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KTRU going off the air next week

F

FilioScotia

With FCC approval of Rice's application to sell KTRU to the University of Houston, Rice officials have started the countdown clock leading to the final shutdown.

KTRU students were told today that the transmission tower for 91.7 FM will be turned off at 6 am April 28 in preparation for closing the sale of the tower and frequency to the University of Houston, scheduled for May 3.

That will give the KTRU deejays one week to air their programs for the last time on the 91.7 FM channel. KTRU programming will continue uninterrupted on KPFT 90.1-HD2 FM and online at www.ktru.org.

Will Robedee, who was hired in 1998 as the station's first general manager, will continue in that role with the online and HD station.
 
Apparently no word yet on when KUHA will actually launch (presumably the same day KUHF debuts its revamped format.) Nothing specific I could find on the KUHF website.

Guessing 91.7 will be off the air while the KUHF engineers get the STL set up, and make other tweaks/changes to the transmitter facility.

The 91.5 translator also needs to be moved off the Rice campus per stipulation in the sale agreement; suspect this might not be back for a while, unless there is some sort of handshake agreement to keep it going until a permanent replacement site is determined. Such a move will of course require FCC approval.
 
They could still run a decent Part 15 on campus if they wanted to I think? Or is that only for AM?
 
MikeRichardson said:
They could still run a decent Part 15 on campus if they wanted to I think? Or is that only for AM?
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Might take several Part 15 FM's to cover the campus, but legal if done correctly. Reckling Park had (and maybe still has) a flea power FM on 87.9 for Rice Baseball in-stadium play-by-play. I recall the signal barely made it to Rice Blvd on the north side of the campus.

A Part 15 AM might give a bit more coverage. Texas A&M operates such a station (unofficial call KANM) on 1580, along with a cable FM frequency as well as streaming. Perhaps someone familiar with that station could tell us how much coverage the AM gets.

There are a couple of Part 15's in Flagstaff, Arizona that get out quite well, one of which is run by students at the University of Northern Arizona (unofficial call KJACK.) Have heard both of these myself while driving through the town on I-40, surprising signals.

And, if you want to go really old school, Carrier Current AM is still around in some places.
 
I've been away from KUHF since last June, so I don't know how far along they are in building out a studio for the new station. There is also the task of getting the newly acquired transmitting capabilities up and running to specifications.

So, even though KTRU goes down next week, who knows when it will be resurrected over at KUHF? I don't know, but I can tell you it won't happen until they can put it on the air complete and fully formed. It will make its debut when it is ready.

There will be no stop gap efforts like a Part 15, because they've never programmed KUHF for the UH campus. They program it for the general public and the entire Houston market, and they'll program KUHC/KUHA (whatever) the same way.
 
FilioScotia said:
There will be no stop gap efforts like a Part 15, because they've never programmed KUHF for the UH campus.
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The discussion was about Part 15 for future KTRU efforts on the Rice campus. KUHF hasn't been a student station in decades.

I overheard that the KUHF/KUHT engineers were asking around about secondhand items such as equipment racks and other infrastructure items, so changes are apparently underway in their broadcast plant. Wouldn't surprise me if 91.7 is off for several weeks, or a couple of months.

The engineers probably want to make changes and tweaks at the 91.7 transmitter, which I believe is over 20 years old. KTRU's audio quality has always been a little thin compared to other stations...and with the demands of classical music, the station will need to sound its best.
 
Since KUHF has been broadcasting news/classical programming simulatenously on FM and HD-2as well as online, I would surmise that equipment is already in position and programming for the news only channel already in place for the separate broadcasts...
 
radiobop said:
Since KUHF has been broadcasting news/classical programming simulatenously on FM and HD-2as well as online, I would surmise that equipment is already in position and programming for the news only channel already in place for the separate broadcasts...
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In fact, the schedule for both stations was announced in KUHF's reply to the Petition to Reconsider filed by Save KTRU.

The schedule for 91.7, despite all of the claims of NPR programming taking over, only showed three hours of non-local programming (although they could very well pick up Beethoven or Classical 24 for overnights)--"Performance Today" in midday (from APM) and "Exploring Music" in the evening (WFMT Network). The only NPR programs that will run on KUHA is perhaps the hourly newscasts and some weekend programming.
 
Radiobop is right.

I've been told that everything is in place and ready to go for both stations, and they're now just standing by waiting for the green light to proceed with the change.

