KNTU is switching formats!

[C Vo]

[southsideguy]

will they still carry mean green games?

 

[All About UNT]

1 hour ago, C Vo said:

No this is great news. An indie station will draw far more listeners than the current format. I love jazz but I certainly don't think to go to 88.1 in order to listen to it. 91.7 gets a ton of listeners because they are the closest to a true indie station that DFW has. Like it literally has 10 times the number of listeners.

[rcade]

This news is shocking. I would have welcomed it as a student in the 1980s because I hated jazz back then, but in the decades since I've come to appreciate that KNTU made a name for itself with jazz. I also liked that its format supported the music school.

This wouldn't have happened if longtime KNTU general manager Russ Campbell was still in charge, but he retired a few years ago.

P.s. I probably shouldn't be shocked since I never listened to KNTU aside from Mean Green games, and I even stopped doing that in recent years when I found the games elsewhere.

Edited July 30, 2022 by rcade

[untcampbell]

KNTU has been my go to sleep music. That’s probably not a complement but I find listening to music I am not invested in allows me to enjoy, then drift away like listening to a good bedtime story.

If it becomes true pirate, college radio, something I always wished it would become, I’ll listen when I am in discovery mode.

 

 

GMG

[jazzer88]

As you can tell from my name, this is sad news. Although jazz is certainly not popular, the jazz programming at KNTU was a unique and quirky characteristic of UNT. Sadly, these unique characteristics are disappearing quickly. This will be the beginning of KNTU chasing/changing formats every few years searching for that elusive young radio listener that no longer exists. It won't be long before it will be just like all the other generic FM stations that no one listens to or appreciates. 

[NM Green]

They can have Sunday night jazz like 91.7 has Latin Hour on Sunday nights which is never enough. I love hearing the world beats. Good decision.

There is one station in Denton like 91.7 you can only carry to buccees I swear. But it’s great. You literally need to be within the square, unt zone to listen to it. If it grabs this sound and blasts it beyond chuy’s, amazing!

GMG

[letsgiveacheer]

This is such a typical North Texas decision.

We do one thing better than any other university in the world and this is our jazz studies program. But now, rather than showcase this success, we decide to change formats to indie music? How many of these stations already exist in DFW?  

Here in Durham, NC Central University manages to run a very successful jazz station. And we cannot?

If this indie format does not work, we can always try "easy listening".  People my age like that very much.

 

Edited July 30, 2022 by letsgiveacheer

[TripleGrad]

Sure, let's dilute the image of the school once more.  Everything that is unique about North Texas gets tossed aside in the name of money, "updates", or just trying to be more like every other generic school out there.  It's a damned shame.

Full disclosure:  I spent my time at Smith Hall, scrambling to learn enough about jazz to not look like a total idiot on air. 

[NT80]

4 hours ago, All About UNT said:

No this is great news. An indie station will draw far more listeners than the current format....  91.7 gets a ton of listeners because they are the closest to a true indie station that DFW has. Like it literally has 10 times the number of listeners.

Agree, great news!!   ...and 91.7 is excellent.

[flyonthewall]

What is "indie"?  Asking for a friend......

[UNTcrazy727]

10 hours ago, letsgiveacheer said:

This is such a typical North Texas decision.

We do one thing better than any other university in the world and this is our jazz studies program. But now, rather than showcase this success, we decide to change formats to indie music? How many of these stations already exist in DFW?  

Here in Durham, NC Central University manages to run a very successful jazz station. And we cannot?

If this indie format does not work, we can always try "easy listening".  People my age like that very much.

 

How exactly is a jazz radio station no one listens to showcasing our Jazz program? And a true indie station is something DFW is missing right now. Especially, one that showcases local bands. 

[NT80]

3 hours ago, flyonthewall said:

What is "indie"?  Asking for a friend......

Independent music (also commonly known as indie music or simply indie) is music that is produced independently from commercial record labels or their subsidiaries, a process that may include an autonomous, do-it-yourself approach to recording and publishing.

 

Many are small, unknown groups or artists, but some are well known too.

Indie is different music genre.  It can be instrumentals, alternative, soft rock, easy listening, ambient, etc.

