FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Joey Yang, KTRU Station Manager
Tel: 614.423.9264
Email: joey.yang@gmail.com

WASHINGTON, D.C. December 20, 2010— Friends of KTRU, a group of students, alumni and community members devoted to stopping the assignment of KTRU’s non-commercial (NCE) FM license, today filed an official Reply to Oppositions to its Petition to Deny with the Federal Communications Commission.

The Reply specifically challenges two Oppositions to Friends of KTRU’s Dec. 3 Petition to Deny, which were filed by University of Houston and Rice University, respectively.

“The claims of Rice University and the University of Houston System miss the underlying points of the Petition to Deny,” said Joey Yang, KTRU station manager. “They failed to address two of our major points: that the license transfer undermines the educational purpose of the FM license, and that elimination of KTRU-FM will harm the FCC’s commitment to localism. We call on the FCC to recognize these and the many other salient points in our Petition to Deny. The future of Houston radio depends on it.”

The law firm of Paul Hastings drafted the Reply. For the full text, please visit www.savektru.org.

You can read the full document here. (The file is in Adobe Acrobat format.)

The current issue of Signal to Noise magazine features an extensive cover story on the fight to save KTRU, entitled “We Want the Airwaves! The Struggle to Save Student-Run Freeform Radio in Houston“.

Find out where to obtain a copy here.

Local and Independent Programming
The goal here is more localism in our program diet, more local news and information, and a lot less streamed-in homogenization and monotonous nationalized music at the expense of local and regional talent. Homogenized music and entertainment from huge conglomerates constrains creativity, suppresses local talent, and detracts from the great tapestry of our nation’s cultural diversity.

Read the full article here.

… Mr. Yang believes the loss of a terrestrial signal will effectively delegitimize KTRU.

“As a 50,000-watt station that can be heard all across Houston, there’s a sense of responsibility to the community,” he said. “When you lose a terrestrial footprint in Houston — anyone can put out a signal that’s on the Internet — it takes away the legitimacy of what we’re trying to do.”

Despite obvious parallels between KTRU and WRVU, Chris Carroll, director of student media at Vanderbilt Student Communications, draws a stark contrast between the situations at the two universities. At Vanderbilt, he said, “what’s happening, really, is a big public discussion about is this a good idea or not, and there’s no conclusion to that yet.” Rice, he said, made the decision to sell KTRU behind closed doors — without student input.

After a tumultuous summer, groups focused on saving the stations have mobilized at both campuses. Both have Web sites — savektru.org and savewrvu.org — and Facebook pages to gather comments and provide updates.

Read the full article here.

“There’s nothing like KTRU on the air right now,” Yang said. “(National Public Radio) and classical music are both well-served by KUHF’s current format. We think the loss of the independent, eclectic format is a net loss to the community.”

And that Rice violated an agreement to consult with a KTRU advisory board by conducting the initial discussions in secret.

Similarly, the petition says UH may have violated the Open Meetings Act by omitting mention of Rice or KTRU in its public posting regarding the purchase. The agenda referred only to “the purchase of a radio station for use by KUHF.”

Comments sent to the FCC are not yet available on its website. Yang said KTRU has received copies of almost 1,000 comments sent to the commission.

Several were included in Friday’s filing.

“There were lots of voices in support of our station,” Yang said.

“They say Houston doesn’t need more of the same thing. They want our programming.”

Read the full article here.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Joey Yang, KTRU Station Manager
Tel: 614.423.9264
Email: joey.yang@gmail.com

WASHINGTON, D.C. December 3, 2010— Friends of KTRU, a group of students, alumni and community members devoted to stopping the assignment of KTRU’s non-commercial (NCE) FM license, today filed an official Petition to Deny with the Federal Communications Commission.

The petition specifically challenges Rice University’s application to assign the station’s license to the University of Houston System (UHS). UHS already operates KUHF, an NPR and classical music station in Houston, and proposes to create a 24-hour classical station on the 91.7 FM frequency, reserving 88.7 FM for NPR programming.

“Rice University and the University of Houston System used underhanded techniques in this attempt to sell KTRU’s FM license, which was student-created and has been maintained by four decades of hard-working student volunteers,” said Joey Yang, KTRU station manager. “With this Petition to Deny, we hope to stop them and return KTRU-FM to its rightful owners: the students.”

The law firm of Paul Hastings drafted the 41-page petition, which describes numerous ways in which the proposed assignment of KTRU’s NCE FM license to UHS is decidedly not in the public interest.

Here is a summary:

• The proposed programming for the new station would significantly decrease community-oriented programming, in contravention of the FCC’s emphasis on broadcast localism
• The proposed assignment would be contrary to the educational purpose of the non-commercial FM license
• Internet transmission of KTRU would be a poor substitute for FM broadcast
• Houston-area non-commercial, educational FM licenses would be overly concentrated in the hands of UHS and non-independent operators
• Questions exist as to the qualifications of UHS holding an additional NCE FM license
• Rice and UHS’s secrecy, deception excluded student and community participation
• Characterization of FM radio license as a “declining asset” and sale at a below market price is harmful to the public interest

In addition to the Petition to Deny, Friends of KTRU spearheaded a campaign to organize public opposition to the license transfer. To date, the group has received more than 1,000 letters protesting the license assignment, more than 5,000 online petition signatures, and innumerable letters to FCC Commissioners and members of Congress.

You can read the full Petition to Deny here. (The file is in Adobe Acrobat format.)

Needless to say, this shift toward disconnect is epitomized by the KTRU debacle. The nature of secrecy and lack of communication surrounding this business deal which dealt a severe blow to a major student organization was simply unprecedented. The administration could have, quite frankly, not cared about student desires less than they did during the KTRU sale.

Read the full article here.