The University of Houston’s Board of Regents voted Tuesday morning to buy Rice University’s 50,000-watt student-run radio station, KTRU, for $9.5-million, according to a University of Houston news release. If the sale is approved by federal authorities, the new owners would end the station’s current mix of eclectic student-oriented programming and create a new classical-music station with the call letters KUHC. The University of Houston’s current public-radio station, KUHF, would move to an all-news format. A Rice University press release said that KTRU’s audience “is often too small to be measured” and that the station would continue as an online-only operation, but the station’s managers and DJs set up a Save KTRU Web site and a similar page on Facebook and began broadcasting appeals for support.
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3 Responses to U. of Houston Board Approves Purchase of Rice U. Student Radio Station
solom31597 - August 18, 2010 at 8:53 am
When the Levee Breaks Baker.So-long KTRU.(Classical and Cougar High seems a misfit.)
wloyloyolaradio - August 19, 2010 at 12:37 pm
Its a shame that Rice is viewing the station as nothing more than a financial asset. 40 years of student broadcasting (and wealthy alumni) are being ignored for the quick buck. Hopefully they will still work a deal for at least an HD2 channel so the station isn’t totally silenced. Their PR office comparing the internet feed to a 50kW signal as though they are remotely the same is a sad illustration that the school administration really doesn’t know what Rice has. Best wishes for KTRU’s survival!
22118130 - August 19, 2010 at 4:38 pm
University of Houston hasn’t been Cougar High for more than forty years– since it became a state university. But, then among the Rice elitists who think they’re better than everyone, I guess it will always be that. In this case it’s just sour grapes on the part of the people at Rice because UH has the bucks and Rice doesn’t.