I'm not sure if any of you are KTRU listeners, but I am devastated by this news: UH board considers plan to buy Rice radio station http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/7156105.html The University of Houston is planning to buy the radio station operated by students at Rice University for almost 40 years in a $9.5 million deal that would give UH the broadcast tower, FM frequency and license used by Rice's KTRU. UH's governing board will vote Tuesday on whether to give Chancellor Renu Khator authority to complete the deal. Rice spokesman B.J. Almond said its trustees already have given similar authority to administrators there. UH currently operates one public radio station, KUHF, which offers both news and classical music and other arts programming. If the deal goes through, the university would have two stations, one to provide news 24 hours a day and the second to offer classical music and arts coverage, according to a fact sheet prepared by the school to explain the plan. KUHF would be converted to a 24-hour news and information format, heard at the station's current frequency, 88.7 FM. The new station, to be known by call letters KUHC, would broadcast classical music and arts on the 91.7 FM frequency used by KTRU. Both stations will be affiliates of National Public Radio, as KUHF currently is, UH spokesman Richard Bonnin said Monday. They will share one staff and be run out of offices on the UH campus. KTRU, which offers an eclectic mix of music along with broadcasts of some Rice athletics, would remain available through its website, ktru.org. No timeline for the transition was available Monday. More power than needed In response to a question from the Chronicle, Rice released a statement Monday saying it decided to sell the tower, license and broadcast frequency because the 50,000-watt station is far more powerful than needed to reach its audience, which it said is too small to be measured by the radio research firm Arbitron. The money will be used for campus improvements, including a new food service venture. A student committee will help determine how to use the rest of the money. Classes at Rice begin next Monday, and students are returning to campus this week. On its website, KTRU describes itself as "a free-form, eclectic radio station that thinks it's a bad thing to play the same song twice in a span of an hour." But much of the programming is automated, not live. Audience of 800,000? UH officials said KUHF will raise the $9.5 million purchase price through private fundraising and increased underwriting and that no state or tuition funds will be used. Bonnin said predictions call for the two stations to have an audience of 800,000 within a few years, more than double KUHF's current audience of 380,000. Several other universities operate two public radio stations, including Purdue University, Florida State University, Ohio State University and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. UH would be the first in Texas to do so. Khator described the plan as helping to fulfill the university's responsibility to the city by promoting both its arts community and expanding access to news and information. "The acquisition of a second public radio station delivers on our promise to keep the University of Houston at the forefront of creating strong cultural, educational and artistic opportunities,“ the UH chancellor said in a statement. Bonnin said that no one at KUHF was available Monday to talk about the move. But he provided a statement that said the station will increase Houston-centered content on key topics and will sponsor and broadcast town-hall forums on issues of community concern. KUHC Classical will offer more in-studio live performances, live remote broadcasts and full-length concert broadcasts of local performers than KUHF currently offers, according to the plans.
So UH is buying a second station so that they can air news 24/7 and wipe out the old station format that already does the highlighted above. Grrrrrrrrrrreat.
it says KTRU will be available thru ktru.org. At least there's that, but sad to see the radio signal switch hands.
I was exposed to a TON of great underground bands/music in the '80s via KTRU. In fact, I have long considered it (along with WREK) to be the benchmark against which all "college radio" should be compared. Terrible news.
Jandek faints! No really sad sad news, I still know some folks who do a shift on the Genetic Memory Show on tuesdays and my thoughts went to them as soon as I heard.
^^This^^^ any station that would play Seven Seconds and Willie Nelson back to back is awesome in my book. well..at least theres still KPFT
Ridiculous troll that, for the life of me, I don't know how he's still on this BBS. KTRU is anything but a political, "hippie" station. I know you're probably old and bitter about things less important than this, but college radio is just a cool thing to do. Don't tell me that if you were on a college campus and somebody offered you the chance to spin some records and share your tastes with others that you wouldn't jump at the chance. Or maybe you're in a band that can't break in to any airplay on a mainstream station because they're really all just part of the same corporation that sends the same playlist to every station it holds. KTRU is a great resource for having your music get heard and have some validation for what you do. In short, I took the troll bait here and my post can be translated to "tl;dr YOU MAD"
KTRU was a cool station. Wish UH was just letting it stay the same format, only being run by cougars.
I like KTRU, but I'm excited about having separate stations for classical music and NPR news broadcasts. Won't even have to change my car's presets...
If I didn't know the song and had to get out of my car before the host would give you the run down of the play list, I would write the time the song was played and look it up on their online set list. It was the only way I can get the artist name for future reference. Discovered a lot of great stuff with KTRU. It will be missed...especially the PSAs..those were sometimes funny.