As the College of Communication continues to work toward developing a sports broadcasting degree, the college’s radio station is ahead of the curve.
KTCU FM 88.7 “The Choice” has added a high school football game-of-the-week broadcast to its weekly lineup, said Russell Scott, director of the station. Radio-TV-film students are responsible for the on-air content, Scott said.
“Instead of just going into the classroom and talking about it, now we can give them experience,” Scott said.
The show airs Fridays from about 7:15 p.m. to 10 p.m.
In addition, Scott said radio-TV-film students are also responsible for a pregame show before TCU football home games and for a weekly sports talk show, “The Cheap Seats,” which airs Wednesdays from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.
“Sports radio, in general, is exploding all over the country,” Scott said. “It’s amazing to think that 12 to 15 years ago, sports radio was barely being born.”
Although KTCU’s sports broadcasting program just recently began, it has produced alumni who now work in the field professionally.
One of those is Trey Fallon, who produces “GameNight with Choppy & Greggo” on 103.3 FM ESPN radio. Fallon also produces pre- and post-game shows for the Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Cowboys.
Fallon said he supports an expansion of KTCU’s sports broadcasting program because it benefits students looking to enter the field professionally, as well as the university.
“If you want the local take, you can’t get that anywhere else but local sports radio,” Fallon said.
Scott said the next step in adding more sports content to KTCU’s lineup is play-by-play broadcasting of other sports at the high school and college level. Scott said one of the main problems with adding more live games is that the broadcasting rights for TCU football and basketball are owned exclusively by ISP, a company that provides sports broadcast services for colleges nationwide.
Chris Blake, a sophomore who engineers the TCU football pregame show, said he also hopes to see more live games added to KTCU’s programming content.
“It’s good to learn everything and be versatile,” Blake said.
High School Football Game of the Week Broadcast
When: 7:15 p.m. Fridays
“The Cheap Seats” talk show
When: 7 p.m. Wednesdays