September 20, 2010

Dear Member of the Rice University Board of Trustees,

We write on behalf of numerous fellow Rice University students and alumni regarding the damage that the proposed sale of KTRU’s transmitter and FCC license to the University of Houston is doing to our school’s reputation, both within the Rice community and throughout greater Houston. Prior to news of the sale, Rice enjoyed a strong degree of trust from current students and alumni, and a positive reputation in the community. But Rice students and alumni have been troubled by the lack of openness surrounding the sale, the secretiveness of which violates the spirit of engagement that Rice is known for. Community members as well as those affiliated with Rice are concerned about the cultural loss that the sale of KTRU 91.7 FM would represent for the city. We entreat you to use your considerable influence as a trustee to act to halt the impending sale.

The economic justification for the sale is confounding, as the cost to Rice University for KTRU’s existence on the FM dial is minimal. Since the station’s founding by students in 1967, it has operated through the efforts of student, alumni, and community volunteers. Rice has always provided studio space, and more recently a staff general manager and chief engineer. But KTRU’s 50,000 watt transmitter, along with an endowment for its maintenance, was donated in 1991 by KRTS 92.1 FM, a commercial radio station which wanted to increase its power without causing signal interference. At the time, KTRU’s student management was promised by President George Rupp that the power upgrade would not lead to a loss of student control. General station operations are paid for by Rice students through a $6.00 blanket tax.

While the administration has claimed that “the students aren’t losing anything” in the proposed sale, that could hardly be further from the truth. If KTRU loses its transmitter and FCC license, it loses most of its audience, its significance as a broadcast entity, and its geographic tie to the city of Houston. The audience for the terrestrial broadcast of KTRU dwarfs its Internet listenership, despite the fact that it has been streaming over the Internet for a decade. In cars and on mobile devices, Internet radio is a poor substitute for the real thing, as listeners must contend with frequent dropped connections and areas of inadequate coverage. Furthermore, Internet access requires either a home broadband connection or a cell phone with monthly data fees, excluding listeners of limited financial means.

KTRU’s place as one of a limited number of stations on the FM dial gives it a much higher profile than it would have as an Internet-only entity, where it would merely be one among thousands of webcasts. Record labels that currently serve KTRU with free music would be unlikely to do so for a webcast, causing the station’s music collection to stagnate. The economics of music licensing requirements are highly disadvantageous to Internet-only webcasts, as compared with FM broadcast stations, being based on the number of simultaneous listeners, and thus penalizing stations for growing their audiences. And of the utmost concern, student interest and participation in the organization would plummet, as has been observed at other universities that moved from FM transmission to Internet-only.

As an FCC-regulated radio station, KTRU provides significant leadership opportunities for Rice students. Running a 50,000 watt FM station in the nation’s fourth largest city is a big responsibility, and Rice students have always proved themselves up to the task. The leadership experiences that they have gained as DJs and student managers have complemented their academic pursuits and led to future success in professions such as law, politics, corporate management, and academic administration.

Over the past weeks, President Leebron has offered a few rationales for the proposed sale. If these issues were of such great concern, why did he not convene the KFC (KTRU Friendly Committee), a committee made up of students, faculty, staff, and alumni, which is charged with working with the station management to determine operational programming? The fact that none of these concerns were ever addressed through the channel that was instituted to discuss KTRU-related issues severely undermines the administration’s credibility.

Rice University holds KTRU’s FCC license in trust for the students. Selling that license without the consent of the students would be a betrayal of that trust. It would be a betrayal of the students who founded the station, those who applied for the FCC license, those who were assured of the administration’s benevolence in 1991, those who agreed to implement the KFC in 2000, and all of the many student, alumni, and community volunteers who have endeavored on KTRU’s behalf over the past four decades.

And frankly, that proposed action is making Rice University look very bad in many quarters. News of the sale has been greeted by negative editorials in the Houston Chronicle and the Rice Thresher, and over 5,000 people have signed petitions protesting the sale, which have been printed in both the Rice Thresher and the Daily Cougar. Even those who are not devoted KTRU listeners have expressed concerns about the proposed disappearance of KTRU from the FM dial, particularly the loss of the station’s ethnic and cultural programming, as well as the uncharacteristic secrecy surrounding this proposal.

