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Big Changes in Public Radio


FilioScotia

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Clearly you haven't been paying much attention to KUHF. The station's 60th anniversary HAS BEEN a very big deal all year. There have been several large station events -- including a big anniversary dinner -- celebrating the fact that KUHF was the first public radio station in the United States and it's still on the air 60 years later.

The station's website http://app1.kuhf.org/main.php prominently displays a sharp looking 60th anniversary logo, which is also emblazoned everywhere it can be emblazoned, including T-shirts, coffee mugs and a lot of other stuff that's given away at promotional events the station holds around town.

The Spring Membership Campaign in April was built around the anniversary. 60 years and counting. We need your help to keep a good thing going. I'm sure the Fall Campaign in October will also mention the 60th anniversary a few times. And look for the station to pull out all the stops on the actual anniversary of the first broadcast on November 6th.

In the words of Foghorn Leghorn, pay attention son.

I have to admit, as a sustaining member, I may put a lot of the campaign promotion on ignore. You're right. There is a logo on the upper left of the website. I just saw it when you mentioned it here. Still, I thought the absence of the anniversary's mention in the press release was odd.

"You're doing a lot of choppin', but no chips are flyin'." - Foghorn Leghorn

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Marmer, you're correct. KUHF gave the jazz library to KTSU; I believe in 1988. Maybe 87.

Back to KTRU...Blues in HiFi is having a going away party at Cactus this Sunday 2-5.

They may be "going away", but they won't be going far. Word is they'll just move to the KPFT-FM studios, where they've been offered free rein in programming KPFT's HD2 Channel. This comes from an item on a national radio website. And I quote:

"KTRU owner Rice University is selling KTRU (91.7) to the University of Houston for $9.5 million, which will put many station volunteers and programmers on the street. Now Pacifica’s KPFT (90.1) offers them a home. GM Duane Bradley and PD Ernesto Aguilar post an open letter to “KTRU DJs and friends”, offering them “full autonomy” to program the soon-to-re-launch HD-2 channel of KPFT. Pacifica says “it is with great sadness that we observe the fate facing KTRU, a Houston cultural institution that blazed trails.”

I wish them well. But I have to ask how a radio station with an audience so small the Arbitron Rating Service couldn't measure it could be described as "a Houston cultural institution."

BTW: that national radio website is http://www.radio-info.com/news/displaced-ktru-houston-personalities-get-an-hd-2-offer-from-pacificas-kpft

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Oh, and FWIW -- Bring back K-Arts!

Or bring back KLEF.

I can look forward to a 24/7 classical station but I hope it's not "Top 40" classical like so many broadcast stations around the country and on satellite radio. This is a real opportunity for U of H to do some significant and important home-grown shows. How great would it be to hear performances at the Moores School broadcast either live or at a later date. The latter is probably desireable for the University since it wouldn't cannibalize actual attendance so much.

Student run programming? Sure if they put it on Facebook, or YouTube, or what ever they can produce any kind of crap they want but doesn't it still have value to produce professional quality programming with the audience that "traditional" media attracts? Perhaps I am being too old-fashioned and romantic.

I'll just wait unti KUHC is on the air. It doesn't really have to be all classical either. How about some big band and Broadway tunes once in a while? No, I'm only turning 50 next month not 80 but, growing up, I had to listen to what my parents played on the Hi-Fi. Pennsylvania 6-5000.

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This is a real opportunity for U of H to do some significant and important home-grown shows. How great would it be to hear performances at the Moores School broadcast either live or at a later date. The latter is probably desireable for the University since it wouldn't cannibalize actual attendance so much.

They already do this; my roommate has done performances on KUHF several times. I can't imagine why they would stop now that they've got all this additional air time.

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They already do this; my roommate has done performances on KUHF several times. I can't imagine why they would stop now that they've got all this additional air time.

Yes, exactly. And "The Front Row" showcases live performances by local and visiting artists.

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No, KTRU has always had excellent musical selection. Only certain timeslots were experimental, etc. and much of the experimental stuff was quite interesting (a Rice group called LMNOP for example).

Taste in music is possibly the single most subjective (and contentious) thing in which to have an opinion about. I won't argue the merits of the music, but I will say I frequently tuned in and would be aurally raped by the sound of fingernails on chalkboards or a continueous cacophonous sound looped without deviation or additional noises for five to ten minutes. When they played music, I typically enjoyed it, but when they used the station as a laboratory, I often changed the channel. Now, I'm hearing none of the stuff that turned me off, and I'm hearing much more of what I think they do right.

