Confirmed: UT buying Austin's 98.9 FM

[daypart]

They have to vote on it, right?

I will have to call up UT and attend. After all my tax dollars are involved here.

I would rather have them sell it to a for profit entity. We have enough taxation already.

What makes you think they're going to operate it at a loss? This is an instance of government buying something that can actually make money. 8)

Of course, if you work at a competitor in the market, every ad they sell will be taking food off of your table.

 

[willdav713]

They have to vote on it, right?

I will have to call up UT and attend. After all my tax dollars are involved here.

I would rather have them sell it to a for profit entity. We have enough taxation already.

What makes you think they're going to operate it at a loss? This is an instance of government buying something that can actually make money. 8)

Of course, if you work at a competitor in the market, every ad they sell will be taking food off of your table.

But look how that worked with the Banks our elected officials bailed out?

They then again, may not make money. And the money they make won't be taxable, which means the for profit stations will have to foot the bill. Also, Non Profits cannot air commercials they have sponsors, and sponsors cost less.
NPR is a big part of the United States budget, and there is attempts to hacksaw it.
If NPR funding is killed, Guess who our city officials will ask to foot the bill? US.
or the State of Texas.

If it must be sold to a non commercial, government funded entity I would see better significance if it goes to Hutson-Tillitson, or KVRX. KVRX is hard to get in Northwest Austin and around the UT campus KUT 90.5 is not a friendly neighbor at least to my Panasonic Walkman with DX/Local toggles.

UT has plenty, it is time for the East Side folks to have a piece of the pie.

 

[mmnassour]

KVRX doesn't have six million dollars. We're talking a bankruptcy fire sale here, and the idea is to get a much money as possible to pay off the creditors.





sigh.............

 

[willdav713]

KVRX doesn't have six million dollars. We're talking a bankruptcy fire sale here, and the idea is to get a much money as possible to pay off the creditors.





sigh.............

I was using it as an example. I don't call this deal community radio. I feel it puts the other institutes of higher education at a GREAT disadvantage.

Take San Antonio, and Houston All of their stations have a bit equal signal, none of them Class C's (to my knowledge) if UT gets a Class C the other universities should too.

It is desperate treatment. If we were talking about 104.9/105.5 I would have not made this an issue.

I think I have valid points since Public Radio is to serve the local community. A lot will be under served if this deal goes through. Furthermore I don't see how this would pass FCC muster as UT's demographics are a lot different than Hutson-Tillotson's. I have been to both campuses.

It would be like San Antonio College buying 94.1, and not having it go to say, Palo Alto.

 

[w9wi]

Take San Antonio, and Houston All of their stations have a bit equal signal, none of them Class C's (to my knowledge) if UT gets a Class C the other universities should too.

There are 12 Class C stations in Houston. There's only one (KISS) in San Antonio, although there are eleven C0 and C1 stations which are *almost* as powerful.

98.9 Austin (technically, "Leander") is *not* a Class C. (it's a C2. That's a significant difference: if they were a Class C they could increase power from 28,000 watts to 100,000 and antenna height from 515 feet to 2,000'.)

BTW, NPR is nowhere near a "big part" of the U.S. budget.

 

[Iused2nothat]

I was using it as an example. I don't call this deal community radio. I feel it puts the other institutes of higher education at a GREAT disadvantage.

Its not community radio, its Non-Commercial Educational radio. Its just like regular radio except they can't say anything good about their sponsors.
Community radio is for LPFM's as demanded by Congress. Enjoy that coming cacophony of bad/overlapping signals, endless fund raising, black helicopters, and blather of the American Taliban.

Take San Antonio, and Houston All of their stations have a bit equal signal, none of them Class C's (to my knowledge) if UT gets a Class C the other universities should too.

We are talking about NCE's here, right ?
Houston's KUHF 88.7 is a full C, 100kw at 1720 ft.
KUT = C1 KXBT = C2, so its less of a station than KUT to start with.

