Got a tip? Send it our way
Share your music news — big or small — with the Austin360.com team by sending us an e-mail.
Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2009 > October > 26 > Entry
14 questions for KUT
The SaveKUTAustin steering committee has sent 14 questions to KUT general manager Stewart Vanderwilt. You can read them all here. (Scroll down) As of Monday, the committee has still not heard back from KUT.
Here are a few of the questions:
How can the community have an ongoing conversation with KUT on the future direction of KUT music programming?
Why does KUT management think it’s important to create continuity between the daytime music programs and the nighttime programs?
When does KUT plan to publish its 2008 and 2009 annual reports? The most recent annual report available is from 2007. Where are the audits for the past nine years, and why can’t the public, who provide 85% of KUT’s operating capital, access them?
How much has been paid to Public Radio Partners this year and each year over the past nine years?
How much has been paid to public relations firm Elizabeth Christian & Associates this year and each year over the past nine years?
What is the total cost of the HD radio channels, both in manpower and in programming? In light of HD radio’s failure to gain acceptance, does management plan to re-evaluate the expenditure to determine if it is an acceptable cost?
How is KUT’s key management evaluated? Who evaluates the General Manager’s overall performance?
Comments
Austinites love to be heard, and we're giving you a bullhorn. We just ask that you keep things civil. Leave out the personal attacks. Do not use profanity, ethnic or racial slurs, or take shots at anyone's sexual orientation or religion. If you can't be nice, we reserve the right to remove your material and ban users who violate our Visitor's agreement. Click here to report comment abuse.
By McCalifornia
October 26, 2009 9:36 PM | Link to this
Question 8. How can we get the painfully bad taped music program known as UnderCurrents to stop?
By PocketRadio
October 27, 2009 3:08 AM | Link to this
“What is the total cost of the HD radio channels, both in manpower and in programming? In light of HD radio’s failure to gain acceptance, does management plan to re-evaluate the expenditure to determine if it is an acceptable cost?”
I think that is something everyone associated with the HD Radio scam would like to know:
hdradiofarce.blogspot.com
By Lefty
October 27, 2009 8:22 AM | Link to this
KUT should be transparent in their financial dealings. They are not. KUT management has played the “what can we get away with?” card for years, and finally the station’s loyal listeners woke up. It should be obvious to everyone who’s ever given them money that they don’t care what you think. They are the “experts”; you’re just a revenue source. If they cared at all about people they never would have treated their on-air staff like dandruff to be flicked off their shoulder when no one is watching.
By Stephen
October 27, 2009 9:12 AM | Link to this
HD radio will only be successful as car manufacturers roll out vehicles with HD reception included and/or when the iPhone gets it. This won’t happen if there is no content to listen to (classic chicken/egg problem). Thus, it is a long-term investment, so question 6 is kind of dumb…
The purpose of continuity between day and night is to highlight a “sound” of KUT, something you can latch onto at any time. KUT is not interested in being a stew of local community interests. They’ve left that business to KOOP.
By R Noton
October 27, 2009 3:51 PM | Link to this
Question 9. Paul and Larry always bored me too. How do we get rid of John Ailey once and for all to finally free Austin? Question 10. Can we bring in more young people to program KUT?
By Lefty
October 28, 2009 7:25 AM | Link to this
KUT should be transparent in their financial dealings. By reading this article it appears they are not. KUT management has played the “what can we get away with?” card for years, and finally the station’s loyal listeners woke up. It should be obvious to everyone who’s ever given them money that they don’t really care what you think. They are the “experts”; you’re just a revenue source. If they cared at all about people they never would have treated their on-air staff like dandruff to be flicked off their shoulder when no one is watching.
By Joe
October 28, 2009 2:27 PM | Link to this
I take issue with #6: “In light of HD radio’s failure to gain acceptance…”
As HD Radio technology is brand new in the consumer space, it is way too early to say that it has failed to gain acceptance. I consider myself fairly technically savvy and had never even heard of HD radio until early in 2009.
The first-ever portable HD radios (Best Buy’s Insignia and Microsoft’s Zune HD) are scarcely two months old. TWO MONTHS. How many iPods did Apple sell in the first two months of their availability in 2001? Not many.
Additionally, more and more manufacturers are now adding HD radio as standard or optional on their vehicles. Volvo decided this summer to make HD radio standard on all their vehicles. 13 other vehicle manufacturers (including powerhouses like Ford, BMW, Hyundai, Volkswagon, Kia and others) are now offering it as an option on new vehicles. And in-dash replacement HD radio decks have dropped to about $100 at Best Buy, making it easy and affordable for people to add HD radio to their existing vehicles.
With a proposed 6-10db digital power increase being mulled by the FCC right now, HD radio is a technology in the very early stages of taking off, and will surely get a huge “boost” from the FCC allowing digital signals to be six times stronger than they are today. The #1 complaint about digital radio today is reception. That complaint is a consequence of the FCC currently limiting a station’s digital broadcast power to just %1 of the station’s analog broadcast power. This will change soon.
Since digital broadcasts carry farther on less power than their analog equivalents, once the digital broadcast power hits 10% of analog’s, more of the geographical US will be covered by HD radio than by traditional analog signals.
Five years from now, you can make statements about about HD radio’s success or failure in the market. Right now the only responsible and rational position to take is that it’s too early to tell.
By NB
October 29, 2009 4:34 PM | Link to this
Joe: 100 million iPods have been sold in 5.5 years. In four years, fewer than 1 million HD radios have been sold….