The Rice administration has finalized agreements to sell the frequency of KTRU, Rice’s student run radio station, to UH.
As a result, KTRU’s student staff has retained the legal counsel of the Washington D.C.-based Paul Hastings Law Firm that handles a multitude of issues, some of which include mergers and acquisitions as well as telecommunication laws.
“The lawyers at Paul Hastings have taken on our case with a great deal of sympathy for our predicament,” KTRU station manager Joey Yang said. “I think that with their experience and knowledge they are well suited to handle the case.”
The case will be brought to the Federal Communications Commission for review as soon as the administration petitions for a transfer of the license.
When the petition is filed with the FCC, there will be a 30-day window for public input, then the FCC will decide whether a transfer of the license is in the best interest of the public and the community.
Yang and 5,000 other petitioners support the decision to file a petition denying the transfer.
Despite the outcome of the proceedings, KTRU will still be operational as an online radio station, but Yang said that the loss of their position on the FM dial will be a “huge blow,” and would take away some of the legitimacy of working at the radio station and hinder the station’s outreach opportunities within the community.
Many community members are shocked that the UH and Rice administrations would go forward with the deal, considering the amount of opposition that has already been expressed throughout the Houston community.
“Student broadcasting is non-commercial radio. It’s something that’s supposed to be an educational experience,” Yang said. “It’s a public service we do out of pure altruism and the fact that all that has to be sacrificed for a few million dollars, in my mind, is tragic.”
Yang said that there is a sentiment resonating throughout the community that, sadly, this is about money.
“The fact that Rice has chosen to ignore the students’ and community’s concerns really speaks volumes to how much they regard their opinion and intellectual creativity,” Yang said.
This has increased the level of curiousity as to how UH is getting the $9.5 million to pay for the license and what Rice is planning to do with it.
In a letter released to students, faculty and staff Rice President David Leebron said the funds would be used for a “food service venture.”
This statement has led many to believe that the Rice administration is selling KTRU to obtain funding, after coming up short in their latest addition to the campus — the new east servery.
According to public documents, UH plans to take on a 20-year tax-exempt bond to fund the creation of the university’s new 24-hour classical station KUHC.
According to the business plan provided to the Board of Regents, KUHF, the current UH radio station, “will service 100 percent of the debt from fundraising through the community.”
In a recent statement UH President Renu Khator said, “The acquisition of a second public radio station delivers on our promise to keep UH at the forefront of creating strong cultural, educational and artistic opportunities that benefit students and the city of Houston.
“We now have the cultural assets to deliver NPR news, public affairs and classical programming to Houston 24 hours a day, placing UH in the company of an elite group of universities.”
The petition of transfer is expected to be filed within the next two weeks.
Yang said the station will then, with the help of The Paul Hastings firm, submit to the FCC a petition to deny the transfer of the license.
Students, alumni, faculty and staff from both sides of the issue are encouraged to voice their opinion on the sale with the FCC during the 30-day window, which Yang said he feels is important.
“Historically, universities are places where free thought and experimentation are encouraged,” Yang said. “Universities embody the intellectual and educational mission that KTRU represents.”
NPR is National Politically-correct Radio. Staff have been known to mysteriously disappear who have the wrong bumper sticker on their car in the parking lot. This is a lose-lose deal for students of both universities.
I am truly disappointed in BOTH universities. This is a sad day for Houston. I strongly encourage everyone NOT to give a penny to KUHF in their current or future fund drives. I will not participate in the destruction of KTRU.
Truly, why I should donate money to a station + University that is so un-interested in classical music that they split it off into a second radio station with half as much broadcasting power? I might as well listen to WBJC 91.5 FM in Corpus Christi which can be heard in SW Houston, while 91.7 really doesn't go that far.
… does anybody really believe students would ever be trusted with any meaningful input at NPR? Draw your own conclusions…
http://abcnews.go.com/CleanPrint/cleanprintproxy….
Sad event for what is prioritized in Houston's music scene not to mention the basic concept of education altogether.
This is so last week. The original press release went out on the 13th. http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=…
There is nothing in that link you posted from the official controlled media release from the Rice admin about KTRU retaining their own attorneys.
Even if they don't succeed, there may still be hope for KTRU to remain on the air in some fashion. See my recent blog post: http://kenfountain.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/negot…
There is no way that this $9.5M is to fund the east servery at Rice as that building is almost done already. I doubt Rice would have moved forward with that project if the still not completed sale of KTRU were so necessary to pay for it. What is Rice hiding? What's the real story here?