It is desperate treatment. If we were talking about 104.9/105.5 I would have not made this an issue.

Made what an issue? I don't understand your point. Are you saying that UT is buying too much coverage and that is unfair to Hutson-Tillotson ?

Furthermore I don't see how this would pass FCC muster as UT's demographics are a lot different than Hutson-Tillotson's. I have been to both campuses.

What is "FCC muster" in your mind ? The FCC is not a "decider" of what demographic is best served, or of formats; that is a First Amendment Issue.
If you want the government to tell stations what music to play, or what audience to serve, you need to emigrate to Canada-stan.
The FCC is only a decider of buyer's qualifications to be a broadcast licensee; see KUT, KVRX, KUTX, K29HW-D, etc.

I don't mean to be contentious (except for that LPFM / American Taliban / propaganda thing...that is just my opinion, <disclaimer>not valid in other areas or minds</disclaimer>). I am just pointing out some weakness in your argument.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

How would KLUV 98.7 in Dallas come in here? 101.1 KONO doesn't have tried it before 860 comes in but not very good atleast in my car.

When I went to UT - Dallas stations were regulars on my car radio, as were Houston. But San Antonio stations, peculiarly, were very hard to hear in the car. Given that WRR seemed to be almost equal, if not dominant on 101.1, it a frequency were clear of other stations, I assume a full C like KLUV would be semi-listenable. But then - when I went to UT, car radios were worth a darn, and antennas in cars were actually effective. I am probably in the minority even having a whip antenna on my car now.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

How would KLUV 98.7 in Dallas come in here?

It wouldn't.

I don't know about that - when I went to UT - KZEW 97.9 from Dallas just down the dial was listenable from the higher terrain in the South part of Austin. It was so strong it was a preset on my car radio, along with Houston station KRBE 104.1.

 

[Mediafrog+]

KVRX is hard to get in Northwest Austin and around the UT campus KUT 90.5 is not a friendly neighbor at least to my Panasonic Walkman with DX/Local toggles.

You're saying that a SIXTH ADJACENT is causing problems to KVRX? Sorry, but you need a better radio.

UT has plenty, it is time for the East Side folks to have a piece of the pie.

Ahem. KAZI. ???

Nobody is stopping East Side folks from buying any radio stations. :

 

[bgrn198]

How would KLUV 98.7 in Dallas come in here? 101.1 KONO doesn't have tried it before 860 comes in but not very good atleast in my car.

When I went to UT - Dallas stations were regulars on my car radio, as were Houston. But San Antonio stations, peculiarly, were very hard to hear in the car. Given that WRR seemed to be almost equal, if not dominant on 101.1, it a frequency were clear of other stations, I assume a full C like KLUV would be semi-listenable. But then - when I went to UT, car radios were worth a darn, and antennas in cars were actually effective. I am probably in the minority even having a whip antenna on my car now.

Interesting i've never been able to pick up DFW stations here a few times at night a few years ago I could pick up a couple of Houston stations like KLOL,Sunny 99.1 and 102.9 back when it was Easy Listening. In parts of town I can pick up San Antonio stations like Magic 105.3 and 99.5 KISS. Maby KITY in Llano should come back into Austin with a signal it's a pretty good Oldies station.

 

[fredcantu]

I don't know about that - when I went to UT - KZEW 97.9 from Dallas just down the dial was listenable from the higher terrain in the South part of Austin. It was so strong it was a preset on my car radio, along with Houston station KRBE 104.1.

Back when the dial was more empty it was a lot easier to get weak signals and signals skipping in. 97.9 has been wiped out by Austin's 98.3 moving over to 98.1 and upgrading power. 104.1 did not have to battle 104.3, etc.

 

[bturner]

I've looked over these posts and please correct me where I am ill informed.

I understand KVRX is not owned by UT but an entity that is a student group or ex-student group not governed by UT.