While confidentiality during a negotiating process is one thing, it’s quite another to secretly decide to put that process in motion without any stakeholder input. The administration’s attempts to conflate the two have convinced no one of the latter’s merit. Instead, this obfuscation betrays a lack of respect to the Rice community, is incompatible with the values we thought Rice embodied, and has undermined the trust many in Houston and across the country previously had in Rice.

Finally, we believe that $9.5 million is not worth the permanent destruction of student and alumni trust and community goodwill. That money may be quickly spent, but the negative repercussions will endure for decades. It is not too late to change course, for the good of Rice. As a trustee, you hold in your hands the power to salvage Rice University’s reputation as a fair and open institution that values its students. Please do whatever is necessary to stop the proposed sale of KTRU’s transmitter and FCC license.

On behalf of over 5,000 concerned students, alumni and community members,



Joey Yang
KTRU Station Manager
Class of 2012

Denise Wilson
Class of 1989

Steven J. Cox
Master of Brown College
Professor of Computational & Applied Mathematics


cc: Rice University Board of Trustees
President David Leebron
Cynthia L. Wilson, J.D

“There are only 25 – twenty five – independently owned and operated radio stations in the United States.  In addition, there are about 200 college stations, a small fraction of which are completely student run (which represents, I would argue, some manner of independence).  By comparison, Clear Channel Communications owns and operates 900 stations in the United States, so what you hear on a Clear Channel station in Anchorage is going to be exactly the same as what you hear on one in Birmingham.  Corporate radio is a bland wasteland, and since most radio stations in the United States are corporately owned, so too is, by extension, the American radio landscape.  By selling off KTRU’s and WRVU’s frequency, Rice and Vanderbilt are doing nothing to improve this. “

Read the full post here >

NAP writer dismantles the logic behind UH’s claim that acquiring a second radio station will improve its chances of attaining “Tier One” status:

In other words, despite claims to the contrary, acquiring another radio station is unlikely to affect UH’s Tier status.

Note that she doesn’t say that acquiring another radio station will affect UH’s status; she says that some other Tier One universities have two radio stations. Subtle. We all know about the relationship between correlation and causation, so if you stop to think about what she’s saying, you realize she’s saying nothing. And even if others say that there is a causal relationship between having two radio stations and becoming Tier One, you can’t pin any of that flawed logic on Dr. Khator, because she doesn’t directly say a new radio station will make any difference.

Don’t be fooled. They’ve given you their criteria for being Tier One. A new radio station has nothing to do with those criteria.

Read the full article here.

… I realized that there was a specific, if unstated, reasoning behind the KTRU aesthetic. And that is, that all types of music are of equal value and deserve representation on the radio, and that KTRU exists to provide that representation.

… the DJ recognizes that there are many different types of music in the world, and an innumerable number of musical works, most of which are completely unrepresented on the FM radio dial, or even on satellite radio or Internet radio. KTRU is one of only a handful of stations in the entire United States that make any attempt at all to even approximate the diversity of recorded music that exists.

… part of the reason that KTRU supporters … are so passionate about the station is its explicit and uncompromising valuation of art for its own sake. As consumers, as citizens, as workers, nearly everything we do in modern America to interact with the world is governed by the logic of the marketplace, which, even in the age of the “long tail,” necessarily favors the bland, the moderate, and the generalistic. By contrast, KTRU operates according to the logic of aesthetic experience, which favors the idiosyncratic and the radical, and acknowledges the multiplicity of feeling and opinion. To shelter and insulate this type of thinking, which rarely survives exposure to the marketplace, should be among the highest missions of an institute of education. Nobody else can take it up on any kind of scale. For an institute like Rice to abdicate that responsibility so nakedly- quite frankly, it just tears me apart.

Read the full article here.

… a Tier One broadcasting operation exists today and should remain so. UH does not need to get into the expensive news and information business, as many commercial news stations have failed in recent years.

As for Rice University, the Houston public needs to hear more, not less, from those bright future leaders by preserving their opportunity to be on air. Students need to have access to freedom of speech — in broadcasting and in print. Students need to learn how to make use of media by having responsibility for it.

