This fine station hatched as KTSB in 1986 as an idea to give the University of Texas at Austin a fully student-run radio station and became a fully-fledged radio station that broadcasted on cable radio in 1988. It began life on 91.7 FM in 1994 and changed its call letters to KVRX. The station is only on air during the evening, because they share the 91.7 band with KOOP, another fine Austin radio station.

The Whys and Wherefores

The reasoning behind KVRX is to provide airplay to bands that wouldn't normally get radio exposure. Slogans over the years have included 'None of the hits, all the time' and 'We're not popular'. So if you turn on KVRX and don't hear Will Smith playing, don't be surprised.

The station recently started broadcasting on RealAudio¹, so now everyone with access to the Internet can listen to the melodious sounds.

KVRX is a fully student-run station, with students taking care of directing the station, providing funding through underwriting, publicizing the station, deejaying, and the various chores that go with running a radio station.

The only negative aspect is that the programme managers are very strict about what can and cannot be played, with them coming down quite harshly on DJs who get out of line. The basic rule is that if the artist has had a song on the radio in the past ten or so years, you may not play anything from that artist on KVRX. Some DJs think this is a bit harsh, and the rule gets broken quite often, but only for very good reasons. But these are the rules, and they stick to them.