As for the purchase of a commercial station, I cannot understand why anyone, for profit or not, would shell out 6 million for something they want to lose money on. I feel the station will be commercial and a separate for profit entity under the UT umbrella.

We have all heard of Prairie Home Companion, a Minnesota Public Radio program, at least at its inception. As I understand it, there is a for-profit company that 'sells' all that merchandise. I believe it was run by a not for profit organization. The point I'm trying to make is I think it is perfectly acceptable for a non-profit entity to own and operate a for profit company, regardless of whether that is a school and regardless of whether the company is a radio station. About the only change is that 'for profit' branch gets to be taxed just like any other for-profit entity.

I think we have to realize that the people with UT that make such decisions tend to be successful business people who have all their ducks in a row before they act. The mere fact they serve on a board that makes such decisions means they are even more careful in their school's dealings than they might be with their own business decisions. I'm sure they have a well crafted plan for success after a tedious time of testing every choice for the 'success factor'.

As for UT buying a commercial facility rather than allowing another group to buy is sort of nonsensical. Every radio station on the dial is for sale at any time and all any entity has to do is pony up the cash. To expect an entity to hand over an asset is not logical, no more logical than you paying off your home and giving it to a poor family that likely could never afford your home. If you did that, I'd admire you for your sacrifce, mostly because it would be so unique.

 

[Iused2nothat]

KVRX Licensee =
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
P.O. BOX D, AUSTIN, TX 78713 - 8904
Phone Number: (512) 471-3098

http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/sta_det.pl?Facility_id=66607

I thought the Spaceman or the All-Access story made it clear that they expect it to be profitable via the standard NCE sponsorship methodology.

 

[fredcantu]

To expect an entity to hand over an asset is not logical, no more logical than you paying off your home and giving it to a poor family that likely could never afford your home. If you did that, I'd admire you for your sacrifce, mostly because it would be so unique.

I have seen this done in the past where a seller didn't get the offer he expected for his station and ended up donating it to a non-profit. Perhaps it worked out better for him as a tax write-off and it stopped the red ink of running the station. Or maybe it was a sacrifice because he thought it was the right thing to do. It would be nice to know people still do that.

 

[intx]

I wouldn't really call this a fire sale. 98.9 is going for about the same price 105.9 went for in 2010, and the broker the Statesman quoted said he thought the price sounded about right. The other Border frequencies that have already been sold? Those might qualify tho. Still interested to know about the Horn. If it's taking the longest, perhaps that indicates there's a competition. Or ... maybe no one's interested. Ha.

 

[willdav713]

KVRX is hard to get in Northwest Austin and around the UT campus KUT 90.5 is not a friendly neighbor at least to my Panasonic Walkman with DX/Local toggles.

You're saying that a SIXTH ADJACENT is causing problems to KVRX? Sorry, but you need a better radio. Yes KUT does bleed on KAZI, not KVRX.

I think you got the stations confused. KVRX is on 91.7. My walkman has an analog tuner.

UT has plenty, it is time for the East Side folks to have a piece of the pie.

Ahem. KAZI. ???

Nobody is stopping East Side folks from buying any radio stations. :

 

[Kent]

I don't know about that - when I went to UT - KZEW 97.9 from Dallas just down the dial was listenable from the higher terrain in the South part of Austin. It was so strong it was a preset on my car radio, along with Houston station KRBE 104.1.

As Fred points out, when you went to UT, the dial wasn't as cluttered as it is now. Good luck picking up 98.7 KLUV in Austin when there's a signal in town on 98.9. Even as a C2, it's going to step all over K-Luv. I've gotten Dallas stations as far south as Temple in the last 20 years, but that's about the best they've done.

 

[willdav713]

I was using it as an example. I don't call this deal community radio. I feel it puts the other institutes of higher education at a GREAT disadvantage.

Its not community radio, its Non-Commercial Educational radio. Its just like regular radio except they can't say anything good about their sponsors.
Community radio is for LPFM's as demanded by Congress. Enjoy that coming cacophony of bad/overlapping signals, endless fund raising, black helicopters, and blather of the American Taliban.

