How to Help
Rice University and the University of Houston have filed paperwork with the FCC to transfer ownership of KTRU’s FM license. If approved, KTRU would go off the air forever. Don’t let it happen!
Simply follow these easy steps, and you’ll be saving KTRU in no time!
Contact Rice & the University of Houston
Contact Rice & UH and tell them to stop the sale. Also, many Rice & UH alumni have pledged to never donate to their alma mater if the sale goes through. If you feel likewise, let your university know. Rice alums, click here for contact info. UH alums, click here.
Call or write to Congress
Tell our elected officials that radio is not a “declining asset” and that secret deals involving public resources are unacceptable. Click here for our sample letter to Congress, and read our post Time to contact Congress, which contains further details, including a list of the key U.S. Representatives and Senators to contact.
Spread the word
Tell everyone that now is the time to speak up and make your voice heard! Send people here:
Older Information:
- Contact the Rice University administration
- Contact the University of Houston administration
- If you’re a Rice alumnus or alumna…
- If you’re a musician…
- If you’re in media…
- Download materials to help get the message out
- If you live in the Houston area, contact your U.S. representative
- Contribute to Save KTRU
Other threatened student-run radio stations:
- KUSF 90.3 FM University of San Francisco
- WRVU 91.1 FM Vanderbilt University
I I am in shock over this. There is no other station even close to KTRU in the diversity of music it offers. I am not a Rice alumni, but I have listened to KTRU since the days of the S&M show in the mid 80’s. I have been a rabid fan of MKUltra for many, many years. It may be technically true that what is on KTRU is also available on the Internet, but anyone who has spent any time at all on the Net will tell you, there is no substitute for someone (your DJ’s) who has a love for music and is willing to put in the time to track it down, separate the wheat from the chaff, and put it up on the air for us to listen to. Why do we need yet another classical station on the air when doing so takes away a station that is utterly unique and adds immeasurably to the cultural life of Houston?
One thing I have not seen is any sort of timeline as to when this sale will occur. Also, for me, this is coming as a complete surprise. Why and how did this happen so suddenly?
I will, of course, do what I can to help in any way. If your overlords have any sense of duty to the larger community which Rice is supposed to serve, please tell them that I find this move of theirs outrageous, one which will generate a permanent air of animosity that I promise will not be allowed to fade over time.
Can the powers that be please also post the address to which people can send monetary contributions to “Save KTRU”? We have a bank account in that name now.
No. No. Do we need another classical music station? Let the music reign! Don’t do it! Stand up. Don’t corporatize this station.
Where do we send the sign petitions and when do you need them back? I have a couple of pages of signatures I want to send you…
Petition address is posted: KTRU-FM, MS 506, Rice University, Houston, TX 77251-1892
I don’t even live in Texas, and I’m more than willing to assist! I’ve never seen so much diversity from a radio station in my life.
There is SO LITTLE good music on the airwaves in Houston – a couple of hours a couple days a week – between 2 stations – KTRU being one. Losing it will be devastating. It is the ONLY place to hear what I want – excellent blues, reggae, chickenskinmusic, funk & soul, treasures of the 60’s, spoken word, new music, local music, the kids’ show, world music, etc. etc. It is vitally important to save KTRU. There is no where else to hear some of this. I’ve been out of school more than 20 years but good independent radio is still absolutely necessary to survive in my mind. Back then we almost lost our college station (in much the same way). I’m feeling the same panic now, with the same raw immediacy, at the prospect of losing KTRU. Please don’t let it happen. KTRU deserves its own voice.
Here’s an idea: Why don’t you sell those T-shirts to raise $$? If they have that cool transmission tower logo, they’ll sell like hotcakes! Just sayin’
Turning this into classical music will not increase listeners AT ALL. It will only split up current npr listeners. And selling this station behind the student body? …No. This is the only station that is incredibly adored, to me at least.
Make car stickers(I want one bad), pins, buttons, flyers, etc.
I love when an academic institution does really nasty stuff because of the pull they get. The University of Alabama tried to buy all of the strip here in Tuscaloosa to get rid of all the bars and restaurants, for some reason (Blue law + imminent domain i suppose). Actually though in this case the resistance was successful. Hope you guys get to keep your radio station. If your others stations are anything like here then you ain’t got a damn thing else to listen to (thanks Clear Channel, 4/5 Talk/sports channels alone).
