KTRU PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Contact: Joey Yang
Tel: 614/218-4625
Email: joeyyang@gmail.com
KTRU opposes any proposed sale of properties
Aug. 17, Houston – KTRU is a student-run radio station under the authority of its FCC license holder, Rice University, as well as the student body of Rice University. KTRU, with a 50,000 Watt transmitter, serves Rice University and the Houston community as part of the local radio network. KTRU employs two full-time employees, one part-time office assistant, and dozens of volunteer DJ’s from the Rice University and Harris County communities. KTRU is available on the web at ktru.org.
KTRU is actively opposed to Rice University’s attempt to sell its broadcasting license and transmitter to the University of Houston. The organization, which operates through the will of the student body, does not endorse any plan that changes KTRU’s operating abilities.
Rice University has made an attempt to sell KTRU’s broadcasting license and transmitter in secrecy without consent or consultation with KTRU or the Rice student body. This puts the city of Houston and Rice University in danger of losing a vital media outlet.
KTRU refuses to recognize the validity of any agreement as a result of our exclusion from the negotiating table.
KTRU is a one-of-a-kind institution, a powerful, 50,000-watt college radio station that is run and operated by the student body. Only a handful of other college stations in the country have such an asset.
KTRU is known throughout the Houston market for a variety of award-winning shows, including but not limited to it’s weekly Hip-Hop show, the Vinyl Frontier, MK Ultra, wednesday night Blues, Sunday afternoon Jazz, and a local Houston/Texas music show, as well as international music from almost every country on Earth. No other station in the area provides such an array of music.
KTRU is the only 24-hour-a-day student media at Rice University. It is, after Rice Athletics, probably the most visible symbol of Rice within the Houston community. KTRU is the only radio station who broadcasts Rice’s nationally renown baseball team, as well as the home for women’s basketball games.
KTRU has created a Save KTRU twitter page, as well as a google and facebook group under the same names.
KTRU will be willing to answer questions in a scheduled Q&A session as part of its 7:00pm meeting Tuesday night in Sammy’s in the Rice Memorial Center. All members of the media are invited to attend.
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are you kidding me? selling the university radio station? as an alum, that was one of the only reasons i gave $$ to rice, b/c i still listen to KTRU, as i sure dont use my education in my current field.
what’s next, the Rice chapel? i got married there. but its prime real estate, can fetch mucho dinero!!
KTRU is licensed to WILLIAM MARSH RICE UNIVERSITY according to the FCC. The student body does not have anything to do with actual ownership, and the University can operate or sell the station whenever or however it wishes.
One of my only reasons to like Houston is going to turn into what? Will KTRU be spewing typical format radio or will the UH version be much of the as Rice’s version? Seems to me who ever owns it will still have student radio…look at KVRX Austin, Boston College student radio, Berkely student radio. What are UH’s plans?
KTRU is a rare gem that has been chronically under-appreciated.
@DDEVIOUS – according to UH, the new station would be 24-hour, classical music and fine arts. I am sure it would be fine programming, but certainly not as unique as KTRU is — or capable of filling a hole in the Houston radio soundscape as KTRU currently does.
@Shem – you are correct that the University does hold KTRU’s license. However, I would argue that just because the University *can* do something does not mean it *should* do it. There are myriad structures and institutions that the University owns — and could sell — but doing so would be detrimental to the university as a whole.
For instance, as one commenter pointed out, selling the Rice Chapel could technically be done, but it would not be advisable. Much of the Rice community would be up in arms. The administration could sell Lovett Hall to U of H, but I hardly think that would fly.
That said, selling property that a thriving Rice organization depends on without so much as consulting with students is certainly questionable. My hope is that Rice will see this, see the error of their ways, and stop the process before it’s too late.
Radio has been enlightening me since 194o. This appears to be the end. Take my Medicare, but please, let me have KTRU radio.
