Today, the FCC granted the applications to assign the license for KTRU 91.7 FM and its translator station 91.5 FM to the University of Houston System.

Please stay tuned to KTRU and savektru.org for further updates on the situation.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Joey Yang, KTRU Station Manager

Tel: 614.423.9264

Email: joey.yang@gmail.com

HOUSTON, February 5, 2011— Friends of KTRU, a group of students, alumni and community members devoted to stopping the assignment of KTRU’s non-commercial (NCE) FM license, as well as KTRU’s student management, reject any notion that the dispute over the future of KTRU’s FM license and transmitter has been resolved by the agreement, announced today, regarding the simulcasting of KTRU’s programming on KPFT’s HD2 channel.

“HD radio is better than no radio,” said KTRU Station Manager Joey Yang, “but is orders of magnitude less viable than our current FM broadcast.”

Potential and actual listenership of HD radio is a fraction of that of conventional FM radio, and reception of HD radio broadcasts requires the purchase of a specialized receiver, putting it out of the reach of those with limited financial means.

The FCC has not yet ruled on Friends of KTRU’s Petition to Deny the transfer of KTRU’s FM license. Both Friends of KTRU and KTRU’s student management remain committed in their opposition to any sale of KTRU’s assets.

For continuing updates, please visit www.savektru.org.

The contract between broker Public Radio Capital and the University of Houston describes PRC’s brokerage rates:

PRC’s standard brokerage fee, which is generally equal to three percent of the station acquisition price … in this instance was discounted to 2%.

You can download the full contract here, and see a list of PRC’s transactions here.

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.

You can follow their updates at savekusf.org. They also have a Facebook group you can join, and a petition you can sign.

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 deliberately prevented 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.

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 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.