Keep your ears peeled at 98.9 FM for KUTX, the soon to come music intensive radio station that the academic affairs committee of the University of Texas System Board of Regents approved the purchase of yesterday (8/22). Back at 90.5, KUT will concentrate on news/talk.
The radio station purchase price is $6 million, $4 million of which will be covered by an internal loan and $2 million in funds the NPR affiliate raised to help fund the move. If KUT can’t repay the loan in 10 years, it must sell the signal.
Regent Wallace Hall cast the only nay vote on the purchase, and questioned the academic value of the transaction:
"I struggle with how this really moves the needle in terms of students."
Board member Steve Hicks had previously expressed concerns regarding the $6 million price and the original proposal for a 20-year internal loan, but voted in favor. Those who pay attention to the radio business might recall that his Capstar Broadcasting was the largest commercial radio chain during the ownership consolidation rush of the mid 1990s before it merged with the Clear Channel chain.
One must still wonder if it’s fair that a public university own a music radio station that will compete rather directly with the commercial station KGSR. Former KGSR programming staffers Jody Denberg and Susan Castle as well as onetime K-Geezer jock Kevin Connor are now all hosting music shows on KUT.
The full Board of Regents is expected to rubber stamp the deal today.
