By Robert Ovetz with the assistance of Kerthy Hearn, Rob Jacob, Rob Forman, and Jenny Wong

November 1990

Original pamphlet

Almost everyone has come up against problems at KTSB that have caused a lot of tension. Too many times the wonderful "high" one gets working at the station has been stained by problems with the new bin, perpetual equipment failures, and recording tape and storage shelf shortages. In addition, there are many less apparent problems with serious implications: lack of control over our own money and advertising policy, having "adult professionals" tell us what to do, restrictions on our right to speak, report the news and play music, and the smothering of our creativity. At first glance, these problems don't seem to relate much to one another. But they aren't separate problems, and shouldn't be chalked up as incidental, needing only a little tinkering for us to be rid of them. They are the consequences of KTSB's subordination to the Texas Student Publication Board of Operating Trustees (TSP), an institution that does not serve students and has not for the last 50 years. Yet, like the Texan staff has done for many decades, KTSB has fought to defend its autonomy from TSP every step of the way.

TSP: a model in institutional control, a case study of the Texan

On the surface, it appears that we actually run KTSB. We write the news, play the records, organize fundraisers. But the activities that make up the day to day nuts and bolts of our station operate within very well defined parameters of procedure and rules. Except for the current Broadcast Supervisor (BS), Andrea Morrow, no one from TSP stands at our side dictating what we can and cannot do. It is likely that few if any even listen to our station; even Morrow admits that she dislikes the music we play and does not listen at home. Our actions are restricted in a much more subtle fashion. Former UT-Austin president Peter Flawn in his new book A Primer for University Presidents: Managing the University makes explicit the means for establishing institutional controls while appearing to have a hands off approach. Struggling over how to do this, he thought that "unless you can demonstrate flagrant abuses you will not be able to close it down." Instead, "without running the risk of being accused of heavy-handed censorship, you can probably set up a board of responsible faculty and students to exercise oversight for operations and programming."

In an in-depth analysis of the Texan, "The Daily Texan Does Not Belong to You (But it Used to)" (Utmost, October, 1987) Mike Godwin, later elected Texan editor, traced out the transformation of the Texan from an authentically student-run and -operated newspaper that controlled every aspect, budget, distribution, content, etc., of the publication before 1914 to an entity under the thorough managed authority of TSP by the early 1980s.

What transpired over these seven decades closely parallels the direction KTSB has taken in its relationship to TSP ever since Kevin Tuerff walked into President Cunningham's office seeking to place us under its direction. The difference with the Texan's experience is that we were handed over willingly. Amidst intensifying criticism of TSP's authority over KTSB this August, Tuerff was asked by the station manager to lay bare his original aspirations for the station before an August staff meeting. The Student Radio Task Force (SRTF), of which he was chairperson, had only three options, he explained, in order to become a station. They could stay a part of the Students' Association, "go off campus" as a totally autonomous entity, or go to TSP for "stability." We now know what "stability" means.

The Texan's and TSP's history are quite eye opening. In 1916, TSP was student controlled, with a voting student majority and editors of each publication making policy. By 1956, the Board of Regents had succeeded in subordinating TSP to Regent control, requiring any action to have prior approval, imposed a censor on the Texan, eliminated the editor as a voting member of the board, and created a faculty-dominated executive committee that removed the editor's authority over the managing editor. In 1963, Chancellor Ransom even succeeded in making the editor position appointed until student opposition a year later forced a return to an elected editor. The students of the SA and TSP Board were made powerless over the very institutions they had created. It all added up to an effort "to diminish the voice of student editors in censorship and other policy decisions," Godwin concluded.

A vital turning point came in 1971, as TSP was transformed from an ally of the Texan into an institution under the dictate of the Regents. Proclaiming that "we do not fund anything we do not control," Regent chairman Frank Erwin used the expiration of the TSP charter to make the final crushing blow to the Texan's independence. The regents took control of TSP's assets and restructured the board so that only two its eleven members were elected students. It was also with these fateful actions that the Texan editor's authority was stripped down to control over page four, the editorial page, while relinquishing overall authority to the board-appointed managing editor. And his does not even include how the restructuring removed student control over the Union and the voluntary "blanket tax" (now the required student services fee controlled entirely by the Regents with token student input), eliminated the last semblance of power in the SA, reorganized the spacial layout of the campus and the West Mall, and created the "Free Speech" area. One could even draw an analogy between the recent attempt to franchise the Union and what could happen to KTSB. (Keep in mind, however, that the franchising push failed - his time, at least.)