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Taste in music is possibly the single most subjective (and contentious) thing in which to have an opinion about. I won't argue the merits of the music, but I will say I frequently tuned in and would be aurally raped by the sound of fingernails on chalkboards or a continueous cacophonous sound looped without deviation or additional noises for five to ten minutes. When they played music, I typically enjoyed it, but when they used the station as a laboratory, I often changed the channel. Now, I'm hearing none of the stuff that turned me off, and I'm hearing much more of what I think they do right.

As a retired radio professional, I've never believed giving students free rein to program a radio station is a good idea. It works only if you don't care if anyone listens or not, and that's how it has always been with KTRU.

The Rice Administration has allowed students to do anything they want at KTRU for so long that the students have the attitude that they own it. Now they're acting like a bunch of children whose favorite toy has been taken away. I hate to break it to them but they DO NOT own it. It belongs to the school. The Rice Admins are selling something that contributes absolutely nothing to the mission of the school, and will put the money to constructive uses around the campus.

For those who say Rice is a wealthy school, and can afford to do anything it wants without selling the radio station, let me remind those people that in the past two years, every stock portfolio in every private endowment in the country has lost value in double digit percentages because of the recession. Every private university in the country is hurting financially, and Rice is no exception.

Schools like Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, AND Rice are all feeling painful financial pinches they've never felt before. Harvard, the wealthiest university in the United States, saw its endowment drop 30 percent from June 2008 to June 2009. The Rice Endowment lost about 20 percent. The national average loss was a little over 17 percent.

So, Rice is faced with either tapping the shrunken endowment for needed campus projects, or selling something that's useless to pay for things that will be very useful. That's a no brainer, and I applaud them for this decision.

Besides, it's worth remembering that KTRU will not go out of existence. It will live on, on the Internet. Every person who now listens to KTRU -- and has Internet access -- will be able to continue listening.

It's also worth noting that this will make KTRU available worldwide. Internet radio is already showing clear signs of being the next big thing, and I think that's more than a fair trade-off.

Hey kids. Wake up and show some appreciation for what you've been given. The whole world is now your playground. Today Houston, tomorrow the world.

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Taste in music is possibly the single most subjective (and contentious) thing in which to have an opinion about. I won't argue the merits of the music, but I will say I frequently tuned in and would be aurally raped by the sound of fingernails on chalkboards or a continueous cacophonous sound looped without deviation or additional noises for five to ten minutes. When they played music, I typically enjoyed it, but when they used the station as a laboratory, I often changed the channel. Now, I'm hearing none of the stuff that turned me off, and I'm hearing much more of what I think they do right.

As a retired radio professional, I've always believed that giving students complete free rein to program a radio station is the worst possible way to run a radio station. It works ONLY if you don't care whether anyone but students listen to it, and that's how it has always been with KTRU. The Rice Administration has allowed students to do anything they want at KTRU for so long that the students have the attitude that they own it. Now they're acting like a bunch of children whose favorite toy has been taken away. I hate to break it to them but they DO NOT own it. It belongs to the school. The Rice Admins are selling something that contributes absolutely nothing to the mission of the school, and will put the money to constructive uses around the campus.

For those who say Rice is a wealthy school, and can afford to do anything it wants without selling the radio station, let me remind those people that in the past two years, every stock portfolio in every private endowment in the country has lost value in double digit percentages because of the recession. Every private university in the country is hurting financially, and Rice is no exception. Rice is feeling financial pinches it's never felt before. Rather than tap the shrunken endowment for campus projects, it's selling something that's useless to pay for things that will be very useful, and I applaud this decision.

Besides, it's worth remembering that KTRU will not out of existence. It will live on, on the Internet. Every person who now listens to KTRU -- and has Internet access -- will be able to continue listening to their favorite station. It's also worth noting that this will make KTRU available worldwide. They can program to the entire world. Internet radio is already showing signs of being the next big thing, and I think that's more than a fair trade-off.

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As a retired radio professional, I've never believed giving students free rein to program a radio station is a good idea. It works only if you don't care if anyone listens or not, and that's how it has always been with KTRU.

As a retired radio professional, I worked at three radio stations when I was in college that were entirely student-run, except for the engineer and the general manager. Each had varying levels of professionalism based on the university's commitment to the station. Student-run radio isn't necessarily bad. In fact, some student-run radio stations end up bigger and more influential than their host institutions (WFUV), or in some cases outliving the college (WSOU).

