Column: Shutting down KCOU would be egregious error

By Dieter Kurtenbach
Oct. 7, 2008

For whatever reason, whether it is ignorance or carelessness, the Missouri Students Association has not yet pledged support for the continuation of KCOU/88.1 at MU.

When I joined KCOU three years ago, it was run like a pirate ship. Anyone could do anything at anytime and accountability was nil. But over the past few years, with new management, KCOU has become as professionally run as humanly possible.

With the closing of Hudson Hall at the end of this semester and the subsequent loss of KCOU's transmitter, which is housed on the roof, the new management at KCOU decided it was a fair time to update the system, which is more than 30 years old. This update would cost $30,000 for a new radio tower to be placed on top of Schurz Residence Hall.

KCOU is already running off "bare bones" funding, as KCOU executive Jonathan Hutcheson put it, but works efficiently. KCOU can broadcast adequately with 1970's equipment in a dirty corner of Pershing Hall and give money back to the MSA slush fund every year, holding off on upgrades to equipment.

But with the Brady Commons expansion not going exactly as planned, KCOU may be the first on MSA's chopping block, and money may take precedence over student experience if they choose not to provide funding to continue the station's operation. They've decided KCOU needs to prove its worth to the student body of MU - a worth that MSA has already put into monetary value by terms of funding, 75 cents a student each semester.

If KCOU is not allowed to broadcast, it will lose its Federal Communications Commission broadcast license, likely forever. This puts the station in a precarious situation, having to be at the mercy of a group whose leader seems so adverse to the idea of having a student-run radio station on campus.

Meanwhile, a new KCOU transmission tower would cost 2 cents per student every semester.

The idea that the university with the best journalism school in the country is not keen on keeping a student-run radio station in place is egregious. Cutting KCOU will give MSA a couple thousand dollars a year, but they will still be paying the Residence Halls Association $4,000 dollars a year well into the next decade, regardless if KCOU is broadcasting or not as per the terms of the contract they signed when MSA purchased KCOU to be a mouthpiece of the organization.

Journalists are told that we should go out there and do it ourselves, and that is the best way to learn. In my experiences, I have found this to be incredibly true and KCOU is a large part of that.

And while KCOU might not be the flashiest thing to show off to alumni or fancy enough to put in recruitment packets, there is a lot of pride for that station in the student community. Pride that stems from the people that work there to the listeners to the station's successful alumni and the many fine Columbia business establishments that are partners with KCOU.

KCOU has launched a Web site, savekcou.org. Students, businesses, alumni and parents have already voiced their support and are on board with the cause. The little guy loves sticking it to the man, and the man just asked for it.

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Column: Shutting down KCOU would be egregious error

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