Godwin summed up the demise of autonomous student power once integral in the UT student press: "Over the course of its 87-year history, the Texan has been altered again and again by forces inimical to student interests. What was once a student-run, independent newspaper has become a University-owned "auxiliary enterprise" whose board is unrepresentative of the community it serves, and whose editor has been restricted largely to mere opinion writing. An unelected position that was designed to assist the editor back in 1951 - the managing editorship - has become the most directly powerful position at the newspaper."

Enter KTSB

What happened in the course of the 87 years at the Texan was already waiting for KTSB the day it began broadcasting on ACTV on April 11, 1988. Beginning in the Spring semester of 1986, SRTF evolved out of the SA and worked to promote support for its project, eventually holding fundraisers and carving out a space in the old Varsity Cafeteria. However, moves by Sara Beechner and Tuerff steered KTSB on a course right into the TSP/Regent/UT Administration hierarchy of control. It was not done with any malice, but with a lack of concern for TSP's history of subordinating the once student-run press.

Through "informal conversations" and negotiations with TSP officials and President Cunningham's office Beechner and Tuerff ran roughshod over dissenting opinions within SRTF and integrated KTSB as part of TSP on September 17, 1987. Along with their "success" came a TSP-appointed station manager, a non-student BS with broad TSP authority to censor and control programming, a seven-member Broadcast Advisory Committee with two student appointees, and the subordination of the operating policies and control over our budget to the authority of the Board of Operating Trustees and the Board of Regents signature on a potential FM license. All of which, it does not go without saying, has never gone unopposed by members of the staff.

The station manager of our "student-run and -operated" radio station is appointed by a board of eleven people of which six are students elected by a campuswide election with three of them from the College of Communications. This has brought us a lot of difficulties in maintaining independence. As staff member Kerthy Hearn personally explained to John Curvan for again bowing to TSP authority, if he's appointed by TSP he "does TSP's bidding rather than ours" and as a result he shouldn't be involved in representing student desires as a staff. Hearn chastised Curvan for twice in the fall semester ignoring considerable interest among some staff in having direct roles in negotiating with KOOP radio for the remaining non-commercial frequency in Austin. Even after listening to a half hour of discussion during the October 3rd staff meeting on whether or not to negotiate with KOOP, Curvan allowed TSP to grant full negotiation authority to General Manager Dick Lytle. At this same meeting, TSP moved to reduce the role of station manager in deciding the future of KTSB to that of an uninfluential player. At the October TSP board meeting, journalism faculty member Red Gibson recommended to give the general manager the power to decide whether to even negotiate with KOOP. Before the motion was passed, KTSB staff member, Jenny Wong, suggested that a student representative, namely the station manager, should participate directly in this decision-making process - since, after all, this is supposedly a student-run station. In a shallow attempt to appease Wong, board members amended the resolution to read: "that the general manager, in concert with the station manager, Broadcast Supervisor, Broadcast Advisory Committee Chairperson, Office of Student Affairs and the Office of Legal Council, evaluate the situation to determine if there is a basis for negotiating ...." The addition to the motion included only one student actually involved with the station, and was worded so that the general manager had no obligation to listen to any of the outside input. The board passed this resolution with little discussion, once again cutting the staff out of the circuit of decision-making.

Giving proof to the argument that he serves the will of TSP, Curvan rebuffed almost 30 staff members at an independently organized meeting the following week by claiming that he was "looking out for our interests" after numerous staffers berated him for selling us out. As he explained, "the negotiated deal with KOOP will start with Dick [Lytle] and then come to us." Curvan missed the point. Staff members both for and against negotiating were infuriated that he abdicated our role in the negotiations process. Since the start of the application process more than two years ago, negotiations between the FCC and KOOP have been entirely the responsibility of the TSP bureaucracy and UT's lawyers in Austin and Washington D.C. The staff has never been asked to participate in or even direct the negotiations over our own station. Whether or not we work out a deal with KOOP to share the frequency is only a minor issue. The fact is, in the end, a settlement must be reached among the three parties and when that happens we will have absolutely no say.

