And now another type of poetry.
As many of you know, the University of Washington and its radio station KUOW,want to purchase KPLU from Pacific Lutheran University (PLU). In essence, kill an extraordinary popular and successful public radio station. Today, the chair of the KPLU advisory council, Stephan Tan, released a compelling letter that expresses the opposition of the KPLU Council to the sale. Furthermore, he shows that many of the "facts" supporting the sale are incorrect.
The letter is found below (you can click on each page to enlarge if you like).
This is the time to email the PLU President, Thomas Krise (krisetw@plu.edu) and the UW Regents (regents@uw.edu), and KUOW (programming@kuow.org) about your opinions about this takeover attempt. The loss of KPLU can be prevented and it is clear that given a few months, KPLU could raise enough funds from listeners to "buy" its independence from PLU. Even better PLU should reconsider the idea of the sale.
Wow - I hadn't heard that info regarding the original purchase of the Neeb Center. Even by itself, that makes the proffered pro-sale talking points seem completely (and deliberately) specious.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing that letter, Cliff!
Hats off to the KPLU Advisory Council and Stephan Tan. What a breath-taking example of truth-telling. Now the question is, are the decision makers in this matter interested in the truth, or willing to compromise their integrity by running roughshod over it?
ReplyDeleteMy godfather was an FCC Commissioner for many years, so I've always had a certain fondness toward it. The letter strikes me as persuasively and clearly written, a fine piece of word work. Cliff, would you think it appropriate for me to forward a copy to the FCC, and :cc a copy to the letter's addressee? Of course, my "title" would be something to the effect of "This station permit transfer proposal has some serious problems. I urge the FCC to carefully consider the facts in the following letter. It would be a great service if the FCC could suggest postponing the sale until the Commission has had time to consider the information in this letter."
ReplyDeleteIs this idea just way out inappropriate? Your input most welcome.
Thank you for all the work you do educating the public. I'm reasonably sure that for these educational services, you have so far been paid a perfect zero. Again, thanks.
bob
Thank you for publishing that letter. I agree with all the points made therein. It pulls back the curtain of what's covering a bad deal for the region. I feel the sale would be a big mistake because to me, there's no way to establish a new franchise here without the backing of a community organization able to weather the ups and downs of the new economy. Where might that organization spring from? (Crickets)
ReplyDeleteI have an off topic question/request for a future post. How well do U.S. and Canadian weather services share information? I see our new coastal radar providing good coverage, but the image of the sweep off the coast of Washington seems to call for another radar sweep at the north tip of Vancouver Island (Cape Scott) for coverage to the north. Is there a Canadian radar there? If there was would U.S. weather sites display it? Would it be a big help in forecasting Washington state weather?
ReplyDeleteCliff, why does the weather channel show that is 15 degrees at the pass and snowing but 44 degrees in Seattle? Usually there isn't such a big temperature gap. Is there cold air coming from Eastern Washington?
ReplyDeleteFor KPLU to sell the station rights to the UW is a ticket for me to go to an anger management seminar. How dare they, with such great reporters actually getting their feet into places that otherwise would remain invisible. KPLU is a source of pride for the students and faculty. Is this KUOW trying to fill the hole left by KCMU being sold to Paul Allen? Grrrr!
ReplyDelete