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Although KUNC is available in many remote regions of the
state, including this one, I confess that I seldom listen
to it. The public-radio station from the University of
Northern Colorado in Greeley offers diverse and eclectic
music,
which must appeal to people with tastes more
elevated than mine.
My home-office workday goes better with gritty music
for people with attitude problems,
which is what I get,
along with National Public Radio programs, from KRCC at
Colorado College in Colorado Springs, which also has a
repeater in our mountains.
But even if I seldom listen to KUNC, I'd still like it to stay on the air with its current format, since it's good to have a choice. But other people have other plans.
Earlier this month, the UNC Board of Trustees agreed to sell KUNC to KCFR for about $2 million. Even if many universities spend millions trying to make themselves known, for some reason KUNC was not part of UNC's mission, and so the university decided to spin it off. And even if people have contributed $600,000 in the past three years for a KUNC Endowment, the university feels free to use that money for other purposes, which must make donors to other UNC funds wonder about how trustworthy that institution really is.
KCFR, based in Denver, likes to call itself Colorado
Public Radio,
as though it were a voluntary association
of independent stations. It's not.
KCFR used to mail deceptive fund-raising solicitations to people in areas that it did not serve. KCFR builds translators in areas already served by community public-radio stations, thus putting the squeeze on operations that were marginal to start with.
Various family members who have lived in Denver say they like the energy and variety of the city, but wonder why it has such a lame public-radio station, KCFR, when tiny little Salida is better served.
In short, I can't think of a good thing to say about KCFR, which has designs on becoming a public-radio monopoly in Colorado with two channels throughout the state: one for classical music, and the other for spoken stuff like news and commentary.
But just in case I missed something, I called Mario Valdes, general manager of KRCC. He did think of something good to say about KCFR.
Max Wycisk at KCFR has worked very hard to get his
hands on every possible radio signal in Colorado,
Valdes said, so I have to admire him for his persistence
and tenacity. This guy is like a piranha. And if he gets
his way, there will never be another free public service
announcement on a public radio station in Colorado.
Valdes said he was sure Wycisk would like to acquire
KRCC, too, but that's something I'll fight to the last
ounce of strength in my body. Ask the people in Grand
Junction -- you've got to be very careful in dealing with
KCFR. It always sounds like a seduction at first when they
want to work with you, but it turns into a rape.
Valdes brought up an interesting point. The
negotiations between KUNC and KCFR were done in secret,
behind closed doors. Then it comes out that the
university, which is a state agency, has agreed to sell the
station for about $2 million.
That's a steal. You look at KUNC's strong signal,
and its network of translators, and at the current market.
Some religious broadcaster would pay at least $5 million,
maybe $5.5 million for that. KCFR is getting a valuable
state asset at a significant discount, and you'd think the
state government might care about that.
Valdes had to take another call, so I couldn't explain to him about how our state land board does business with state assets, or how UNC President Hank Brown is a prominent Republican and our state government is run by Republicans, and so there's a better chance of winning the lottery than of seeing any official state concern about not getting a fair price for a public asset.
But I did call Mike Kerrigan, general manager of KVRH, a
commercial station here, to ask about the $5 million.
It sounds about right in that market,
he said, with
a caution that he's not all that familiar with financial
numbers of that magnitude.
So KCFR, which happily misleads the public by calling itself Colorado Public Radio, is getting a sweetheart deal, and an independent voice with its own news-gathering operation will be silenced.
But it's not quite a done deal.
Instead of agreeing to the KCFR sale on Feb. 9, UNC trustees gave KUNC until the end of the month to raise $2 million to match the KCFR offer.
A non-profit organization, Friends of KUNC, has gone to
work raising money. I talked to KUNC general manager Neil
Best Thursday. As of this morning, we've raised about
$210,000,
he said. So it's coming along. But we
don't have much time.
He was calling from his car phone, en route to talk to another potential big donor, which is how he's spent the past week. To speed him on his way, I got off the phone -- if you're trying to raise money, especially a substantial sum, then time spent talking to me is pretty much wasted time.
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