Curvan's pleading that he was looking out for us that evening would prove two weeks later to be two-faced. At the first Broadcast Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting of the semester six staff members, three of whom were directors, presented their concerns that they had been short-circuited out of the decision-making process. Their proposal to organize a committee composed of staff members to contact KOP about the possibility of negotiating was shot down repeatedly. The opposition came not only from the committee's non-student members but even newly appointed staff member Mark Shelby who somehow thought the idea of frequency sharing was "selfish and hasty." Considering that Shelby has not taken any steps to poll the desires of the people "he represents" and is not answerable to the staff, he has misrepresented us. But the problem is not unique to Shelby. It stems from the fact that the BAC does not represent KTSB since the two staff appointments are made by the TSP President. Since we deserve to have a direct role along with the other editors as a full voting majority of the TSP board we should demand that the BAC be abolished.

It also became clear at the BAC meeting that Lytle had no intention of negotiating as he and technical professional David Penn repeatedly confided in us to "trust us to represent your interests" even as Penn himself had just moments earlier admitted having never even listened to KTSB since he doesn't even have cable. Enter John Curvan. Agreeing with all the other members of the board, he chided the staff members for wanting to meet with KOOP since that would be "unprofessional". Ironically, at the same time Lytle was pleading with us to forgo informal negotiations and "work through John to influence the board." They were unanimous in rejecting staff member Johnny Hutchins' reason for doubting their ability to represent us since "maybe the majority of the staff does not agree with what TSP wants."

Curvan, confident that he was not beholden to his bosses at TSP, replied to the Polemicist's September chastisement of KTSB's loss of autonomy by suggesting that they are "not to worry about us. We're still in charge." In their response to Curvan's letter, the editor's detailed the events described above that had evolved since they received the letter. Concluding that he supported the usurpation of the staffs role in negotiating, they saw another KUT, "a 'UT' radio station that operates with no student control or even input" in the making. "Curvan's apologetics only make those fears more urgent; indeed, he seems determined to make them come true. Any license KTSB receives would fall automatically under the control of the Board of Regents, who already control KUT."

The station manager conflict did not start with Curvan's appointment. When Keith King was selected as station manager in 1988 instead of the staff-supported Scott Kentros (who now works for MTV), it began to dawn on many people that KTSB does not have a say over who is chosen. Some even quit in disgust. This was reinforced the next year when King's handpicked successor, Chuck Ashley, was chosen. And as we know, Ashley institutionalized the selection process by tagging Curvan for the spot - even after forty staffers signed a petition protesting the whole process. The petition had only been up for three hours before TSP met.

Curvan has not only consistently sided with TSP in our direct relations with the board, but he has been the lone defender of the TSP-appointed BS, Andrea Morrow, as well. Granted broad power within the station by the General Manager, Morrow has taken on the role of a "supervisor" creating and implementing policies that have stifled staff creativity, disrupted directors' authority, and narrowed the available material available for airplay by censoring music. Chapter 6 of the TSP Handbook of Operating Procedures (September, 1989) created the position stipulating that "the Broadcast Supervisor provides staff with on-going advice and counsel as well as recommendations on all aspects of broadcast operations, including broadcast standards, FCC rules and regulations, programming production, engineering, editorial policy, broadcast reporting, writing and editing techniques. mass communications law, journalism ethics, and management techniques." Morrow has taken to heart that she is "hired by and reporting to the General Manager" and not the students, telling two separate directors over the last few months that "I do not care what the staff thinks ... I don't answer to students. I answer to Dick Lytle." The position is, as its title alludes, a supervisor; it is a paternalistic censor much like was imposed on the Texan to channel an experimental, underground student radio station along the path of "professionalism."

If formally the position carries the responsibilities of an advisor, in practice it has become the most powerful position at KTSB, much like the managing director at the Texan. Morrow has frequently activated the Broadcast Supervisor's authority to "withhold pre-recorded programming" that violates FCC obscenity rules - even when KTSB is legally exempt from such laws since by law it cannot have its content regulated as it is narrowcast on cable. Since taking the position she has raised the ire of several staff members. She has literally picked out certain DJ's to listen to for content she defines as "indecent," stretching the term to include "sexually explicit" words and words dealing with "bodily functions," calling them up on the request line while they're on the air or entering the booth to force them to interrupt the offending song while in progress and proceed to another. She began to remove entire records, such as Boogie Down Productions - which was in the new bin at the time - and Nirvana, from the library because of one offending song. With Curvan's permission, she even removed Mudhoney from the library only a month after we distributed hundreds of fliers at their show that read "KTSB. The only station in Austin that plays Mudhoney." Confronted about Morrow's new form of censoring music, Curvan told a DJ that "I see no problem with it."

