ing stacks of fliers to distribute around campus. They’re also updating K-ROO’s website with a new logo. (The old image was phallic.) And they’re ordering K-ROO-branded koozies and bottle openers to give to students to help raise the station’s profile. Their optimism verges on giddiness as they finalize a work schedule for the upcoming semester: A core member of the K-ROO staff will broadcast in the studio at all times, except from 10 p.m. to 10 a.m., when an automated program will stream music. When the student union is closed, K-ROO can be run from a remote laptop. At the beginning of the year, K-ROO acquired a music license, so that its DJs can play any artist they want. (Previously they were playing only local and independent artists.) Today, they’re streaming a sonic hodgepodge, from Lady Gaga and Fun to local Kansas City bands and indie artists. “That’s been a recruiting problem in the past,� Tapp says. “We couldn’t play everything all the time. And now we can play anything all the time. Except for when they shut the student union down on us and we have to do it from our house.� A Rick Hornyak song plays on-air. In the months before K-ROO’s music license, the station could play music only by artists who agreed not to take royalties. Hornyak was one of them and, therefore, in heavy rotation. Witkowski describes his songs: “If you took every ballad ever made by Lynyrd Skynyrd and had, like, a drunken Irishman singing.� Osburn says she wants to avoid Top 40 tracks in the future, even though K-ROO is licensed. After all, this is college radio. And as a touring manager for bands, she values stations that give airtime to up-and-coming bands. “Those places have been dear to my heart,� she says. “So I wanted to make K-ROO like that for bands.� The K-ROO crew also plans to keep the air free of the seven banned words. “We’re still going to follow FCC regulations with cursing and stuff,� Osburn says. “We don’t want to teach people bad habits, especially if they’re trying to get a job.�
K-ROO also keeps a log of every song played, even though its license doesn’t require it. Witkowski says it’s better for everyone to learn the FCC rules before they graduate and start looking for work. “We’re using this to gain skills to go into radio, so we may as well,� he says. That kind of maturity has bolstered K-ROO’s foundation, says Angela Elam, the station’s faculty adviser. “There is a certain amount of altruism that comes from maturity,� says Elam, producer and host of the weekly public-radio show New Letters on the Air. “They realize that they’ve only got this for a short time personally, but it’s up to them to help try to sustain it.� Elam has been working with students since 1999 to establish an online radio station. She says having a student-only radio outlet is crucial for UMKC, which doesn’t have a journalism school (students can get a degree with an emphasis in journalism) or a dedicated broadcast program. Students can apply for internships at KCUR, but those jobs are open to students of all area universities. The only qualification to work at K-ROO is being a UMKC student. Elam says that rule will fill a gap for students interested in radio. “You’ve got to have a way to practice your craft,� Elam says. “I mean, you can learn theoretically about how to produce good radio. But if you’re not in there actually making it happen, then everything you think you might know in your head doesn’t necessarily translate into being good at it.� Elam likes K-ROO’s odds of survival after this class graduates in May. “Anybody who comes here to be trained by them will pick up on that enthusiasm,� she says. “There’s nothing more contagious than enthusiasm.�
“My ambition is to be the voice of the Chiefs. Or any other major franchise.�
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he next Monday night is a big one for K-ROO. The staff is hosting the station’s first live remote of a weekly show called Mic’d at Mike’s from 6 to 9 p.m. (The title Roos and Brews was nixed.) Osburn, Tapp and Witkowski broadcast from tables on a tiny stage,
Elam (left, in photo above) has seen many incarnations of K-ROO fail before Witkowski (at right) and his posse succeeded. elevated about 6 inches above the floor, in the corner of the bar’s front room. The show’s format is basic: The three do live segments and talk about the NFL playoffs, baseball’s Hall of Fame snubbing and the end of the NHL lockout. And they play recorded segments sandwiched by three-song sets. They’ve snagged some swag to give to the audience: flashlights, pens and tickets promoting the recent horror film Mama. The initial crowd is sparse. A few guys play tabletop shuffleboard and watch an NBA game on a monitor over the K-ROO tables. A couple sitting at the bar appear oblivious to the broadcast. The show doesn’t go exactly as planned. They had scheduled live interviews with two UMKC men’s basketball players. Neither had a car, though, and the players were worried that if the hosts drove them, they would violate NCAA rules about the media providing transportation. So the K-ROO crew pretaped the interviews. “I’m not quite sure I consider myself a member of the media yet,� Tapp says, introducing the interview. “I mean, we do have classes with these people, so it seems a little silly that we can’t give them a ride.� In the midst of getting guests onstage, ordering $4 pitchers of PBR, and making sure the recorded parts are playing properly, they’re hit with bad news. K-ROO’s funding has been withdrawn by the school. Osburn, Tapp and Witkowski appear unfazed. They’d rather focus on the show and socialize with friends hanging out in front of the broadcast table. The show rolls on. The trio interviews Mike’s redheaded barkeep, Avery. They left a jar on the bar for patrons to submit questions for the segment. Several of the questions are too racy to ask on-air, but the interview is the most intriguing part of the night. The audience, which has grown to a couple of dozen friends, is paying attention now. The hosts didn’t bring speakers, so the crowd is quiet in order to hear the questions and answers. The show also features a trivia game and Tapp’s eight-and-half-minute radio drama, The Hunt for the Phantom Cat.
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At 9 p.m., Witkowski ends the episode with a modest plug for next week’s edition of Mic’d at Mike’s. “Check us out next week,� he says.
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eeks after pulling K-ROO’s funding, the university reversed course. Angela Cottrell, director of UMKC’s Office of Student Involvement, met with the K-ROO staff to discuss why the funding dried up. She discovered that in 2010, Mel Tyler, associate vice chancellor for student affairs and enrollment, said he wouldn’t allocate K-ROO’s funding because no progress was being made. Cottrell told Tyler about the station’s advancement, and the money was released. Tapp, Witkowski and Osburn were in the mood to celebrate during their fourth edition of Mic’d at Mike’s. They’ve brought speakers on this Monday night so the audience can hear the show. Witkowski tells The Pitch that the money will allow the station to host concerts and buy new studio equipment, which is important because the sound-mixing board broke earlier in the week. “It puts us in a position where we don’t have to worry that if something breaks, we’re out of business,� Witkowski says. Osburn remembers the long, pointless K-ROO meetings from a few years ago and the uncommitted volunteers. Picking at a plate of nachos, she admits that K-ROO seemed like a long shot until last November. “No, I definitely didn’t think that I would be sitting here at Mike’s having the equipment to broadcast,� she says. All three are on track to graduate in May. They fear for K-ROO’s future. “That’s rough, making sure that there’s someone like us to keep doing this,� Osburn says. “Part of me wants to go to grad school just to make sure it happens.� But Witkowski, Tapp and Osburn will have to trust that the new crop of DJs will turn KROO into a UMKC institution. “Ryan and I always joke that the studio is going to be named after us someday,� Osburn says. “That’s a terrible name for a studio. Like, ‘Hey, guys, let’s go to the Osburn-Witkowski Studio to do some radio!’ �
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