I've learned that KUHA "Classical 91.7" will broadcast out of the master control room KUHF 88.7 now uses. A large production room and talk/interview studio down the hall will be the new control room for KUHF News. That studio was built to be a fully equipped backup for master control, and it has been used on the air at times over the years, so it's "air ready."

The sale is scheduled to close May 3rd, and my source tells me they hope to have KUHA on the air fairly soon after that. It's possible. The Brave New World of Public Radio in Houston is upon us.
 
FilioScotia said:
I've learned that KUHA "Classical 91.7" will broadcast out of the master control room KUHF 88.7 now uses. A large production room and talk/interview studio down the hall will be the new control room for KUHF News. That studio was built to be a fully equipped backup for master control, and it has been used on the air at times over the years, so it's "air ready."
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You may have the studios backwards (unless they changed their minds in the last few months) but otherwise, yeah, they've been ready to do this for months. Any of the studios can be switched to 88.7 HD1, 88.7 HD2/91.7, or 88.7 HD3 with a couple of button presses and the talk studio can be brought up in any room, so they can do whatever they want whenever they want. Flexibility is a good thing.
 
So what happens with the 91.5 translator on the Rice campus?
 
jd said:
So what happens with the 91.5 translator on the Rice campus?
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It is part of the sale. Per stipulation in the sale agreement, the transmitter has to be moved off of the Rice campus. No word on where it might go. A new site will need FCC approval, although that should be relatively easy.

U of H had made some comments about two additional translators for KUHA, apparently already existing or licensed facilities. I had thought one of them might be the K217DP 91.3 station licensed to Barker (west Harris County) but Radio-Locator has that as currently running AFR...anyone in that area actually hearing this? The other was in the Clear Lake area, IIRC...might be the K217DJ translator that once rebroadcast KPFT on 91.3, and later an Asian-language service. Anyone hear this one on the air? Listed in the FCC database, but not on Radio-Locator.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
jd said:
So what happens with the 91.5 translator on the Rice campus?
Click to expand...

It is part of the sale. Per stipulation in the sale agreement, the transmitter has to be moved off of the Rice campus. No word on where it might go. A new site will need FCC approval, although that should be relatively easy.

U of H had made some comments about two additional translators for KUHA, apparently already existing or licensed facilities. I had thought one of them might be the K217DP 91.3 station licensed to Barker (west Harris County) but Radio-Locator has that as currently running AFR...anyone in that area actually hearing this? The other was in the Clear Lake area, IIRC...might be the K217DJ translator that once rebroadcast KPFT on 91.3, and later an Asian-language service. Anyone hear this one on the air? Listed in the FCC database, but not on Radio-Locator.
Click to expand...

Frog, the translator in Barker is silent. I haven't heard a peep from K217DP since KPVU upgraded back in '09. If the translator is indeed still on the air, it is being completely overrun by PVU all along the I-10 corridor.
 
purpledevil said:
Frog, the translator in Barker is silent. I haven't heard a peep from K217DP since KPVU upgraded back in '09. If the translator is indeed still on the air, it is being completely overrun by PVU all along the I-10 corridor.
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Luckily it's not on because it would be the reverse. I complained on here back in June about K217DP overpowering KPVU. Its was on for a couple of weeks a few months ago. I dread every time that thing comes back on (can't listen to Tell Me More at 2:00 if I miss it at noon on KTSU) but eventually it's gone within a few weeks.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
jd said:
So what happens with the 91.5 translator on the Rice campus?
Click to expand...

It is part of the sale. Per stipulation in the sale agreement, the transmitter has to be moved off of the Rice campus. No word on where it might go. A new site will need FCC approval, although that should be relatively easy.

U of H had made some comments about two additional translators for KUHA, apparently already existing or licensed facilities. I had thought one of them might be the K217DP 91.3 station licensed to Barker (west Harris County) but Radio-Locator has that as currently running AFR...anyone in that area actually hearing this? The other was in the Clear Lake area, IIRC...might be the K217DJ translator that once rebroadcast KPFT on 91.3, and later an Asian-language service. Anyone hear this one on the air? Listed in the FCC database, but not on Radio-Locator.
Click to expand...

The K217DJ translator has been silent for a couple years now.
 
KTN Corp said:
Hopefully the two stations for Katy and Clear Lake will be boosters. I hope a booster here in Katy doesn't wash out KPVU.
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A booster would be on the same frequency as the main station, which I don't think would happen in this case.

It is possible the Barker translator could be moved farther southeast to keep away from KPVU. The authorized signal is already highly directional away from Prairie View.
 
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