On July 30th, after launching a barrage of demands toward Program Director Thad Evert to fire Robert Ovetz for speaking about "political" issues during his airbreaks and standing up to her censorship, she succeeded in having him fired. [I realize it sounds strange talking about what happened to me, but it's only one of the many consequences of doing something that challenges TSP's authority. It's my own encounter with what others have had to face as well.] The reasons given were that he allowed his guest to talk about his new tape, made a "political" comment in reference to his guest's own political lyrics, and played Two Nice Girls' "I spent my last $10 on birth control and beer." However, this firing lasted only less than 15 hours as numerous staff members succeeded in having him reinstated the next day to one of his shifts, although he was suspended from his other two shifts for the rest of the summer session. Recently, however, Curvan dishonestly claimed in a September staff meeting that this staff member was never fired but only suspended. He followed that statement with a threat to ''fire anyone he pleased."

Problems with Morrow continue, including her "writing up" DJs for violations, as happened to one director, and threatening to have volunteers who violate station policy "fired". Morrow has also intervened in the direct selection of music programming as well. In May, she persistently shot down a proposal to establish a "political music" show by the DJ she would later have fired. She has interrupted a DJ playing part of a speech by William S. Burroughs that was in the new bin to question his selection of this cut, complained to Curvan about another DJ playing muppets songs during his show, interrupted and argued with a DJ in the control room for playing part of an interview preceding a live taped performance and even criticized the blues show DJ for playing Zydeco and Reggae. Even Dr. Love has been harangued for what she believes are "sexually explicit" comments but in reality only transcend her conservative world view. She has also walked into the booth to interrupt live band interviews. This questioning of DJ musical selections has even manifested itself in the program director chastising the music director for playing Beatles songs, hiding a popular sound effects CD, and refusing to allow the folk and "political music" show to be called by their chosen names, "the Anti-folk Show" and "Rebel Music". Even the news department has been disrupted by her authoritarian interference at staff training sessions and asked to leave on at least one occasion. Presently, a new policy is in the works to give Morrow censor authority over all news and sports stories.

Most destructive has been Morrow's carrying out of the requirement that all DJs and assistant DJs pass the FCC's Third Class Operators technically difficult test before going on the air to prove our "professionalism" to the FCC. Yet, according to the FCC's own study guide for the test, DJs are not required to even have a license. This may explain why the test has nothing to do with being a DJ. Ironically, she has failed to admit that one does not need to even take the test to get a license. All that is needed to get one is to send the FCC $30.00. But those who pass the test never do get a license, since the station does not pay the fee. Instead, the test has became a mechanism to weed out DJs that Morrow does not like by taking their shifts away until they pass the test. This happened on various occasions until fall DJ Director Rob Jacob stopped her. The big question is, however, if the test is so essential for following FCC rules, why are we free to forget all the material right after we take it?

With as wide-ranging power as the BS has we have to ask why it exists. Certainly, TSP's function leads us to believe that they need a mediator in the day to day operations of KTSB, someone to keep us disciplined and "professional." In other words, the position is useful to steer us away from the experimental foundation on which student radio rests and along the channeled path of broadcast careerism. Certainly, this has come out in Morrow's commentaries on our lack of "professionalism" and concerns that she "can't sell the station to advertisers." Maybe this is the result of her total lack of experience in non-commercial and student radio. After touting her experience in "professional" radio it turns out that all she's done is monitor and censor callers for indecent language at KLBJ-AM and worked for a Christian station. But it is not her inadequate experience for working in student radio that is the main difficulty. Morrow is doing her job correctly as TSP sees it They don't want an experimental station open to innovation and adventurous programming but a parrot of commercial professionalism, a radio training lab.

The BS does not serve us but follows the directives of TSP which hired her. As one director has written, describing the BS's own antagonism towards the staff over the issue of negotiating with KOOP, "the BS is not asking for and coordinating student staff initiatives and has allowed TSP to give all negotiating power to the General Manager." Combined with an appointed station manager and the BS, TSP has the capability to repeat what too many other student stations at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, University of New Mexico-Albuquerque and the University of Kansas have suffered: their Board of Regents or university administration dismissing the student staff and transforming the station into a university controlled top 40 or "public" station. With the UT Board of Regents' name on our license, if we ever receive one, we are vulnerable to their absolute will. Considering how much say they already have over daily operations through these two appointees, this threat is not exaggerated.

