KJHK has dodged a bullet for now.

Kansas University’s student radio station was nearly a victim of recent budget cutbacks. Once perceived as untouchable, the popular station now is embroiled in an ongoing battle to determine what its role is within the student community and which department is going to financially support it.

Student DJ Becky Lake announces the upcoming play list during her Friday

“We’ve pretty much made it safely into the next year,” said Richard Gintowt, music director of KJHK-FM 90.7. “It seemed for a while that we wouldn’t have as much funding and we would either be finding new ways to get money or ways to run cheaper. But the issue is still out there.”

The university was compelled to shave $3 million off the budget for this fiscal year. The process started a chain reaction that ultimately found its way to KJHK.

“It’s not the case of cutting their budget,” said James Gentry, dean of the School of Journalism and Mass Communications. “It’s a bigger issue: the role of the journalism school with KJHK.”

Although the funding doesn’t specifically come from Gentry’s office, he does have two staffers, Gary Hawke and Cade Cruickshank, who are devoted to running the operations.

“Our concern is that in the time when we’re cutting budgets, we were looking at the number of people allocated to KJHK and it was almost two full-time equivalents,” said Gentry, who assumed the job five years ago. “Plus our new curriculum is more centrally focused on writing, video and the Web. Radio really has only a very marginal role.”

Throughout the country, radio has seen its position usurped by other forms of new media. Gintowt, a KU junior who first started as a DJ and became music director for the station last semester, agrees with the administration that occupational opportunities in broadcast journalism have steadily declined.

“With all the mergers in the corporate stations there’s not as many jobs,” he said. “But what they don’t realize is that it still is a valid career, there’s just less people doing it.”

Gintowt spoke with Gentry when the proposed cuts first came about. Gentry reportedly questioned whether the university was getting its investment out of KJHK specifically with how it related to journalism.

“My response is that there’s a lot of quality news and sports programs, which are directly linked to broadcast journalism,” Gintowt said. “As far as the programming goes, there are numerous DJs who’ve worked at KJHK that have gone on to be DJs. There’s all kinds of people who ended up in the music industry.”

The majority of KJHK’s budget comes from student activities fees: Roughly half goes to the University Daily Kansan and half goes to KJHK. The rest of the revenue comes from advertising sales and other promotional activities. Because it is a noncommercial station, there are numerous restraints in the way it can raise funds.

“We have to walk this very fine line where we’re not advertising, we’re getting underwriting and we’re running donor announcements,” Gintowt said. “If some of those restrictions were loosened by the FCC, we’d probably be able to make a lot more money off advertising almost to the point where we could be self-supported.”

But since KJHK isn’t a commercial station, its overall goal doesn’t hinge on making a profit. In that respect, it is freed up artistically to experiment in ways that would normally be deemed too financially risky.

Ultimately, Gintowt believes KJHK serves a two-fold role.

“One part is getting the journalism students the professional experience they need,” he said. “Honestly, there’s not many outlets for that on campus. KUJH (the university television station) to a certain degree provides some experience. But for sports talk or DJs or people in executive positions, that kind of experience you can’t get anywhere else.

“The second role is being the primary music provider for students at KU. Basically, like 95 percent of what we play you won’t hear on other stations. I still think that is the primary role.”

KJHK has a preference for playing bands such as The Strokes and White Stripes as opposed to Creed or Nickelback, which sometimes has resulted in its being dismissed as catering only to the indie-rock clique.

“I think if they (the university administration) could choose the format it would be a lot different,” Gintowt speculated. “But I think they understand why it sounds the way it does. Plus they know from last time KJHK tried to change its format it was a disaster. They’re wary of that now.”

“Some of that stuff is a little too far out there for me: chainsaw rock, you know?” said Gentry, who finds more enjoyment in the station’s jazz programs. “But I love KJHK. It’s a great station. It serves the community well. I just don’t know that the School of Journalism ought to be the one running it.”

And who should be?

“That’s not my problem.”