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Rice KTRU sale circling the drain

F

FilioScotia

I've been saying for months that the University of Houston's effort to buy KTRU from Rice University is NOT going to go through. For openers, the politics are not in UH's favor. Now, Texas Watchdog has found another reason.

http://www.texaswatchdog.org/2011/01/university-of-houston-must-disclose-payment-info-rice-ktru/1295036913.column

The UH Board of Regents has not covered itself with managerial glory in the way it's handled this deal from the start. Their amateurish secretive efforts have only fouled the water, and I think the water is so dirty the FCC will reject the license transfer application.

Don't get me wrong. I think it's a great idea for KUHF to buy KTRU for all the reasons they've stated. Unfortunately, I don't think it'll be approved because of the way it's been handled. I hope KUHF has a viable Plan B.
 
I'm not ready to jump to the same conclusions as Texas Watchdog.

Texas Watchdog has also obtained audio of the U of H Board of Regents August meeting at which the purchase of KTRU was discussed. It appears that Rice never shopped the station and simply told U of H that it was moving KTRU online.

When you're trying to sell your house, do you tell the other realtor who else you've been talking to and how much they've offered? Think about it.
 
FilioScotia said:
I've been saying for months that the University of Houston's effort to buy KTRU from Rice University is NOT going to go through. For openers, the politics are not in UH's favor. Now, Texas Watchdog has found another reason.

http://www.texaswatchdog.org/2011/01/university-of-houston-must-disclose-payment-info-rice-ktru/1295036913.column

The UH Board of Regents has not covered itself with managerial glory in the way it's handled this deal from the start. Their amateurish secretive efforts have only fouled the water, and I think the water is so dirty the FCC will reject the license transfer application.

Don't get me wrong. I think it's a great idea for KUHF to buy KTRU for all the reasons they've stated. Unfortunately, I don't think it'll be approved because of the way it's been handled. I hope KUHF has a viable Plan B.
Click to expand...

KTRU may win the battle but they haven't won the war.

Even if some people lose their jobs over all this, it's still very obvious that the administration would like to be rid of KTRU as a radio station and that the station staff is not willing to work with the administration. Rice will continue to find a way to sell the station, if not to UH, to someone else. I'm sure KSBJ would love to have a second transmitter for the Christian rock format they're running on their HD-2. American Public Media could come in, swoop up the station and flip it to classical without the local programming that KUHF would've provided. There's also K-Love.

As much as the student staff may not want to hear this, I'm afraid KTRU is marked for death, if not now, definitely within the next few years.
 
The Watchdog writer mentions the public information request and what they gleaned from it; however, the current protest, on file with the FCC isn't predicated on any of the information they talk about in the article. It's, rather, about the loss of an educational signal in the market. However, I don't know of one so-called "educational" signal in Houston that is actually carrying any educational programming. Most especially KTRU.
 
This is yet more delusion from the "Save KTRU" crowd. I still see nothing that would scuttle the sale.

Even if some people lose their jobs over all this, it's still very obvious that the administration would like to be rid of KTRU as a radio station and that the station staff is not willing to work with the administration. Rice will continue to find a way to sell the station, if not to UH, to someone else. I'm sure KSBJ would love to have a second transmitter for the Christian rock format they're running on their HD-2. American Public Media could come in, swoop up the station and flip it to classical without the local programming that KUHF would've provided. There's also K-Love.
Click to expand...

Dead on. Lots of other potential owners who would snap up 91.7 in a heartbeat. And who cares if Rice "didn't shop the station around"? If I'm selling something, and I have a buyer that is willing to pay the price I want, I have every right to accept the deal.

mrbeasley said:
I don't know of one so-called "educational" signal in Houston that is actually carrying any educational programming. Most especially KTRU.
Click to expand...

The other day, I tuned across KTRU while driving. What were they doing? Playing something that sounded like an aluminum garbage can being rolled across concrete. This went on for several minutes. Really educational...as it taught me that the Rice administration must be really anxious to rid itself of such nonsense.

One other thing: Any finding that U of H is unfit to buy KTRU would mean that they are also unfit to operate KUHF...and I've never heard of any effort to get that license yanked. U of H has run KUHF for 60 years, and that will carry tremendous weight with the FCC.
 
At the end of the day, the FCC will grant the sale. Frankly, they don't get involved in squabbles such as these. They could care less. Other, better funded and managed citizens groups have tried and failed when classical stations were sold to commercial interests that changed the format to one more financially viable. Friends of KTRU can keep spinning their wheels, paying their lawyers, but the sale will go through, one way or another. KUHF will put classical on the 91.7 frequency, and take 88.7 fulltime news/talk. That's my crystal ball prediction for 2011.

It's a shame KUHF management didn't do this years ago, when they could have gotten a second frequency for next to nothing. And I wonder why they haven't attempted to cover the Gulf Coast region with public radio, as a number of other pubcasters are now doing. I guess it's lack of vision on UH's part. Oh well...it beats nothing!
 