It is desperate treatment. If we were talking about 104.9/105.5 I would have not made this an issue.

Made what an issue? I don't understand your point. Are you saying that UT is buying too much coverage and that is unfair to Hutson-Tillotson ?

Yes.

Furthermore I don't see how this would pass FCC muster as UT's demographics are a lot different than Hutson-Tillotson's. I have been to both campuses.

What is "FCC muster" in your mind ? The FCC is not a "decider" of what demographic is best served, or of formats; that is a First Amendment Issue.
If you want the government to tell stations what music to play, or what audience to serve, you need to emigrate to Canada-stan.
The FCC is only a decider of buyer's qualifications to be a broadcast licensee; see KUT, KVRX, KUTX, K29HW-D, etc.

Actually the FCC can place limits on ownership, and since it is a University which does receive federal funding, maybe not a lot of it has to do with the bidding process. I am sure it is in there somewhere, I don't think it applies for a commercial station selling it to another commercial station. Also, it may not be in the FCC regulations it might be a different agency that enforces such a rule, again not for a station that operates commercials. However, a Commercial radio station cannot refuse to hire, or terminate an individual solely because of race, color, national origin, disability, or sex. So the First Amendment argument is moot.

From what I heard UT made a advance payment of $20,000 and if approved would finance it over 20 years at 4 percent interest. The FCC does tell stations what to play for instance, we have the Communications Decency Act, you can't say the famous words of George Carlin on the radio during certain hours. Even there is a policy preventing Drug lyrics in the Code of Federal Regulations.
1971--03--05--"Licensee Responsibility to Review Records [Audio Recordings] Before Their Broadcast, Public Notice, FCC 71-205, 28 FCC 2d 409, 36 FR 4901, released March 5, 1971. Referenced in 47 CFR 73.4095 (Drug lyrics). PDF document. Licensees' responsibility regarding recordings promoting drug use.

I don't mean to be contentious (except for that LPFM / American Taliban / propaganda thing...that is just my opinion, <disclaimer>not valid in other areas or minds</disclaimer>). I am just pointing out some weakness in your argument.

The argument was typed up before making all revisions, plus I was voicing my opposition to this proposal on UT's part. And Palo Alto does not own a radio station. It has been a while since I lived in Houston, but those signals that the Non Community Stations are not heard clearly in all parts of Houston Proper.

 

[mmnassour]

Maybe there's a lot less here than we're imagining, folks.

KUT is in the same position as are many other NPR stations...they bought into the HD Radio scam and now have two or three channels that no one can hear. Now, Austin will have two public radio stations, one for music, one for talk. I'm only sorry that it was 98.9 that fell with so much other ... stuff ... crowding the FM band in this market.

 

[willdav713]

Maybe there's a lot less here than we're imagining, folks.

KUT is in the same position as are many other NPR stations...they bought into the HD Radio scam and now have two or three channels that no one can hear. Now, Austin will have two public radio stations, one for music, one for talk. I'm only sorry that it was 98.9 that fell with so much other ... stuff ... crowding the FM band in this market.

Most students at UT are affluent. Most UT students have those smart phones, where you can stream, not to mention pod cast. Why buy an 8 track car stereo for your car, where you can stream from your phone with said smartphone along with a FM transmitter?

As for the HD radio, well more people stream online, than use HD radio. Is KUT and the HD sub carriers streaming online? Looks like a waste of money to me, because I bet 10 years later, we will have digital FM, the analog FMs and AM will be reserved for the new encrypted police/fire/ems bands, maybe even wireless cable. Just like with Analog TV VHF and UHF.

I would be in favor of ACC buying the station, but not a $6 million as well, but not UT which has enough FM stations already.

Maybe they will shed the AM's to ACC, but when was the last time an Non Commercial Educational Radio station bought an AM station?