I agree with you that student-programmed radio works best when the ratings don't matter, but you say that like it's a bad thing. Isn't that the whole purpose of the non-commercial portion of the radio band?

That said, I'm in favor of the KUHF-KTRU sale, but I'm a little disappointed to hear that there will be more talk and not an aggressive expansion of news on the main channel. But full-time classical on KTRU is a good thing.

Here's an idea -- UH should throw the Rice die-hards a bone and run KTRU's internet stream on KUHC's HD-2 or HD-3 channel. Sure, not everyone has an HD radio, but there are far more HD radios in cars (the primary radio listening venue these days) than there are internet radios in cars.

For reference:

KUHF

FM287789.jpg

KTRU

FM162267.jpg

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I'm a little disappointed to hear that there will be more talk and not an aggressive expansion of news on the main channel. But full-time classical on KTRU is a good thing. Here's an idea -- UH should throw the Rice die-hards a bone and run KTRU's internet stream on KUHC's HD-2 or HD-3 channel.

When this change is made, KUHF will be putting NPR's entire schedule of programs on the air. Not including Morning Edition and All Things Considered, all these programs are now heard on the HD-2 Channel. I'm guessing all those programs will be moved to 88.7 FM and HD-1. All the classical music and arts programming will move to KUHC, formerly KTRU, and the HD-2 channel.

In between the two news programs, after ME, comes Diane Rehm, a 2 hour news and interview show, then Fresh Air with Terry Gross, known for her interesting interviews. At noon, who knows? There are a couple of NPR programs not carried right now that could fit in there. At 1pm comes Talk of the Nation, a 2 hour news, interview and call-in program. At 3pm, they will either keep the BBC News Hour, or go to All Things Considered and stay with it, probably till 7pm. At 7pm, there's The World, from the BBC and PRI, news from Europe from Deutsche Welle Newslink Plus, and NPR's Tell Me More till midnight. Then it will carry BBC World News from midnight to 4am or 5am. That sounds like a solid 24 hour news/talk clock to me.

KUHF's website says it will also be expanding its coverage of local issues, with live broadcasts of town-hall meetings and other news worthy events.

You also wish for an aggressive expansion of loala news on the main channel. I predict you'll get your wish. I've heard that local news will be expanded, possibly with a half-hour or even one-hour evening local and state news roundup. I predict we will be hearing a lot more news from around the state, with reports from the Texas Public Radio Network, and other public radio stations around the state, including KUT in Austin and KERA in Dallas. I can tell you there is more than enough local and state news available from all those sources on any given day to fill a full hour, and I'm sure it will come to pass.

And, don't hold your breath waiting for KUHF to put KTRU on an HD channel. Never happen. But, maybe you haven't heard this, but Pacifica KPFT FM is already offering KTRU people free rein to program its HD-2 Channel.

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They already do this; my roommate has done performances on KUHF several times. I can't imagine why they would stop now that they've got all this additional air time.

Correct, Niche. I should have said, "now with two frequencies I hope KUHF takes the opportunity to expand the number of local performances it airs." The station not only broadcasts performances on the U of H campus but has aired performances from other venues around the city. An example is those of the Houston Bach Society which holds performances at Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church directly across Greenbriar from Rice University.

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Yes. What s/he said. When discussing the Houston public radio landscape it's important to remember KTSU. "Jazz in all its Colors."

I could be wrong, and please correct me if I misremember.

My memory of the history of "fine arts" radio in Houston since 1980 was that there was once:

A Classical Station: KLEF 94.5, commercial, with ads for high-end retailers like Cadillac dealers. Local radio personalities like John Proffitt and Ira J. Black worked there.

A Jazz Station: KUHF 88.7, public, with a strong commitment to jazz and public radio programs.

This was before a lot of the more famous current programs like This American Life.

A Radical Station: KPFT 90.1. Proud of its hippie anti-establishment cred, home to folk music and a lot of specialized international music shows as well as minority-themed shows.

A couple of "college stations." Run by students, not really very powerful, playing whatever the students were interested in. KTRU 91.7 and KTSU 90.1

By the mid-80s KLEF was dead; it's absentee owners impatient with its tiny audience and equally tiny ad revenues. If I recall correctly, some local devotees got the rights to the call letters and played a non-DJ classical jukebox on a different frequency for a little while (this would have been about the time that CDs had become universal so this was fairly easy to do.) You all know what's been on 94.5 since then; it's a little jarring to old-timers like me.

