The University of Houston agreed to pay $200,000 plus expenses to the non-profit firm Public Radio Capital for serving as a broker in the $9.5 million deal to acquire Rice University’s student radio station KTRU, according to a contract for the deal obtained by Texas Watchdog.
The deal securing Public Radio Capital was finalized in June 2009, with the purchase approved last August — all within months of the U of H instituting furloughs, a hiring freeze and pay freeze as the state struggled with declining revenue and projected budget shortfalls.
The e-mails show that U of H continued to pursue the KTRU deal even though some donors to its public radio station felt the purchase was unsound.
One donor, whose name was withheld, e-mailed Grover Campbell, VP of government relations at U of H, and referred to a report that found classical programming would lose money. KTRU was meant to complement U of H’s NPR affiliate KUHF; the university planned to use the additional frequency to broadcast classical music around the clock and turn KUHF into an all-news channel.
“I did speak with Ed and he basically confirmed what was in the report – classical is expected to lose $1M/year for the university plus the cost of acquisition and financing,” the donor wrote. “Hard for me to understand how to justify that for a university that is laying people off.”
You can read the full article here.
You can read the contract here.
Another student-run community radio station, KUSF 90.3 FM San Francisco, is under threat of having their FM license sold, and their presence on the FM dial permanently replaced by a so-called public radio station.
Courtesy of Texas Watchdog, you may now listen to the UH’s August 2010 Board of Regents meeting concerning KTRU (as you may recall, the public was deliberatelyprevented of knowing about the meeting’s subject in advance.)
The state Attorney General has ruled that the University of Houston must turn over certain business records relating to the sale of Rice University’s radio station KTRU to U of H, including the amount paid to a third-party consultant.
U of H asked the AG’s office for a ruling on some of the correspondence and payment information we requested.
The Jan. 7 ruling dictates that U of H can’t withhold communications with or payment to Public Radio Capital (PRC), a nonprofit consultancy that brokered the sale. The ruling did allow that some information being appealed by U of H met the standards for withholding, but much did not
Read the full article here.
Read the Attorney General’s ruling here.
Worst Attack on a Vital Houston Resource: Rice University
Kudos on using secrecy and deception to educate your students on Rice’s “unconventional” values.
Worst Betrayal of Public Trust by the Media: Houston Chronicle
But because Rice and UH were able to delay public disclosure of the deal, the two universities were able to gain an early advantage over opponents among Rice students, alumni, and the Houston community at large. So much the better for Rice and UH; so much the worse for Houston and the Chronicle’s reputation.
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Rice University is trying to sell KTRU 91.7 FM's license and transmitter! We need your help to keep independent, locally programmed student-run radio on Houston's airwaves.
Please see the How to Help page and follow our easy steps for saving KTRU! Thanks!