Editor:

Congratulations on your perceptive editorial concerning the Associated Students of the University of Utah’s latest?assault on KUTE Radio (“KUTE needs funding,” Oct. 25).

Having served as the station’s graduate adviser during the 1970s, I am quite familiar with ASUU’s continued diddling with KUTE. It’s an old story.

The new rift in the narrative, of course, is ASUU’s recent move to pull all funding from the station, even before the president’s media task force has the opportunity to assess the value of KUTE’s contribution to ?the student community.

By their actions, the campus politicos are clearly signaling that if they can’t control the station outright, they’ll simply starve it to death. Nice end run, I have to admit.

ASUU’s action echoes the current strategy of media conglomerates in an increasingly deregulated market. The concentration of station ownership now imperils independent radio operations throughout the United States.

From my perspective, ASUU’s action is consistent with that pattern.

Harry W. Haines, Ph.D.

Communication Department

Trinity University