Read the full article here.

Come out and show your support for KTRU at these upcoming FREE shows in Houston!

Friday, September 24th, 8:30pm (doors) @ Fitzgerald’s, 2706 White Oak Drive
Golden Axe, The Roller, Venemous Maximus, 2 Star Symphony, The Energy, Omatai, Free Radicals, DJ Meshak

Sunday, September 26th, 8-10pm: Free Radicals @ Notsuoh, 314 Main Street

Monday, September 27th, 10pm-1am: KTRU Funk & Soul DJ Jaekim will be spinning at Poison Girl, 1641 Westheimer

“I don’t know if some of these people [critiquing KTRU] feel they were rejected by KTRU in some way, or just that they imagine that’s what would’ve happened given the chance, but at any rate, I got in on my second try and quickly realized that no one there had any agenda of trying to out-cool or out-weird anyone else. Rather, it was a group of people passionate about investigating the vast totality of human musical endeavor, who saw no need to pander to artificial or commercially-motivated preconceptions about music. One of the most valuable aspects of being a KTRU DJ was simply realizing how little you knew, and how much there was to learn and enjoy.”

Read the full post here >

“With many contributions, collaborations and new faces added to the distinctive nature that often attracts listeners to the station, KTRU has evolved from the status it once retained as a non-existent, college bound post to a cultural symbol amongst most Houstonians. With a 50,000 watt signal, it is now evident how far forty years has brought today’s listeners.”

Read the full post here >

From the second part of the post:

“Many people would have to seriously consider whether they want to listen to internet radio at all if it meant using up all of their data allotment. It all makes you not want to listen. I don’t know who thinks that internet radio is a viable alternative to terrestrial radio, but they are misinformed.”

Read the full post here >

“Two weeks ago, one of KTRU’s music directors, Kevin Bush, composed the resolution and introduced it to the SA after learning about the university’s decision to sell KTRU’s broadcasting tower, license and frequency to KUHF. According to Bush, a Duncan College junior, the resolution aims to safeguard and maintain the integrity of student organizations in the future. It said that the Student Association disapproved of KTRU being sold without the student consultation and called for a written commitment from the administration that the secretive procedure would not become a precedent for other student organizations.”

Read the full article here >

‘Public Radio Capital’s role in the sale of KTRU has not been mentioned in any of President David Leebron’s communications, even though it was the party responsible for organizing the sale. Initially funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as a business resource for public radio, PRC has since led its clients through more than $240 million in radio transactions across the country, according to its website. PRC is contacted by a station owner — in this case, the Rice administration — with the desire to sell, and then proceeds with the work of assessing value and finding a buyer.”

Read the full article here (you may need to login)>

“The fight KTRU station manager Joey Yang and other KTRU DJs are putting up is pretty admirable. Rice University and University of Houston officials seem content with their underhanded decision-making and aren’t showing signs of offering the kids a place at the dinner table.”

Read the full article here >

The decision by Rice University to sell its student-run radio license and transmitter for $9.5 million launched protests by students and alumni, demanding that the decision be reversed.

The agreement to sell the radio license and transmitter of KTRU to the University of Houston wasn’t a sign of desperation, Leebron said.

Leasing at one of the university’s new signature buildings has been slow, as well.

The $300 million BioScience Research Collaborative is about half full.

Read the full article here >

Come out and support KTRU at a free concert this Saturday!

Free Radicals, The Live Lights, Ellypseas
Saturday, September 18, 2010 at 9:00pm
Mango’s, 403 Westheimer, Houston, TX

In a period of just under two weeks in August, Houston, Texas, lost its eclectically-programmed college radio station and 75% of its dedicated arthouse screens.

Austin’s venerable Alamo Drafthouse chain runs just two small theaters on the outskirts of Houston while cheap Alamo knockoffs Studio Movie Grill and The Movie Tavern have proliferated throughout the city. Maybe the Houston Angelika’s downtown location, with its confusing parking situation, wasn’t the best place for an arthouse. But a region with over 5 million people should easily be able to support more than three independently-oriented movie screens. And to have the city’s two major universities conspire to effectively shut down their one college radio station borders on the unconscionable.

Read the full article here.