Joe Fullen
I have listened for more than 25 years, at nearly 8 hours a day. I NEVER know what’s next AND I LOVE IT!!! I DO know nobody trying to sell me anything is cool!!! Please Don’t Die!!! xoxoxo single tear 🙁
What a crime and what a shame! KTRU was the only radio station in the Houston area that provided the listener with a tantilizing glimpse of just how strange, diverse and unique music could be. Listening to this station not only entertained me but refreshed my soul. If it had not been for KTRU my musical tastes would have stagnated and died years ago. I can only hope and pray that the plan to provide KTRU-like formatting via the internet will not be done away with. I love you KTRU. You should not have to end your broadcasting days this way. You are a much beloved institution.
KTRU was the reason I gave money to Rice too. I’m flabbergasted that they would even consider selling one of their greatest assets.
Of course the University has the *right* to do this. But like many others have said, that doesn’t mean that they should. And the suddeness and apparent secrecy is apt to chap as many hides as the actual idea to sell. The key to successfully running a hegemony is to uphold most of all the impression that that’s not what you are doing!
I don’t personally feel like the KTRU of the past several years is quite the same bastion of creativity that it was in what *I* perceive to have been it’s hey-day (circa 1985 – 1995). But perhaps that has as much to do with my age then versus my age now as it does with the programming.
Still, though, if the Regents feel like they have something on their hands that has stagnated, but it’s worth some dough, that just makes it all the easier to sell it off. The cure is to show them that it’s not stagnate, and that it IS valued. That is, if it’s not already too late.
Best wishes and best of luck. I can hear classical plenty already on KUHF. But there’s nothing like KTRU on any other channel.
This is the only radio station worth anything in Houston. They are the only ones actively doing things for the community and being open to any and all local music, art, and cultural expression. It makes me incredibly sad and sick that rice university is going to sell the one station that has made the Houston cultural and music scene known and also exposed it’s listeners to more pertinent information and unique genres of music than any of these other generic, corporately owned, music stations. Speaking as a local musician myself, (who in fact has had the honor of being on KTRU)I am appalled by this decision. Save KTRU!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don’t understand most of the comments here. The radio station is not going away; only the FM broadcast tower. The tower is being put to good use, as are the funds being received in return. The online stream reaches the same audience the FM tower did, and then some. Seems like a win-win to me; might as well make use of the value in the tower before broadcast radio is dead completely.
The 2000 agreement (signed with KTRU forcibly off air in December 2000 during the athletic broadcast crisis) clearly states that while Rice holds the license, it does so in trust of the students, and that programming changes have a proper, specified channel (with student input). This agreement was signed by then-President Gillis and should hold moral, if not legal sway against the “University can do whatever it wants” argument. The only reason the trustees hold the license, as is documented well in the midst of the 2000 shutdown, is that the student body turns over. The 2000 document clearly states this. I suggest filing a legal case.
http://www.culturemap.com/newsdetail/08-17-10-ktru-a-victim-of-its-own-mediocirty-houston-benefits-from-this-radio-controversey/
sigh.
@Ben
good idea on the legal front, but it would be a simple matter for a lawyer to argue that programming will not be changed by the sale, only the medium by which that programming is carried. still, the 2000 agreement, plus the argument of student financial and labor inputs to the station give them an ownership stake should bolster any case which is brought
The 2000 agreement allows the students to operate KTRU, nothing more. It does not prevent the University from selling the station. The students will still have a program outlet, on a different media platform, and perhaps on the UH owned station as an HD-2 or HD-3 signal. It does not give the students any legal standing as far as the FCC is concerned. There is no legal case to be made.
Yeah, see what I posted on Facebook.
What they should have done, what they should do if we win this battle, is incorporate KTRU as a non-profit with by-laws stipulating that the board members must all be students at Rice University. The board wouldn’t necessarily have anything to do with the running of the station, their only purpose would be to own and maintain the transmitter.
The best radio station in town. Seriously the best radio station in town, I hate all the other radio station full of commercials and crappy music. I’ve been turned on to so many different types of music and bands through KTRU over the years, and now we have to settle with an internet radio station, no ways.
