KTSW89.9

85 SPOTS. ZERO CALLS TO ACTION.

FCC rules for nonprofit broadcast stations prohibit promotional language in underwriting spots — no "call now," no "best in town," no pricing. You have a few seconds to identify a sponsor and make them memorable using nothing but description and identity.

That constraint is harder than writing a commercial. A commercial can lead with a hook, a deal, or a demand. Underwriting has to earn attention through pure brand character.

The Scope

Over nearly two years I wrote and produced approximately 85 PSAs, promos, and underwriting spots for air — plus roughly 10 dedicated sponsor and organizational underwriting spots. Every one had to work within FCC rules. Every one had to sound like it belonged on the station without sounding like an ad.

That discipline — making something land within strict structural constraints — carried directly into every regulated market project that followed.

I managed FCC licensing compliance and designed content intake and review workflows

RANCH IT UP

A Post New Wave Show With an Eric Andre Energy

Ranch It Up was a specialty show designed around a specific cultural gap: post new wave music — punk, industrial synth, darkwave — that had no obvious home on a station built around indie and local music coverage. The solution was a format that could play deep cuts and new indie entries in that genre space without announcing itself as a genre show.

The name came from the Eric Andre Ranch It Up sketch. The tone followed — irreverent, live, and deliberately hard to categorize. Music selection was planned weekly, built around two CDs of material mixed live on a sound board, moving between tracks, live talk breaks, PSAs, and underwriting in real time.

The Format

Two seasons with a co-host. All on-air talk was improvised — no script, no safety net. The music did the positioning. The voice did the rest.

WRITING TO A STATION IDENTITY, NOT JUST A FORMAT

KTSW's brand is built around indie music and local Austin events. That identity has to hold across every piece of content on the station — PSAs, promos, DJ breaks, underwriting, specialty programming. Writing production copy for KTSW meant understanding what the station sounded like and making sure everything produced fit that voice without homogenizing it.

The Problem

That's a brand consistency problem. The same problem that shows up in every content strategy engagement — how do you maintain a coherent identity across multiple contributors, formats, and contexts without flattening everything into a single tone?

KTSW was where I first learned to solve it.

THE THROUGH LINE

The FCC nonprofit underwriting constraint that shaped TxCannaCo brand messaging started here. The live performance discipline that carried into 125+ podcast episodes started here. The ability to write to a brand voice that isn't your own — and make it sound natural — started here.

KTSW wasn't a stepping stone. It was the foundation.