KLEF's owners gave the KLEF classical music library to KUHF and this prompted the switch to almost entirely classical music for KUHF. Again, this would have been 1987 or so. I remember that the late Bob Claypool, longtime jazz critic for Houston newspapers, wrote a blistering editorial attacking this move, saying it was tantamount to telling jazz fans to "move back to the back of the bus."

I am pretty sure that KUHF gave their jazz library to KTSU and this solidified KTSU's focus on jazz. This is the part, however, that I am least familiar with.

This takes us to about 1988 or so. Local philanthropist Mike Stude decided to create a commercial classical station similar to what KLEF had been. They sought out upscale advertisers and made a big effort to play music at times when KUHF was playing their spoken public radio programs. They also had an extremely conservative approach to selecting classical music and this did not always go over well with the city's classical music community. They made a big effort to record the Houston Symphony and to present other local performers. I knew most of their staff personally. It was their desire for a more powerful transmitter which caused them to fund the transmitter move and upgrade for KTRU. At the time it looked like a win-win situation.

Even with the best of intentions, though, KRTS couldn't make the money work and they finally pulled the plug in 2004. With the sale of the station to Washington, DC-based Radio One, that was the end for the last locally-owned commercial station in Houston. (according to the Houston Business Journal at the time.)

Through it all, KPFT and KTRU soldiered on, sounding not all that different today than they did in 1980.

Sorry for any errors, if any of you can correct me please do (brucesw?)

You are substantially correct. KLEF-FM became KJYY in March, 1986. Didn't John Profitt become GM or PD or KUHF? KLEF had been a classical station since Oct, 1964, when it took over the frequency from KARO, a sweet music station that had struggled for 4 years. At the time, KRBE was also a full-time classical station (The Key To Radio Broadcast Excellence) but switched to Top 40 ca. 1968.

When KRBE first came on the air in late 1958, every FM in town except KFMK (97.9) was airing at least some classical music and several continued into the early 60s. There was also classical on AM - KPRC had been airing the Houston Symphony concerts for decades. In it's first 2 decades, FM was the medium of high brows.

There are more details on Mike Stude's involvement with the huge upgrade in KTRU facilities in the thread on Radio-Info linked to by Filio above but essentially, Rice never set out to operate a 50,000 watt Class C2 FM station as a student run station and there's no reason they should be expected to fund such an enterprise unless they're just rolling in cash and don't know what to do with it. As it is they're reaping a huge financial return on a minimal investment.

The first 'educational' station in town was WRAA, licensed to Rice Institute from December, 1922, to mid 1925. Before that, Rice students had been among the forefront in experimenting with the new 'science' of radiotelephony, active in amateur radio, working with the oil companies in developing their use of radiotelegraphy to keep in touch with their widespread operations and operating the big amateur station that had it's antenna on top of the Carter building.

Radio has been on the downward side of the growth curve for decades and consolidation of signals and frequencies in the hands of a few operators has been going on for almost as long. The best engineering and entertainment minds haven't been attracted to the medium for years. It's time for Rice students to get creative and inventive and see what they can come up with to distribute their programming. Maybe they can come up with something to trump HD and Internet radio.

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I didn't know this but there are 60 current (well, last year, anyway) KTRU DJ's. Sixty! There are a lot of campus organizations at Rice that don't have that many people. And saying that KTRU's reach will somehow magically be expanded by the miracle of internet radio and this will somehow compensate for the loss of over-the-air broadcast is particularly galling to KTRU staff who were among the earliest adopters of internet streaming, several years ago. As one staffer said, "we're just one among thousands of internet radio stations and there's no reason for anyone to pay attention to us." What local bands are interested in, and what KTRU has provided, is FM broadcast airplay. Not internet airplay, that's not really any different than Myspace. Not HD Radio. Try finding a car with a factory HD radio.

I can see how it looks like a good financial decision for Rice, and I can see how it's attractive to KUHF to be able to substantially expand its programming.

But I have known several KTRU DJ's over the years, and they are dedicated and passionate about finding and sharing music that doesn't otherwise get much attention. Not just experimental stuff, but jazz, blues, folk, children's music, and contemporary classical music. Forty years worth of Rice students and community members have given lots of their time out of love and commitment to the medium and the mission. Their dedication is not substantially different from that of intramural athletes, amateur musicians, or campus journalists. They have every right to be upset without being called spoiled children.

