Radio in Houston has been going downhill for decades. And when I say radio, I mostly mean music radio. I still use the radio to listen to news, or the odd Astros game (though I stopped tuning to 740 AM because I would find myself so disgusted by its content on off-sporting hours).
KTRU is the only radio station I will tune in to listen to music anymore. It hasn’t been a lot of late, but it’s comfortable knowing it’s there. Student run, student programmed, and with a huge broadcast area, I hope it’s a beacon to non-conformist youth throughout the region.
That will all change soon. The news of University of Houston purchasing the transmitter from Rice University leaked out last week when UH had to approve the “up to $10M funding” to purchase it. The actually sale cost has been reported as $9.5M. You would have thought their would be an announcement or some discussion over on the Rice campus before this happened. The lack of discussion about the decision is the biggest punch in the gut.
In a day, the Save KTRU site popped up, and today is their first protest. I saw a lot of student protests at The University of Texas in the late 80’s, but I don’t remember any of them getting what they wanted. I don’t think this sale will be stopped either.