Give em some hell for us in Tuscaloosa.
Thanks for the support, Tuscaloosa! Glad you got to keep the Strip.
KTRU has been the one ray of sunshine every day and evening in the combat drive between home and work, and I will certianly miss the programing. It was one of the few things that set rice appart from a very plain jane top 40s world that is pushed down our throats, Guess Rice is going that route too, too bad, I remember college as an edgy creative place with few boundiries, as epitomized by KTRU’s message. Guess I will have to toss the pad and paper i used to madly scribble notes on a unique piece here and there that struck a cord with my sole. Too bad, so sad!!!
KUHT, the sister PBS TV station to KUHF, seems to be in the middle of another one of their beg-a-thons.
SUGGESTION: Do what I did a few days ago. When they start asking for money, call their Pledge Line and tell them that you are withholding your support until this sale is cancelled. They will take some info from you and forward your message to the station’s management. Hopefully, they’ll start to take notice when supporters (and I really want to remain one! I’m a real fan of PBS) start withholding the dough.
Just a thought …
Totally agree that we should not donate any money at this time. In case KTRU is sold to UH, the money will very likely fund the new 24 hour classical music station converted from KTRU.
I was a member of the KUHF Sustainer Club, making monthly automatic contributions to the station. I have cancelled my membership, and in my cancellation letter I said:
“I am writing to request that my sustaining membership, and my monthly payments, be cancelled immediately. I am cancelling my membership to protest the ongoing efforts by the University of Houston to obtain KTRU’s license and transmitter.”
Unfortunately, it seems that hitting them in their pocketbooks may be the only way to get their attention.
As a former Operations Director at KUHF, this strikes me as unwise for all concerned. I will be making my opinions known to the administration of both universities.
I go to UH and I prefer the Rice radio station over the classical one UH offers, it’s really sad that it is all about money.
Where can I get Save KTRU shirts? I want to spread the word.
I think the most fruitful direction would be to find the individuals on the board of Rice and the most significant economic contributors to Rice and talk to them about withholding their money and pressuring the administration to stop the sale.
Let the students decide, this is their radio station, they should have been involved in the decision making process. What is next? Rice Baseball a AAA farm team of MLB?
FCC commissioner Sherrese Smith is on maternity leave. An auto-response email from her office indicates that Marilyn.Sonn@fcc.gov will be contact person in her absence.
Heard this from a co-worker who is very close to someone in development at KUHF. UH President Renu Khator only approved the move forward of the purchase with the stipulation that fund-raising efforts at KUHF increase “significantly”. KUHF has a poor fund raising record relative to other public radio stations around the country. To that end, KUHF has been given a 2 year window in which to raise these increased funds. If the funds are not increased via donations, the tower will be RESOLD by the University of Houston at the end of the two year period. Supporters should press UH to confirm or dent this so that the purchase of KTRU can be blocked.
The drive to reduce, undermine and even destroy student cultural production and political voice is not just limited the confines of your station, or even of US college radio stations. I am a volunteer at RADIO ONE 91fm in Dunedin, New Zealand, and a similar sale is planned here. It was announced in an ambush attack last Thursday, without proper student consultation and upon advice received by a myopically and fiscally-focused Deloitte report. The patent failure to recognise any non-financial value of our station points toward the conclusion that we are dealing with an ideologically driven attack on student voices.
My presumption is that KTRU was probably born in a politically tumultuous time to give voice to a student body which was not being represented and to a local musical culture which was also unrepresented by commercial interests. This was certainly the case with Radio One, and we must all fight to keep those media channels open for our interests. Having poured over US college radio reports in your mass media, there is a suspiciously uniform series of propositions put out about the ‘viability’ and ‘utility’ of student radio to current student interests. These kind of arguments (this meme if you will) seem too well groomed to be anything other than PR. The same limp PR and the same ingenuous denials of value are being repeated here. It needs to be roundly rejected.
You certainly have my support, and the camaraderie of Radio One, 91FM in Dunedin New Zealand.
I hope this decision is able to be reversed. While I support classical radio, I also think alternative radio needs a place on the airwaves.