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I didn't know this but there are 60 current (well, last year, anyway) KTRU DJ's. Sixty! There are a lot of campus organizations at Rice that don't have that many people. And saying that KTRU's reach will somehow magically be expanded by the miracle of internet radio and this will somehow compensate for the loss of over-the-air broadcast is particularly galling to KTRU staff who were among the earliest adopters of internet streaming, several years ago. As one staffer said, "we're just one among thousands of internet radio stations and there's no reason for anyone to pay attention to us." What local bands are interested in, and what KTRU has provided, is FM broadcast airplay. Not internet airplay, that's not really any different than Myspace. Not HD Radio. Try finding a car with a factory HD radio.

I can see how it looks like a good financial decision for Rice, and I can see how it's attractive to KUHF to be able to substantially expand its programming.

But I have known several KTRU DJ's over the years, and they are dedicated and passionate about finding and sharing music that doesn't otherwise get much attention. Not just experimental stuff, but jazz, blues, folk, children's music, and contemporary classical music. Forty years worth of Rice students and community members have given lots of their time out of love and commitment to the medium and the mission. Their dedication is not substantially different from that of intramural athletes, amateur musicians, or campus journalists. They have every right to be upset without being called spoiled children.

+1. Very well said. It's been extremely disappointing to see KTRU's musical and cultural value minimized and ridiculed in this thread. I will readily admit that not everything I hear on KTRU is my cup of tea, but over the span of close to 30 years, there's no other station I've listened to or appreciated as consistently.

If there's one good thing that's come out of the current brouhaha, it's that it seems to be focusing attention on some of the decisions made by President Leebron and his administration regarding the direction of Rice as a whole, not just KTRU. As an alum, those are decisions I have a vested interest in.

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  • 1 month later...

From Rice University President David Leebron:

I am writing to update you on the status of the sale of the KTRU radio tower, frequency and license to the University of Houston. An agreement has been signed with UH and the matter now goes to the Federal Communications Commission for approval, which may take several months. As you know, the tower will be used by public radio station KUHF as a second station serving the greater Houston community, with one broadcasting 24-hour news and information and the second station, with call letters KUHC, broadcasting 24-hour classical music and entertainment.

We will consult with KTRU’s student managers about the timing for turning the tower over to KUHF, but we expect that to occur by the end of the semester or calendar year. In the meantime, KTRU will continue to deliver its programming on 91.7 and online through www.ktru.org. In my conversations with the student managers, although we have disagreed about the sale of the tower and broadcasting rights, I have been encouraged by their commitment to explore ways to make KTRU of even greater value to the Rice community. We are also working with KTRU leadership to explore some alternatives in addition to the online station. We will dedicate some proceeds from the sale to KTRU for improvements now and ongoing support in the future. KTRU has played an important role at Rice, and we expect it will continue to play an important role in campus life in the future.

We are also working with leaders of the Student Association and Graduate Student Association to formulate a process for gaining student input on how to best use proceeds from the sale. Some will go toward the new east servery and to KTRU, but we will not make any other decisions until we have heard from students about their priorities. Funds from the sale will be available when FCC approval is obtained.

I know the decision to sell the tower was controversial, as was the need to conduct those negotiations confidentially. This was clearly an exception to our usual process for undertaking major decisions at Rice, and we have emphasized that this was a result of unique aspects of this sale and not a precedent for future decisions. As a whole, members of our community expressed their opinions with great civility and thoughtfulness, and the KTRU leadership and staff were appropriately strong advocates for their viewpoint. We look forward to working with them and others in putting the sale proceeds to work for the benefit of our students and university.

Sincerely,

President David W. Leebron

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...from the Save KTRU blog:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Joey Yang, KTRU Station Manager

j.yang@rice.edu

(614) 423-9264

Friends of KTRU retains law firm to battle proposed sale of KTRU 91.7 FM

Law firm of Paul Hastings pursuing next steps

HOUSTON, October 13, 2010– Friends of KTRU, a group of concerned students, alumni, and community members dedicated to stopping the sale of KTRU’s FM frequency, license and tower, has retained law firm Paul Hastings.

Rice University announced today that it has completed the sale of the station to the University of Houston and that the FM frequency will be shut down by the end of calendar year 2010 at the latest.

“It is shameful that the Rice University administration has not heeded the thousands of voices asking to stop the sale of KTRU,” said KTRU station manager Joey Yang. “Instead, Rice has chosen to throw away more than 40 years of student-run tradition in favor of a new cafeteria for the campus. For this reason, we must pursue legal avenues for stopping the sale. The fight has only just begun.”

To learn more about KTRU and how to help stop the sale, please visit www.savektru.org.

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