I’ve been listening to KTRU for as long as I remember… I’m pretty young and its been a unique part of me for a good half of my life. Listening to KTRU, I’ve not only grown culturally, but more open-minded to people’s creations and ideals.
KTRU introduced me to jazz, techno, and all sorts of musical genres with its daily programs. I can’t thank the station and its DJs enough for opening me up to all things creative, independent, and bold.
As one DJ put it, we’re losing a cultural voice that sets Houston and the local community apart from other cities. Its possibly the only radio outlet for independent artists in Texas. Please, don’t let KTRU become only a good memory and stop the process!
@avr:
1. the radio station is going away. online music and radio are very different. radio is local, online is international.
2. not everyone has a computer (surprise!) or constant access to a computer, so the statement that it’s reaching the same audience is completely wrong.
3. KTRU as a radio station has basically no competitors, but KTRU as an online station only has probably 100+ competitors (see KJHK from Univ of Kansas, or KXLU from Loyala Marymount). KTRU’s audience is sure to decline and will become marginalized by online only.
4. Not sure if you’re a Rice student or alum, but the university’s efforts in the last 20-25 years to chase other schools has resulted in the school losing a bit of prestige and dropping in rankings. Rice has gone from an undergraduate powered, free gem of a small university to an extremely expensive, expanding, and increasingly vanilla elite private university. All the buildings aren’t helping Rice’s rankings or uniqueness.
Boycott all KUHF advertisers and tell them why, expand this into peaceful demonstrations against the advertisers and make it a “free speech” issue since KTRU is the only truly independant radion station in town, and they’ve now silenced it. Anything else is pretty much “feel good hippie crap” that won’t have any impact whatsoever. Hit ’em in the wallet if you want to get anything done.
For anyone who thinks that KTRU will be able to continue operations as usual on http://www.ktru.org, please consider the following point.
An overwhelming part of what makes KTRU’s programming possible is their ability to report their playlist and stats to CMJ (the college radio trade journal).
As a result of that reporting structure, they are on the distribution lists of hundreds of record labels and media distributors. In other words, they receive the lion’s share of what they play, including music for specialty programs like Africana, Navrang, Jazz, Scordatura, and Americana, free of charge. Once they are taken off the air, this arrangement will cease, and KTRU’s music collection will gradually become a dusty relic of the on-air era.
Even if KTRU’s format is not your cup of tea, I hope you will stand with us in defense of the students, whose voice and power have been stripped from them and whose culture has been monetized.
Alumni: your voice in particular will be heard by the administration. Please stay tuned for information on what you can do to help save KTRU.
Alright HOUSTON.
You have MOMENTUM.
*a beautifully coalescing music scene that you can be proud of and a radio station that has always stood behind you. *not to mention some awesome music festivals under your belt that prove that
YOU ARE NOT FUCKING AROUND, right?
-but this is still Houston. the very belly of the BEAST.
they will take everything they can from you and turn it into watered down bullshit because that is the nature of their game.
KTRU is, no doubt, worth fighting for. Read any of the comments on savektru.org and you will hear some excellent arguments for that case. The question now remains, WHO will do the fighting?
KTRU is an ASSET and your ALLY.
in case you don\’t remember, you won once already.
http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2000_3263432
Refused: “liberation frequency”
“We want the airwaves back
We don’t just want airtime
We want all the time all of the time”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQFX6NP8s3E
The same lame rationale from the same button-down bean-counters — just like in Austin at KUT and Boston and other locales across the nation. NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting are culpable too, you’d better believe. It’s part of the grand plan: see keeppublicradiopublic.com
[…] like Houston will get a full-time Classical station fairly soon, not though without some consternation and birth […]
I’ve only been listening to ktru for a short amount of time, almost 1 full school year and a summer, and it’s had a huge impact on me intellectually and musically and i am able to empathize with those who have been listening for years. After about a year of listening, i can’t imagine my school years being the same without it. It’s not everyday you find a station like this and to take it away, so to speak, would be like taking candy from a baby.
I LOVE THIS BLOG!!!
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