The Daily Cougar: “Group of students voices its opposition to KTRU acquisition at Board meeting“

Multiple students consecutively spoke to the straight-faced board members at the Wednesday meeting, and each student expressed a loss of confidence they had in the institution. Many UH students referred to the deal as a “black eye” on the university.

Nick Cooper, Rice alumnus and member of the local award-winning jazz band Free Radicals, told UH Regents they should “be ashamed at the way the situation was handled.”

Cooper said the loss of KTRU would be a monumental blow to local musicians like himself who gain exposure through the student run station.

Reactions have been similar throughout the UH community.

“As a communications student at UH, I am disheartened by our administration’s underhanded dealings,” Vincent Capurso, a volunteer D.J. at KTRU, said. “Is this what we are teaching business majors, deception?”

The Rice Thresher: “Open records requests unveil how KTRU sale was kept under wraps“

In addition to these details regarding the sale’s disclosure, the two open records requests revealed an incongruency between one of Leebron’s points supporting the deal and the timeline of relevant events.

Burn Down Blog: “When did Rice first try to sell KTRU?“

Rice should take the higher ground and release all of its information about the KTRU sale. If the sale is truly justified, then the facts should speak for themselves. Let Rice justify this sale, just as Rice students must justify their arguments in classes. If the university cannot do that, then this course of events will be tainted through Rice’s history as one of its lowest hours, unable to even meet the same standards it holds for its students.

YouTube: “KTRUgate: The Animated Series“

Texas Watchdog: “University of Houston practiced deception, cooked up ‘cover story’ as it closed deal to acquire Rice University’s KTRU radio station“

The University of Houston plotted to keep its acquisition of Rice University’s student-run KTRU radio station secret as long as possible — going so far at one point as to encourage lying to Rice students about why an engineering consultant needed access to the station, e-mails obtained by Texas Watchdog show.

“The underlying paper work is being drafted to mislead people or throw the effort off the track of the public,” said Larsen, the public records lawyer.

Huffington Post: “University Of Houston Deceived Students As It Closed Deal To Acquire Rice University’s KTRU“

“The longer we wait (for an agreement) the higher the likelihood of one of the ‘campus constituencies’ causes a problem for Rice, which could disrupt the transaction,” reads an April 5 e-mail to UH officials from an agent at Public Radio Capital

Houston Press: “Texas Watchdog: U Of H Covered Up KTRU Purchase Plans“

Published this morning, Steve Miler’s report cites emails from employees at Public Radio Capital to both U of H officials and the consultants hired by Rice that appear to recommend both universities work together to avoid tipping off KTRU’s staff, the student bodies and the public to the impending sale. One recommends Rice create a “cover story” relating to why an engineer was visiting KTRU to evalute its assets.

Texas Watchdog: “University officials plotted, bickered as KTRU sale to University of Houston finalized“

As the sale of Rice University’s student radio station KTRU to the University of Houston was finalized this summer, public relations teams from the University of Houston and Rice worried over possible leaks of the news and an ensuing “press frenzy.”

The deal didn’t get out for another week, and UH’s effort to keep the $9.9 million sale from the public until the last possible minute succeeded. At one point, an agent of the school encouraged Rice to concoct a “cover story” to keep students from guessing the real reason a consultant needed access to the KTRU station, Texas Watchdog reported Thursday.

The meeting of the finance and administration committee included some testy moments, although it was not covered by any media outlet. … “The vote was not unanimous,” Bonnin wrote to Thrane. “One of our regents opposed the proposal and asked very pointed and probing questions. It’s fortunate that no media attended.”

Houston Chronicle reporter Jeannie Kever had been told of the deal, according to an e-mail to everyone from Bonnin, and had agreed to withhold the information until Aug. 17, the day of the Board of Regents meeting. … We will not distribute the release until after the [UH Board of Regents] vote,” Bonnin instructed.

Houston Press: “Rocks Off Threw Wrench Into U of H & Rice’s Secrecy Plan“

These emails encouraged U of H to concoct a “cover story” to mask its intentions to purchase the largely student-run station, whose staff was kept completely in the dark about the ongoing negotiations.

… it turns out, they already had an agreement with the Houston Chronicle to “embargo” the story until the day of the regents’ vote …

Houston Press: “Rice, UH Officials Made Embargo Agreement With Chronicle On KTRU Story So They Could Have ‘A Quiet Weekend’“

… the Houston Chronicle’s initial reporting on Rice’s controversial sale of KTRU to UH was glowingly positive, at least in part because of a deal where the paper agreed to hold the information until the schools wanted it released.

[Thrane] suggests keeping the lid on internally as much as possible until the board meeting to approve the deal. “That way we don’t risk the KTRU folks going into full roar, and triggering a press frenzy, ahead of your regents’ action.”

Keeping the Public in Public Radio: “‘Because I Said So’“

Such, then, is the final word of the ham-fisted bureaucrats at Rice University in the ongoing public relations disaster that has been the impending sale of KTRU, the student-run 50,000-watt radio station in Houston. Bumbling from one mealy-mouthed rationale to the next …

The Rice Thresher: “Public information request reveals Rice-UH KTRU email correspondence“

Recently the Thresher was given access to a collection of email correspondences pertaining to the sale of KTRU’s transmission tower, broadcasting license and frequency [obtained by] filing an open records request. The information below will update throughout the week, and a succinct overall analysis will appear in next week’s print and web issues.

Burn Down Blog: “Growing opposition to the KTRU sale OR Know Your FCC Commissioners“

The fact that someone with direct experience serving as an FCC commissioner shows that KTRU has a chance. Someone whose job it was to regulate license transfers expressly opposes the KTRU sale.

Where are the blessings of localism, diversity and competition here? I see centralization, not localism; I see uniformity, not diversity; I see monopoly and oligopoly, not competition.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

HOUSTON, TEX– KTRU’s student management and the members of Friends of KTRU, a group of students, alumni and community members dedicated to stopping the sale of the radio station’s assets, strongly condemn the actions taken by Rice University and University of Houston to conceal the KTRU deal.

“Today’s article in the Texas Watchdog reveals just how desperate Rice and UH were to keep the pending KTRU deal under wraps,” said KTRU Station Manager Joey Yang. “From making up cover stories in order to mislead KTRU staffers, to using false call letters to keep KTRU out of the public record, it seems the administrations of both universities were trying to deceive Rice students and the general public. Their actions demonstrate a questionable commitment to openness and transparency.”

The full article can be found here:
http://www.texaswatchdog.org/2010/11/university-of-houston-practiced-deception-over-Rice-University-KTRU-sale/1289434596.story

Yang urged anyone concerned about the pending KTRU sale to participate in the FCC’s public comment period, which runs until Dec. 2. Information about how to contact the FCC, your local congressperson, and spread the word is located at:
http://savektru.org/help/

Thanks to everyone who came out to Save KTRU’s Homecoming events this weekend! If you put your eyes to the sky during our pre-game tailgate, you might’ve noticed the Save KTRU banner being flown overhead:

Photo by Marco Torres of the Houston Press. Click here to see more photos.

Also, hope everyone enjoyed the M.O.B.’s wonderful halftime show!

“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.

“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 >