KXTR is out of this world

BY: ASHTYN HANSARD / Multimedia Journalist

In 2024, many students can look back at their lives and see how much has changed in such a short time, but what's constant in those years? Most would say family, friends and schoolwork, but I would like to add one more: music.

Tarleton’s radio station, KXTR The Planet, has been around since 2004, setting up its first station in Davis Hall which has since then been torn down. The general manager, Lance McFarlin, got his start with KXTR in 2009, just five years after it first began, but he wasn’t always in charge.

“I started here in 2009 as a volunteer DJ as a part of a class, and then started working here as a student worker,” McFarlin said. “I’ve just worked my way up and in 2018, I believe, I became the general manager and it’s been genuinely life-changing.”

“Before college, I was working in a sawmill for five years after high school and then decided to come to college and found radio,” McFarlin said. “At first, it was journalism, but then I found radio and decided that I wanted to work in radio; It’s given me the opportunity to do that for the last almost 14 years.”

In a time where media is becoming such a big part of life, more jobs are requiring experience with technology for future employees. Though internships and college courses can provide help with this dilemma. McFarlin believes that KXTR can help these students with these requirements and their resumes.

“I think working here gives students a glimpse of working in a real media environment,” McFarlin said. “We have projects, we have deadlines, we run events, which are a big part of working in radio. I think it gives them a really good grasp of what working in a media environment would be like, including experience.”

“There’s technical experience and creative experience,” McFarlin said. “Everyone that comes through here isn’t going to be working in radio specifically; that's why we offer all those extras here so people can gain that experience as well.”

It’s not just communications students who come through to work at KXTR. McFarlin has seen students from all different kinds of majors, from agriculture to fine arts, try their hand at being a DJ. Every student can swing by and volunteer for a two-hour shift working the radio station and getting their own show.

“There are students that come through from all different kinds of majors that have an interest in working in radio, or not just radio but media like podcasting or maybe YouTubers or whatever it is,” McFarlin said. “That’s why we do a lot of that stuff here, not just radio.”

Although KXTR has advanced quite a bit since its start in 2004, the station is always reaching to complete new goals. What once started as a show that only played underground music with a few listeners, has flourished into a well-known radio show that covers quite a bit of Stephenville, Texas and surrounding areas. 

However, there’s always more that could be achieved when growing a radio show.

“I would say goals related to people would be to give students a really good experience and help them get jobs,” McFarlin said. “Students come to Tarleton, for the most part, to go get good jobs where they make good money.”

“Doing my best to give them experience, not just in media but how to have a job and how to function in a workplace,” McFarlin said. “A big part of what I do is helping students with their resumes and helping them connect with people with whatever fields they want to work in.”

Check out KXTR The Planet on the radio at 100.7 on your next drive around Stephenville.