For many years, Texas Southern University has been in the forefront of providing positive academic energy to students from all walks of life. In doing so, students who graduated from the University have excelled in their chosen professions. The blueprint for excellence TSU provides resides in the accomplishments of Michael Strahan, Mickey Leland, Yolanda Adams, Gerald Smith, Ronald Thornton, Ricky Anderson, Barbara Jordan, Ernie Holmes, Tony Wiley and a host of other notable individuals can be found on the platform they stood upon. In every field of study, TSU students are ready to meet the world in an ever-changing competitive environment. After 92 years of producing some of the best and brightest spheres of influence, the university takes another giant leap forward; in retrospect, the challenges in today’s world are even more daunting than ever. Innovation and technology now resides in the future; in addition to that, the cost of preparedness at colleges and universities is always an issue, especially in the fields of radio, television and broadcast journalism found in a variety of settings. Included in those endeavors are graduates who have exceeded their own levels of professionalism in an environment that questions the continued need for HBCU’s. To keep up with the current trends seen in the field of communication, TSU has invested heavily in the future of students enrolled in the School of Communication with a bold new initiative.
KTSU 2 – “The Voice” in partnership with KTSU 90.9 FM is the newest addition to the academic hierarchy of Texas Southern University. The new initiative is a student run streaming platform that will prepare students as media professionals, in addition to highlighting campus life at TSU. The vision has been in the making for more than 44 years; however, financial resources were not always available to make KTSU 2 a reality. In 2016, Dr. Austin Lane, President of Texas Southern University saw a need to satisfy the vision of a student station. He along with the School of Communication decided the moment had finally come to create a real-time educational media environment, where students could prepare for their prospective careers in broadcasting. Dr. Lane made funding possible, while Professors Serbino Sandifer-Walker, Valerie Wilson, Ernest Walker, GM of KTSU FM hit the ground running under the supervision of Dr. Rockell Brown, Interim Dean of the School of Communication. Technical considerations were orchestrated by Charles Hudson, KTSU’s Operations Manager and Dade Moore, the staion’s engineer. Altogether, the collective resources of those involved, coupled with an enthusiastic group of TSU students ushered the fulfilment of a vision now becoming a reality on February 19, 2019, with the official launch of KTSU 2 – “The Voice.”
The station will have student personnel serving as program director, music director, news anchor, social media commentators as well as operational staff to set the path towards functionality and viability. Professors Walker and Wilson will oversee the logistical aspects, but the students will set the tone to operate under. In retrospect, many individuals saw the need to build a student radio station, including George Thomas the former General Manager of KTSU FM who came up with the design phase, as well as those who planted the seeds that finally took root and bore the fruit of making the vision a reality. What was once an unrealized expectation is now an initiative that places School of Communication students in an environment that allows them to be fully loaded professionally. Kudos to Dr. Lane and the many individuals who took the vision to the next level.
– Sheldon T. Nunn