My favorite radio station ASKED for emails regarding their decision. So you see they ASKED for it.

I heard the announcement today about the program changes.

The reasoning you're giving on-air is perfectly honest: "listenership has remained flat during those weekday night shows while it's doubled during other programming."

You could say the same about many aspects of local or regional cultural flavor that remains in Austin: just like the listenership of KUT grows, the general population grows, and as a result, what made it a special radio station, or a special place, to begin with, is diluted. Your income as a station has more than doubled, or whatever, and most of that money has come from people new to the area, naturally.

But just like people have been reacting with "keep Austin weird" in this town, with panic in their eyes, I find myself reacting with "please, keep KUT, KUT."

Or, go plow right ahead with your goals to become more broadly palatable, like WXPN or KCRW, which no longer transmit with any detectable local or regional flavor.

That way, as you explained quite plainly today, you'll be able to continue to make more money during these hard economic times. How can I make a persuasive argument against that, when whoever may or may not read this wants a steady income during a time when most of us are taking financial hits? Who can blame you for wanting a comfortable salary?

But if you care about KUT as a one-of-a-kind cultural institution like I do, and if you take your very own logic, and project it into the future, look what you get: total dilution. A radio station and indeed a local culture indistinguishable from any other in the country. That's where you are headed. I suspect you don't even realize that your own on-air announcement today prescribes exactly that: "my paycheck is more important than your silly local and regional musical flavor" is a fair paraphrase.

I personally owe Larry Monroe and Paul Rey a vast portion of my appreciation and knowledge of the very best local and regionally distinctive music that makes Austin and, until now, KUT, unique in the world. There has been no other station like it, even in the age of internet and satellite radio. For 12 years I lived in other places, streaming KUT online almost daily just to listen to the very shows you are now bulldozing.

Your justifications to make room for more generic and marketable music is the exactly same as what developers use to bulldoze historic buildings, because modern condos are without question much more profitable. You admit it in your own on-air announcement. And who can argue with the developer who says "we're so sorry to do this, but you must understand that these new condos are 100% more profitable for us..."

Hey-- I'll simply follow my favorite deejays and their unwanted kind wherever they go. Just like I followed Bob Edwards to satellite radio when NPR bulldozed his historic ass to make way for something much more hip and marketable.

By the way, what do you think the musicians-- I mean the living Austin legends-- what do you suppose they think of your profitable little demolition scheme? Did you run it by any of them yet? I mean, they're only the musicians that created the music that built the station you now enjoy a paycheck from. Do you think Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, Nanci Griffith and the like think what you are doing is just totally cool and understandable because of needing to maintain your salaries during a depression? Do you even care anymore?

How about if we keep the classic, heroic, world-class, one-of-a-kind deejays and their encyclopedic regional music knowledge, get rid of whoever you are? The station could be run just as well with the talents of volunteers and students, keeping the senior on air talent perfectly intact, "during these hard economic times."

And whoever YOU are, bulldozing old unprofitable institutions, YOU can simply move to another city and work for a more generic public radio station that suits your tastes better and will always alter its programming in order to sustain your paycheck, no matter what? That way everybody's happy-- you get your guaranteed income, and we get to keep the unique character of our radio station.

What if the senior on-air talent isn't the real problem here, rather, it's KUT's finance people and their stats and projections? How many hundred thousand are saved if you cut them out instead, and keep the only programming that distinguishes you from every other public radio station in the country?

Look, I'm only 37 years old, but I know exactly what's driving this change, I see where you're headed with it, and I know what these people who are creating your cozy paycheck are going to turn KUT into. It's sad but so are a lot of similar things these days.

Thank God for satellite and internet radio! I will support my heroes there!