TSP's authority is even greater when one considers our finances. The 1989-90 budget shows our total estimated income as $61,100. But this would be a misleading figure if we did not also consider that the BS received a salary of $20,496, benefits worth $5908 and insurance contributions valued at $1,560. Included with that, $13,777 is contributed to General Overhead for building rental, contribution for TSP administrative salaries and utilities and $9,432 for KTSB staff salaries. Of the total, $50,000 comes from student services fees and $11,100 must be raised by the staff. Isn't it ironic that out of $61,100, $27,964 goes to pay for a TSP appointed censor position which has been filled by a person disliked by the overwhelming majority of the staff? And of that total, only $840.00 is available to buy records the station has not received from record labels, which is a considerable number since almost none of our music is dated earlier than 1987. In all, $41,741 goes entirely to the UT system bureaucracy. Of the $50,000 TSP gets from student fees, we only see $19,459. And after staff salaries totaling $9,432 are deducted, we only see $10,027 - $1,073 less than the $11,100 we are required to raise ourselves!

While we have "all this money" the station still has problems. For example, for almost a month this summer both the mics in the control room remained broken and were rigged through the tape deck making it nearly impossible to play music recorded to tape. Even in late November, the right mic remains broken. During an equally lengthy period over the summer the mic switch, which had broken off at its stem remained unfixed. In the production room tape piles up on the the table lacking a storage shelf. Last Spring, the staff was accused of "destroying the headphones" even though the "damage" was only the result of daily wear and tear. We were then told to bring our own and then required to pay a dollar for a new pair. After two years the station still lacks access to a bathroom after the microcenter closes, making it difficult to work for long periods of time at the station. Because of inadequate microphones and equipment it is impossible to organize live performances, as a few live sessions over the summer showed. Right now, you can't monitor yourself when you're on the air because a mic amplifier is not functioning. Some DJs have even resorted to doing their airbreaks in the news room. In other words, mechanical failures and inadequacies that develop are left unresolved, allowing even more technical problems to take root. Even though we have "all this money" almost none of it, $600.00, goes towards maintenance and improvements.

The problem is not just the distribution of the money, but who control seven what little we have access to. KTSB is forbidden to hold any petty cash, our own t-shirts, and are required to turn in all the receipts raised at benefits on the very next day. This has raised numerous embarrassing problems for the staff at our own fundraisers where we had to pay $10 for each t-shirt we gave to bands out of our own draw. The t-shirts only cost us $4 to make. TSP does not allow us to take the shirts out of existing stock and deduct the actual cost. Even going record shopping means submitting to the parental authority of TSP, the purse-holder. We have no money, we have invoices that we give to the store that then collects from TSP. At the first BAC meeting staff members requested the ability to hold a petty cash fund but nothing substantive has come of it as yet, as Lytle has said he might consider allowing it.

It has also disrupted station promotions. After working out an agreement with the West Campus Cafe to trade food for a station fundraiser in exchange for ads, the business director at the time, who was later to resign, was told by Morrow to break the contract since in-kind exchanges violated TSP policy. In addition, we are unable to change our "Get Wired" ad in the Texan without prior TSP approval. Even our very first design denied and replaced with the bland, oval shaped logo still with us. At one point last summer, Morrow also suggested prohibiting broadcasting promotions for our own benefits since they could be "calls to action."

The problem, however, is much deeper. These restrictions inhibit "efficiency" and so called "professionalism" - which the TSP is always so quick to remind us of but in these instances has conveniently forgotten. We may have a budget but we really do not have any money of our own.

All Power to the Staff

It would be inaccurate to say TSP's authority over KTSB has come easily. From the day Tuerff brought SRTF to its doorstep, KTSB staffers have resisted he institutional annihilation of the station's autonomy.

