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The Rice Thresher
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by Olivia Allison Thresher editorial staff KTRU will broadcast at most three or four athletic events per week for the next two years, Vice President for Student Affairs Zenaido Camacho decided Wednesday. Camacho accepted most of the KTRU advisory committee's recommendations from a Nov. 17 meeting, when committee members reached a consensus about how many athletic events should be aired per week on the station. Three events will be played per week during all months except February and March, when four events will be played. The committee also recommended that any Western Athletic Conference semifinals and final postseason events, preseason and postseason National Invitational Tournament events and any NCAA tournaments that Rice participates in be aired, as well as College World Series games for baseball. These tournament games will be broadcast in addition to the regular three or four games per week. Last year, KTRU aired 13 women's basketball games and 18 baseball games. Camacho's only revision to the proposed agreement from the committee was to change the length of the agreement from five years to two years. KTRU Station Manager Johnny So, a member of the committee, said he was disappointed that this change was made because he believes the number of games played on KTRU will increase with future negotiations. "I think in two years when this agreement expires, the administration is not going to take away games from athletics," So said. "The only way to go is up." The KTRU advisory committee is composed of Associate Vice President for Finance and Administration Neill Binford, Vice President for Public Affairs Terry Shepard, KTRU faculty adviser Bill Wilson, Dean of Continuing Studies Mary McIntire, So, computer science graduate student and KTRU DJ John Clements, Scott Hochberg (Will Rice, '75), Manager of Architecture and Engineering for Facilities and Engineering John Posch, and Hanszen College junior and KTRU music director Meghan Wilde. The advisory committee has been meeting since the beginning of the academic year, when Athletics Director Bobby May first submitted a proposal that the number of athletic events on KTRU be increased. May's Oct. 9 proposal to the committee requested six to 10 hours of athletics to be broadcast on KTRU, which would be about four or five games per week. After negotiations, the committee decided on three to four games per week. Overall, So said he and the other KTRU staff members disagreed with forcing KTRU to play athletics, but he said the committee had to come up with some kind of proposal. "I wasn't happy with it, but we had to turn something in," So said. "I disagree with every aspect of it." Camacho refused to comment on the decision. However, Shepard said most of the committee members felt it was a fair resolution. "Neither of the two opposite ends of the spectrum went away completely happy, but neither felt like they lost everything," Shepard, a member of the advisory committee, said. May could not be reached for comment. So said KTRU staffers are currently taking a vote to see whether the staff is in favor of the agreement. DJs will e-mail their vote of either "accept" or "reject" to Wilson, who will tabulate the votes. The vote began Tuesday at noon and will end this Tuesday at midnight. So said even if KTRU DJs vote to reject the agreement, little action will be taken. He said the purpose of the vote is to ascertain whether the DJs are in support of the agreement. "As to whether or not it's going to change anything ... probably not," So said. "But it's good to have on paper. Years from now, when they say, 'You guys loved that old athletics proposal,' we can say, 'No, look, we didn't.'" Three DJs have made public statements against the decision. Jones College junior Viki Keener and Wiess College sophomore Patrick Glauthier protested the agreement Tuesday night during the broadcast of the women's basketball game. Keener said she and Glauthier arrived in the middle of the game because they were scheduled to substitute for So, who is the DJ of the "Tuesday Nitro" show, which airs punk and ska music 9-10 p.m. Tuesdays. When she arrived shortly before 9 p.m., Keener said, the basketball game was still on the air. She and Glauthier then decided to simultaneously broadcast the music for the Nitro show with the end of the game. Keener said she considered broadcasting the programs together protest. "I think it was effective in making a statement, even if it didn't change anything," she said. "It called attention from the community and from the administration." Keener said she received about 30 phone calls during the hour-long simultaneous broadcast. Of those calls, she said only three were from angry or frustrated callers. Keener said when she explained why she was broadcasting music and the game at the same time, two of the angry callers said they understood and supported the protest. Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs John Hutchinson, a Wiess master, was the other caller. Keener said Hutchinson called to tell them they should stop the protest. Keener said no other callers supported the broadcast of the game. "Not one person called to say they were trying to listen to the game, which implied to me that no one was listening to the game," she said. However, Shepard said he received a call Wednesday morning from the father of one of the basketball team members from Bristow, Okla. "He thought it was a mean-spirited and vindictive thing to do, and he was aware of the debate on the issue," Shepard said. Shepard said the DJs' actions were inappropriate. "The reaction from all the people [in Public Affairs] is deep regret that the students would act so immaturely," he said. "It showed disrespect for their fellow students on the basketball team, it showed disrespect for the listeners. ... I think it was an unfortunate thing to do." Keener said the interruption of the women's basketball game was not intended to be a personal attack on the team. "It's nothing personal at all, and it was very unfair to them, but KTRU is in an unfair position as well," Keener. "I'm very sorry about having to do it, but I felt it had to be done and it was just chance that it happened to be their game." So said he would not punish the DJs involved in the incident. He said he understands why they protested in this manner, but does not completely support the use of the station to protest. "I support and I understand the philosophy behind their actions, but I am less supportive of DJs using their shifts to propagate their individual opinions on the matter," So said. "I can't punish them because I know why they're doing the things that they do. ... I think it's a good idea to bestow upon them a level of independent thought. It's not my job to rein in enemies of the administration." Will Rice senior Kenn Young created a 60-second loop tape that requests feedback from listeners who are opposed to increasing sports coverage on KTRU. The tape says, "Will the music format that you want on KTRU-Houston survive? Rice University administration is taking over KTRU's student programming with Rice sports one step at a time. This represents a slow death of KTRU and its ideals. Your main source of music and thought which is not controlled by the five major record labels is under attack. Without your help, we will lose." The tape then instructs listeners to send an e-mail to kenn@rice.edu. Young said he created the tape to draw attention to what he calls the "painless death of KTRU." "I've felt kind of bad because we're just college students," Young said. "We don't have anything to lose ... and yet we can't get anyone to act just to save our own little radio station. I think the proposal is terrible because it will be the end of KTRU. The plan is just for it to be a painless death of KTRU, and I think by letting them get just one little foot in the door, that's just what it is." Young said he hoped to generate negative publicity for the Rice administration with the tape. "If they get negative press, that's not something that they want, especially when they're taking power from the students and being big, bad, unethical people," Young said. Young said he received 20 e-mails from listeners the first day he played the tape, Nov. 13, when he played the tape 10 times in half an hour. Young said he does not think other DJs play the tape repeatedly but that some play the announcement occasionally. He has received about 65 e-mail messages from listeners who oppose the broadcast of athletics events on KTRU. Two outside newspapers have written articles about the negotiations between KTRU and the Athletics Department. The Houston Press published an article Oct. 19, and the Chronicle for Higher Education, a national weekly publication, published a sidebar in its Nov. 24 issue about the conflict.
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