I’ve been reluctant to comment on the impending sale of KTRU by Rice University (Rice) to the University of Houston (UH), mostly because I would simply be regurgitating the information of others. But this is the internet, and linking your friends’ stories to yours is the name of the game, so here are my two cents (currently undervalued due to inflation).
I’ve listened to KTRU, I like KTRU, the band I’m in has performed on KTRU, and I have hordes of friends who are either current or past DJ’s at KTRU. Hell, I was talking to one of the main DJ’s about stepping into a gig of my own there in Fall 2010. In a city where the radio waves are overwhelmingly dominated by Clear Channel stations that all play the same 30 songs in their respective genres, KTRU is a welcome breath of fresh air for indie, underground music in general and Houston music in particular.
The short version of this sordid tale is as follows: Houston woke up a couple of Mondays ago to find that Rice was selling KTRU (its transmitter, license, call sign, etc) to UH. There are two primary quibbles with this scenario: the dirty deed was done without ever speaking to current KTRU employees, current Rice students, or Rice alumni; and UH already has its own radio station, KUHF. UH was going to turn KUHF (whose current programming is split between piped-in NPR stuff and piped-in classical music; i.e. very limited in-house DJ needs) into a 24-hour NPR channel, while converting KTRU to KUHC and making it a 24-hour classical music channel.
Does Rice have the right to sell what it owns? Sure it does, but administration has been really shady during this entire process. Do I like classical music? Sure I do, but Houston has already seen two different attempts to build a 24-hour classical music station fail miserably in the past few decades.
So, tonight, after a couple of weeks of protests both online and offline, and a Save KTRU concert at The Mink, KTRU station management is going to attempt to have a Question-and-Answer session with the principal antagonists – Rice President David Leebron, Dean of Undergraduates John Hutchinson, VP of Public Affairs Linda Thrane, and VP of Administration Kevin Kirby.
So, in case you’d like to attend the chat, here’s a rundown of the key pieces and prime bits of analysis on the subject from around the Houston interwebs. Inform yourself properly.
- The initial Houston Press Rocks Off article about the sale of KTRU
- The second Houston Press Rocks Off piece about the sale of KTRU
- Houston Press Rocks Off polls various Houston-area music figures about the sale of KTRU
- Houston Press Rocks Off attends initial Save KTRU meeting
- Houston Press Rocks Off attends Save KTRU rally at Rice University
- Houston Press Rocks Off reports on the growing Save KTRU protest movements and action
- Houston Press Rocks Off attends possibly last KTRU Local Show
- Original Space City Rock rant about the sale of KTRU
- Space City Rock attends the Save KTRU rally at Rice University
- Space City Rock attends the Save KTRU concert at The Mink
- Ernesto Aguilar talks about some under-reported details in the sale of KTRU
- Ernesto Aguilar gives the low-down on the Arbitron numbers for KTRU