In preparation for the TSP executive committee's selection of a new station manager, over 40 staff members met, organized and presented a petition to the staff. This petition was mysteriously torn down from the station the day before the board meeting when students protested our exclusion from the selection process while demanding that we be allowed to elect our own station manager. As the Board was about to rubber-stamp the committee's selection of Curvan, who was handpicked by Chuck Ashley, the outgoing station manager, dozens of staffers in attendance spoke up against the sham only to be told that "it is too late to take your concerns into consideration. But we can discuss it next year." After predictably confirming the nomination. Board Chairwoman Ellen Williams suggested creating an "ad hoc committee" at the next meeting, in the summer, to "study the matter." Even though dozens of KTSB staff had already "studied the matter" and concluded that they had been disempowered in their own station, the Board insisted on ignoring them. Even Texan editor and Williams' friend, Kevin McHargue claimed sympathy but said that it was "too late to do anything about it now" - and opted to do more studying. To no one's surprise, at the next Board meeting the committee to study the selection process was never even put on the agenda. Later, one Board member even claimed to have thought that the matter was dropped. When it was all over, Susan Hays, the newly appointed Utmost editor and KTSB staff member, rose to object to the whole facade. Blasting he Board for ignoring the staff's request she told them that "It is obscene that a station that was created by students has been taken out of their own hands."

Since Ovetz was fired temporarily in August, a group has organized several alternative staff "gripe sessions" to discuss restraining Morrow, or if matters worsen, to demand she be removed from her position. At an August meeting with about twenty staff members, Curvan promised to meet with or row, accompanied by Evert, to express massive staff dissatisfaction with her and to warn that if she did not improve by the end of August he would support having her removed from the job. When the day came to meet with her, Curvan never showed up, according to Evert, and in his discussion with her about the problems, Evert neglected to express the severity of staff dissatisfaction and her trial period for improvement. Another option discussed was to have the position cut to a part time position and to reopen the position for rehiring with the staff making the final decision. This idea followed our experience with the last BS who was much more relaxed about our our programming and held a hands-off attitude towards the staff that amounted to part-time work. However, problems arose when Morrow presented a job description that she thought justified the BS remaining a full time position. When she was asked by a director to present details about what work she did when not present at the station which made the job full-time she refused to say, claiming that it was "none of the staff's business." An additional effort was made to revise Lytle's job description of the BS so that the BS is subordinated to the needs of the staff for advice as needed and supervision as requested. Even though almost 100 staff members signed a petition supporting these changes, Lytle, Curvan, Evert, Morrow, and Business Manager Kelly Donaldson, met in private on the matter before being presented with the altered job description by the staffers who initiated the whole proess. Of the five staff members who drafted and circulated the petition, only Rob Jacob was informed of the meeting - less than a day in advance. Whoever called the meeting assumed negotiating powers over a petition not of their making. Thus it's no surprise that, according to Jacob, Dick Lytle essentially dismissed it.

So far staff members have carried on the fight against our eroding independence by appearing before the TSP Board and its bureaucratic entities - the same institutions creating the policies we want to change - to request that they relinquish their authority over certain aspects of our station. Each time we have done so we have been rebuffed and even scorned. We have been treated like impetuous children for asking to fulfill the meaning of "student-run radio."

In the end it, it is true that TSP will have to make the institutional changes but that won't happen by asking them to do it for us. We need to consider the surprising suggestion the BAC faculty advisor made to a staff member after the meeting to "do it yourselves quietly and don't tell us [BAC and TSP]." We need to implement the changes we want at our own station and carry on. Sooner or later TSP will be forced to acknowledge the changes and will try to integrate them as policy in order to get control over them. We have a few successful examples of this strategy at UT. In the 1960-70s Chicano and Black students demanding resources to study their histories began to organize their own classes and to get faculty to teach them for credit. [UT Watch note: see CMAS: The Beginning for more info] Once this became widespread UT was forced to accept them and provide them with funds and eventually entire departments. Last year the Polemicist was threatened with disciplinary action by the Dean of Students for distributing their paper since ads were prohibited in materials distributed on campus. Even though a right wing newspaper lost a suit against UT over this rule in the Supreme Court a few years ago, the Polemicist rendered the policy unenforceable by getting together publishers of four other alternative papers and distributed them openly on the West Mall. Unable to stop them, the Dean soon quietly changed the rule to allow their distribution. Even this year, all the work to reform E306 into a class studying multicultural diversity was preceded by years of dozens of English Instructors and Assistant Instructors already teaching multicultural approaches in the course. Since multiculturalism was already so widespread in that course, the department had little option but to accept it

We can do the same. We want to elect our own station manager? We should hold our own election, and hold up the winner as the new station manager irregardless of whatever lackey TSP chooses. A little publicity in the Texan, Texas Beat, and the Chronicle will ensure public support and force TSP to concede.

We want to get rid of Morrow and change the BS to part time? Then we should convene a meeting to decide if we want her dismissed and if we decide to do so remove her from the KTSB budget and send her on her way. And when TSP is forced to admit she has been fired and seeks to replace her we'll refuse to accept anyone unless that position is made subordinate to the staff and part-time.

