On the Coach America ban of KTAR

(see ASU State Press news story)

When I started off with this blog, it has been my intention to withhold from commentary but this instance requires it. As one who has been a passenger on the shuttle for as long as I have been a student at ASU, I am familiar with the ins and outs of operating such an enterprise. I have aided drivers in finding alternate routes because the primary routes were blocked by accidents. I am a familiar face to some of the shuttle drivers.

I am familiar with one of the three ASU intercampus shuttles: that which runs between the Tempe and Downtown Phoenix campuses. In the beginning of this service, the buses were old transit buses that could barely withstand the 100°-heat of the Phoenix summer. It was a rare treat where we would ride on a motorcoach.

It was at the beginning of the Spring 2007 semester when they decided to venture with the radio. The first stations that were played were music stations. Most of the time, it was Phoenix smooth-jazz KYOT-FM 95.5; at other times, classic rock KSLX-FM 100.7. It was only at the start of this semester, the Spring 2008 semester, where the shuttle drivers started playing KTAR. Now, I'm not sure what the directive was: if I were to fathom a guess, I would say that it was a Coach America decision. (ASU charters the intercampus shuttle buses through Coach America, an independent company.)

KTAR-FM 92.3 is now a talk radio station. For many years, this was my main source for news, because it was an all-news station. Any commentary was kept to a minimum because it was the station's goal to present an objective look into the news. Since its move to the FM side of the radio spectrum, it has shifted to a talk format. By 'talk' I mean more commentary and opinion than news. For some, this is okay, and I am all for people listening to commentary and opinion. For me, however, I prefer objective news over commentary and opinion. I'll explore on this more in a moment.

In the interest of fairness to all sides, I believe that this problem would have been averted had Coach America not chosen to venture into playing KTAR. But now that ASU has gotten itself stuck in between that proverbial 'rock' and 'hard place', I'm not sure what can be done. The only thing of which I can think is to resume KTAR being played. If the bus company does not resume playing KTAR, then there are cries of violations of First Amendment rights and so on and so forth.

When I am on the shuttle, Glenn Beck is on KTAR. I fundamentally disagree with his positions, but rather than complain to the bus driver demanding a different station be played over the bus's PA system, I simply bring my own music player and listen to my own music. Other times, I listen my personal radio that only I can hear. I think this is something that all shuttle riders can do. Radios are becoming more and more inexpensive and I think all shuttle riders can afford one.

For Coach America and ASU, this is truly the intersection of Rock Street and Hard Place Lane.

-Edward Jensen