Here is just a sample.   Many types on YouTube...

 

 

Edited July 30, 2022 by NT80

[UNT 90 Grad]

6 hours ago, flyonthewall said:

What is "indie"?  Asking for a friend......

 

 

Edited July 30, 2022 by UNT 90 Grad

[Coffee and TV]

6 hours ago, flyonthewall said:

What is "indie"?  Asking for a friend......

Not what they're actually playing on 88.1 right now. 

[Glory to the Green]

I liked the jazz, but didn’t always tune in on a regular basis. If its goal is the like 91.7, I’m on board. I also appreciated the Saturday morning Mexican music. It was quirky for a jazz station to play it, but it felt like a Denton thing to do, and I liked it. 

Edited July 30, 2022 by Glory to the Green

[UNT 90 Grad]

I’ve been listening for an hour or so and it’s growing on me.  Good mix of typical alt rock and catchy stuff I’ve never heard before. All commercial free.

Edited July 30, 2022 by UNT 90 Grad

[Matt]

I'm a bit too far South (Arlington) to really get to enjoy the station. Coverage is always spotty and trying to catch games on the radio is a painful experience. Hopefully the new format will help grow the station and they can cover more of DFW. 

[UNTLifer]

I am neither here nor there on the format change since I no longer live in the area, but @Mattbrings up a point that has driven me crazy for years.  We are The University of North Texas.  Why we don't have radio coverage that will cover at least the Metroplex is ridiculous.

[Mean Green 93-98]

39 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

I am neither here nor there on the format change since I no longer live in the area, but @Mattbrings up a point that has driven me crazy for years.  We are The University of North Texas.  Why we don't have radio coverage that will cover at least the Metroplex is ridiculous.

As the O.P. notes, they broadcast at 100,000 Watts.  The thing is, their tower is up near Sanger.  So they're covering about as large an area of North Texas as many of the major DFW stations.  But that area is further north.

Edited July 30, 2022 by Mean Green 93-98

[TripleGrad]

I don't know if it's still the case, but when KNTU went to 100K watts (I was a student DJ then), there was some special directional tuning in place to keep it from blanketing other stations.  It was explained to me that meant the signal was actually weaker in the metromess than the power indicated.

[eulessismore]

So they really are going down this long and winding road of the "radio business", searching for that elusive "right" genre. It sounds like the powers that be have determined that college students don't love jazz enough, as though everyone should know what they want and have it served to them upon arrival in college. But, I guess Willie Nelson (an old Denton DJ) struggled for years against the sentiment of too many chords aren't what country music is about, until people finally decided, "hey Patsy Cline singing that jazzy "Crazy" song is pretty good"!

I love 91.7, but we already have 91.7. And it doesn't have commercials either. Any time I've turned on 88.1 over the last few days (with heavy heart), the playlist is neither indie or special in any way I've noticed. I'll pass along a suggestion that I saw on "Reddit" that any unhappiness about this be expressed directly to the President of the University, who is said to take particular interest in such matters. In the meantime, I went down the internet rabbit hole to find this quote, attributed to Hunter S. Thompson by the "Krud Radio" website:

"The radio business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.
There's also a negative side."

Hunter S. Thompson

[UNT 90 Grad]

After listening a lot over the past couple days and listening to the promos they have, I believe "Indie" is speaking to the fact that it is an independent radio station and not run by some corporate entity driving their playlist.  They said as much in one of the promos.

[Hunter Green]

The question still stands. Will they continue to carry UNT games?

[ColoradoEagle]

On 7/31/2022 at 4:20 PM, eulessismore said:

So they really are going down this long and winding road of the "radio business", searching for that elusive "right" genre. It sounds like the powers that be have determined that college students don't love jazz enough, as though everyone should know what they want and have it served to them upon arrival in college. But, I guess Willie Nelson (an old Denton DJ) struggled for years against the sentiment of too many chords aren't what country music is about, until people finally decided, "hey Patsy Cline singing that jazzy "Crazy" song is pretty good"!

This likely has more to do with engaging the RTVF students with something they're more interested in than jazz than it does trying to become the most listened to station in DFW.