worried that allowing an increased amount of athletics on the air will encourage more athletics broadcasts on the station in the future. "Part of the problem is that if you give them a little, they keep asking for more and more and more," So said. "It's a little frustrating to think of that possibility." A memo that Assistant Athletic Director for Marketing Michael PedI sent to May, dated Tuesday, confirmed this possibility. The memo says that before this year, AM stations KPRC and KBME broadcast Rice football games and men's basketball games. However, a merger between KRPC, KTRH and KBME was finalized Aug. 29. These stations have contracts with the Astros, Rockets, Comets, Thunderbears and Texas A&M football, and so the chances that Rice will have a contract with these stations in the future are slim, the memo states. "At this point, barring some unforeseen events, we should not need to have men's basketball on KTRU this season, but next season is a real possibility," the memo stated. The Athletic Department currently pays between $50,000 and $60,000 to broadcast games, but that cost is offset by advertising during the games, May said. He said the Athletic Department would be willing to compensate KTRU for increasing airtime for athletics. "I certainly am open to helping any way we can, if it's some dollar amount or it's some help with equipment that would help make their operation better and also improve our broadcast and other broadcasts that they might have," May said. "We want it to be a win-win situation. We're not trying to get something for nothing." May said the department will continue to try to find commercial stations to air athletic events. "We just think that it may not work out in the future, and we may see a situation where only football is able to get on a commercial station," he said.
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