Save Student Station KTRU

August 19th, 2010 by The Professor

Yesterday the University of Houston approved a deal to buy the non-commercial, student-staffed 50,000 watt KTRU-FM from Rice University. The trouble is, no one mentioned it to KTRU! Rice University apparently decided to sell the station for between $9-10 million dollars to U of H without any public discussion. The deal will effectively kill independent radio in the Houston market, end 40 years of Rice student radio and add another NPR affiliate to the market. Rice has had major losses in it’s endowment in the past year, but the explanation given is that the money will fund new programs. Perhaps the most amazing thing is the statement from their PR office claiming that “the students aren’t losing anything” since they will move to the internet?! Ok, we at WLOY will happily trade our internet stream for your 50,000 watt FM signal ANY DAY. Please call 🙂


Want to find out more? Savektru.org is one of the many sites set up to support cancellation of the deal. KTRU was threatened with shutdown in 2000 and raised enough noise from the community and alumni to bring them back from the brink then.