KTRU: The Death Knell Rings, Thanks To UH

• The sale of KTRU's license reflects very badly on Rice's administration. @KV.L How I wish. CBC2 changed format to attract a younger demo. Now they have fewer listeners than ever. Tom Allen is a shadow of his former self and alas, Jurgen Goth is just gone.

• Boycott KUHF. I will never those bullies another dime.

• arrrrrgghhh! I'm really hating those elitist bastards from KUHF more and more. Hearing how "you can enjoy NPR programming during the day if you have an HD radio" from Dean Dalton during pledge drives made me sream, "WHO IN THE HELL HAS AN HD RADIO? I've never even seen one!"

• from http://www.class.uh.edu/english/faculty/estess_t.asp "Ted Estess is Dean of the Honors College where he holds the Jane Morin Cizik Chair in the Humanities." (if the comment was really from ted estess. on the internet no one knows you're a dog.) the "consolidation of resources" angle is obviously b.s., as there is absolutely nothing that makes one university owning two fm frequencies provide for anything "richer". the two stations do not currently overlap material -- they are not competing, or duplicating resources. in fact, this move is splitting the programming of one station into two, while completely eliminating the other format from the air. about the only thing "rich" about this is "ted estess'" position (and probably the pocketbooks of most of the older white listeners happy about this move). so i call b.s. on "mr. estess'" comment. the likely truth is he just likes the kuhf format and would like more of it -- and doesn't care about the college radio format, so doesn't mind losing it. but the "consolidation" angle? please. ...unless he would be just as happy if uofh gave kuhf to rice...i bet the rice board would like having their very own new fm frequency to use as they please. or perhaps "mr. estess" would like to continue this fabulous consolidation "venture" by giving up his chair and dean position to the faculty from the more prestigious rice university. :)

• Forgive the typing error: I meant to say: "If you want the kind of station KTRU will no longer be, you will have to create yourself be it internet, licensed or pirate."

• Do think a petition is going to save Rice Radio? Good luck with that, this a sale between two entities (one public & one private) involving millions of dollars ... and even if you get let's say, 100,000 signatures do you think they will even listen? No, all they will tell you is "Thanks for your input, we appreciate your interest". Giving them a petition with lots signatures is not going to be a magic bullet that reverses the sale. If you want the kind of station KTRU will on longer be, you will have to create your be it internet, licensed or pirate.

• How cool is that, I ask? Half the KUHF programming consists of tepid classical horn and clavier music and then shows on cars, trivia, yuppie food, and news from Lake Woebegone. The only Alternative music in town will be the latter work of Alexander Gretchaninov played when people are sleeping on Thursday night. We need A CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company) style of radio. If you are going to tear down the old radio rubrik, tear it all down and start again.

• Great, now we have half of a Classical Music station and no alternative station. Who says money breeds class?

• KUHF could make a dent in programming and ratings if they had the ambition. The classical stuff they play is good, but c'mon, they could be totally off the charts if they would program pioneering stuff! Nobody but nobody listens to the classical stuff they spout everyday...they do it because they coast on NPR and AMP listeners, which is fine. Either give us more of that honeyed stuff, or get a little original with their own programming. They have only these spots that I listen to: NPR morning...BBC at 3...NPR at 4...Marketplace at 630-7...otherwise, it's a well done snooze factor (and I'm saying that as a LISTENER!)

• If KUHF has a measurable Arbitron rating, it is largely because of their NPR programming time, I'd bet. I say it would be better to stop the UH subsidization of the boring/classical music now played on KUHF if they want more news/info time. As someone else told me "Rice is trumpeting the fact that they made it into the Top 25 in the US News Top Colleges rankings. Ironically, Rice will soon be the only school in that list without a student-run broadcast radio entity."

• Ted, this is terrific news for no one, except perhaps the construction workers who'll take this money to build a new cafeteria on Rice's campus. Do you work for one of these two universities PR departments?

• Terrific news for the city of Houston. I was just in Colorado for a stretch and enjoyed listening to the two Public Radio Stations, similar to what Houston will have now have (with one providing continuous information and news, the other classical music and arts programming). This is a consolidation of resources (i.e., FM frequencies) that will serve the metropolitan area in a far richer way that the two universities holding the frequencies separately. It's a good sign that Rice and UH cooperated in bringing the great new development for the community. May there be other such ventures!

• I do not understand how this will improve anything. I have never been able to even pick up KTRU's signal, except for those times I am close to the campus. Unless UH spends some real money, who the hell will hear their new station? And why is getting the bullshit NPR news for 24 hours a day a big improvement?

• Rice is great, and now we only have Pacifica to play good musicin town.

• http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/KTRU SAVE KTRU, sign the petition please! Press people, if you see this and want to disseminate it.....

• This is wrong. Another destroyed outlet for truly unique music. The only station that we have not fed by the corporate machine to force feed the cows that don't care about what they hear. Long live KTRU! Sincerely, The Rat Bastard Show

• Yes, I don't really think this is UH's fault. They wanted a better way to get their classical station (which really has almost nothing to do with the university at all) out there, and they found it. The fault lies entirely with Rice trying to do away with one of their greatest and most far-reaching institutions simply because it doesn't pay off in any sort of easily quantifiable way. They've openly admitted that they did this in a sneaky way because they didn't want anyone fighting them on it. Despicable.

• "...we have some of the longest running programs on Texas radio. We play music that you wouldn't hear on any other Texas radio station." According to Rice nobody was hearing it anyway, or at least nobody cared enough to tune in and listen.

• I don't blame UH--they wanted an additional frequency and Rice was selling. I do blame Rice for conducting this deal in secret--away from the prying eyes of students and alumni. As an alumnus, I find this utter lack of transparency disgraceful and highly worrying. I wonder what other assets held by Rice are secretly for sale?

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