***It appears that Rice never shopped the station and simply told U of H that it was moving KTRU online.***

I don't understand why this is intended as a "critcism". Rice never put KTRU on the market? So what? It may be a fact but it's not an important fact. As a private school Rice is free to handle its financial and business affairs any way it pleases. There's no law or rule requiring anybody with something to sell to "shop it around."

If I decide to sell my house, and if I know somebody across town is looking to buy a house, I'm free to sell to that person without "shopping it" on the market. Rice can do the same thing with its radio station.

As much as I want this deal to go through for KUHF and its programming plans, I still fear that it won't.
 
FilioScotia said:
I don't understand why this is intended as a "critcism". Rice never put KTRU on the market? So what? It may be a fact but it's not an important fact. As a private school Rice is free to handle its financial and business affairs any way it pleases. There's no law or rule requiring anybody with something to sell to "shop it around."
Click to expand...

I'm criticising Texas Watchdog because you can't prove that Rice didn't shop the station by listening to the UH Board of Regents discuss buying the station. If you want to know who the seller talked to, you have to ask the seller or find one of the prospective buyers who wants to go on the record.

If Texas Watchdog is going to jump to conclusions based on incomplete information, then I have a hard time buying anything else they report. They've proved that they know how to file a FOIA request, but they haven't proved that they know how to read and understand the documents that they've received.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
The other day, I tuned across KTRU while driving. What were they doing? Playing something that sounded like an aluminum garbage can being rolled across concrete. This went on for several minutes. Really educational...as it taught me that the Rice administration must be really anxious to rid itself of such nonsense.
Click to expand...

This has been one of their main arguments--that by playing music that would not be played on any other outlet, they are providing an educational experience. This may be true on their speciality shows, which I assume have jocks who know their specialty and share their knowledge, but it's not true for the shifts where the jocks barely talk at all.

But ever since the modern rock or "alternative" format came around in the 90s as college stations saw big chunks of their playlists ending up on commercial radio thanks to the breakout successes of Nirvana and Pearl Jam, it seems that college radio has been saying "that won't happen again!" as they vow not to play anything with hooks or anything that a 16-year-old girl or soccer mom might like. Some of it can be listenable, like the so-called "insurgent country" (or urban punks pretending to be hillbillies and therefore being more "authentic" than Today's Hot New Country), but a lot of it isn't. And it seems like the kids who run college radio and are more likely to be playing in bands or booking concert halls than board-opping for a commercial station want things to be that way.
 
***This doesn't change the fact that Rice is going to sell the station.***

This is true. No matter what happens to this application, Rice WILL sell KTRU. The only question is: to whom?

UH has made such a clumsy mess of this deal I can't believe the FCC will approve it. When it's rejected, Rice will offer it to the next buyer in line. I'm sure there's a waiting list.
 
FilioScotia said:
UH has made such a clumsy mess of this deal I can't believe the FCC will approve it. When it's rejected, Rice will offer it to the next buyer in line. I'm sure there's a waiting list.
Click to expand...

The FCC is probably completely unaware of this stuff right now, and none of it will be a factor in their decision. It's all local politics, and they just rule on willing buyer/willing seller.
 
When will the FCC approve the present application, assuming the FCC agrees to the sale of KTRU to tUoH? Is there going to be a delay of months
or even years when the FCC ultimately gets around to approving this sale?
 
gabigley1 said:
When will the FCC approve the present application, assuming the FCC agrees to the sale of KTRU to tUoH? Is there going to be a delay of months
or even years when the FCC ultimately gets around to approving this sale?
Click to expand...

Petitions to deny tack on about an extra 3 months to a typically 3 month process.

Keep in mind that the application was filed long after this all blew up at the board of regents meeting, so the sale is right on schedule at the FCC.
 
gabigley1 said:
So we can expect to see the sale approved by the FCC in February or March?
Click to expand...

Application was filed the first of November. Had there been no opposition, FCC approval would have hit around February or March. The petitions to deny will delay the approval to something beyond that.

However, UH could begin programming the station before the sale is final should Rice do a LMA, so the closing date isn't necessarily tied to when classical programming could begin. Nobody really knows what's up.
 
Meanwhile, check out the San Francisco board about what's happening with the demise of commercial classical KDFC, and the move of the format to non-comm KUSF. The University of San Francisco didn't waste any time with the switchover of KUSF: they actually (and suddenly) locked the doors to the station and sold it. No fooling around with the students there. Betcha Rice wishes they had done the same thing...in fact, this may embolden Rice to let U of H launch KUHC under the LMA and not wait for the final FCC approval...thus making the switch a fait accompli.
 
ThatVoice22 said:
Our primary mission is to our students, it is not to the community at large.
Click to expand...

That view is now shared by most colleges and universities around the country, but it's also a shift from their view 25 years ago. And it's by necessity, as schools deal with cutbacks in funding. I expect to see many more schools sell their OTA stations in the next five years. The era of student-run college radio is over. Either the station is self-sustaining and professionally run, or it's a drag on school finances.
 
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