Tired of censorship? Organize DJs to play as much obscene materials as she/he likes and coordinates defense to prevent disciplinary action such as happened this summer.

Want a petty cash supply? Simply take out what we need from the fundraiser the night before and store it in our own bank account.

And last but not least, if we want to negotiate with KOOP we need to do so. KOOP doesn't want to negotiate with TSP but with the KTSB staff. We can work out a time sharing agreement or even just re-merge our efforts (remember they were both one organization before 1987) and leave UT out in the cold. After viewing our predicament, KANM Cable FM in College Station has decided after waiting on cable for more than a dozen years for a license to begin breaking away from A&M. They are seeking to incorporate independently as a student group so that they can hold their own license under direct student control.

We can easily do the same. We can merge with KOOP, which wants about the same kind of station we do except one accessible to non-student volunteers as well and leave UT high and dry. Meanwhile, the FCC has only one applicant left: KTSB/KOOP.

The whole "us vs. them" attitude being promoted at the station and by TSP must be dismantled. We need to refute the idea that TSP is negotiating "for us" that Lytle and others expound. We are being shut out from having a voice in the negotiations under the selfish ruse that we "deserve the whole thing." This became evident when Lytle responded in disbelief to our request to negotiate with KOOP, asking how ''we would want only a piece when we can have the whole pie?" But students are a complementary part of Austin, there is no us vs. them. TSP's attitude only creates new antagonisms between these two communities which do not have to exist. When it comes down to basics, the KTSB staff and KOOP bath want a community wide station open to experimental programming. Yet those pushing for "the whole pie" like Curvan, Morrow, Shelby and Lytle believe that restricting the staff to students can serve the many communities of Austin. Actually that only isolates us from the musical resources that exist around here. They have even suggested that we "serve the community" by giving other groups access to Public Affairs programming time. This however does not make for a community station run by the community - including students - but one under the mandate and supervision of UT that sets aside token access.

By pitting KTSB against KOOP we are further cutting ourselves off from the rest of Austin and subsequently worsening own predicament within UT. Our problems with TSP will not be solved after we "get on the air" as some claim. By then it will be too late. If we allow TSP to continue to disempower us from controlling our own station while on cable we will certainly not be given an opportunity to regain that control once on the air. Justifications that self-censorship is necessary temporarily until we get on the air because "Ellinger is listening" will not end if we get a frequency. In fact, using the threat that Ellinger is listening is serving as a club to make those who don't buy the censorship bullshit tow the line. The FCC is so underfunded that they don't even monitor cable radio. Ellinger is also no longer a "threat" since he isn't in charge of KOOP anymore.

Contrary to Lytle's arrogance, no one can predict FCC decisions. Since they have been known to favor direct access stations that are "of", not "for", the broad community, KTSB may not have any real advantage. If it comes down to a comparative hearing the FCC may also award the frequency to KOOP since UT already owns one non-commercial license - KUT. If that happens, which is likely since it has happened to other applicants, we will all be left out in the cold on cable where relatively no one hears us. And if we don't establish a contact with KOOP they may even decide students won't want to work for them if they go on the air.

We know how UT works. Once we give up our voice it certainly won't be handed back to us. Strangely enough it appears that our best ally is not TSP but KOOP. The issue is not getting on the air faster as deriders of a staff role in negotiations claim. The issue is deciding our own fate. If we don't demand to decide for ourselves what we want - be it time-sharing or say over what "the whole pie" will be - we are telling TSP that they're right: we trust them to represent our interests. And immediately that means we need more representatives than just Curvan in the present negotiations. If we decline to not join the many other students beginning to demand control over their own education at UT then we will get what we deserve, a University-owned "auxiliary" fallaciously called "student run radio" just like what has become of the Texan.

If we want more control we are going to have to make it ourselves. You can't ask someone to give you power. You have to take it.

A Plan of Action Elect our own station manager in the Spring for 1991-1992.   Hold a vote on whether to eliminate the BS position or reduce the position to part-time and then carry out the result.   Prohibit all censorship.   Establish in dependent negotiations with KOOP and present results to staff for approval.   Create a petty cash fund from fundraiser proceeds.   Abolish FCC test requirement   Call for the BAC appointees to resign immediately and for the abolition of the committee.   Demand a majority voting position for the station manager and all editors on the TSP Board.