KTRU SALE: NO NEED FOR SNEAKY VISITS AFTER ALL Texas Watchdog has now released all the emails it collected related to the sale of Rice University radio station KTRU’s FM broadcast license and its not-so-shabby transmitter in Humble to the University of Houston. And for the local-radio-obsessed, there are plenty of repetitive conversations to pore through. A couple of the messages, though, bring a little more clarity to what happened after one of the deal’s brokers, Public Radio Capital director of acquisitions Erik Langner, suggested that Rice invent some pretext to allow a consulting engineer to inspect the station (which is run by students they didn’t want to tip off that a sale was likely to take place). It appears no subterfuge was needed, after all. “They brought the station manager and one or two of the key staff into the loop on the sale,” a colleague of Langner’s wrote to KUHF general manager John Proffitt about a month later. As Texas Watchdog reporter Steve Miller notes, Proffitt later identifies the KTRU staff members as the station’s general manager and chief engineer — both of whom are Rice employees. [Texas Watchdog; previously on Swamplot]
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Tag: Humble
RICE TAKING KTRU OFF THE AIRWAVES, HANDING OVER HUMBLE TRANSMITTER TO KUHF A vote this morning by UH’s board of regents means Rice University student radio station KTRU’s broadcast license and 50,000-watt transmitter tower in Humble will soon belong to the University of Houston. The purchase price: $9.5 million, which Rice officials say will be used for “campuswide enhancements that benefit all students.” Rice-run KTRU will continue to broadcast, but as an internet-only station. UH plans to convert its existing radio station at 88.7 FM to a 24-hour NPR news and information format, and use the new frequency at 91.7 FM for classical music and fine-arts programming. [Rice News; more details]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHEN HOUSTON WAS RIGGED “The Astrodome is ~1 mile north of the old Pierce Junction Oil Field. Most of the area is industrial, but there are homes along the perimeter of the field where Glenn McCarthy, who later built the Shamrock Hotel, made his first millions. Here’s a link to a 1956 TIME magazine article about the field and issues regarding growth of Houston versus industrial development. If anyone reads the article, I believe the dump it refers to is now a golf course. There are methane candy canes all around it. This is to say nothing of the Humble area. If anyone can find any old aerial photos of Humble online, let me know. I’ve seen them in the past and would like to do an overlay of current use versus prior use.” [J Wilson, commenting on House Shopping in the Chemical Discount Zones: Finding Houston’s Less-Toxic Neighborhoods]
Congratulations to the winner of this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game: Helen. And what did she win? Just a one-year membership in the Rice Design Alliance! Our thanks to the RDA, for providing the prize!
Great guesses, everyone. Where is this place?
Waiting patiently on the market since last October: the landmark Old Humble Antiques & Collectibles shop at the corner of E. Main St. and N. Avenue C in downtown Humble — still available for the same ol’ price of just under $600K. Comes with a 3,500-sq.-ft. living space above, plus a 2-car garage with a separate apartment above it tucked around in back.
Listing photos still show a bit of Humble memorabilia inside. Is haggling allowed?
We have a winner!!!
No need to belabor where y’all guessed the home was this week: all over town . . . and circling widely as the contest was extended — twice.
Our prize, a 1-year individual membership to the Rice Design Alliance, goes to Eric, who laid low until the weekend and then guessed Atascocita. Why? Because
Every neighborhood I would’ve guessed has been mentioned.
Yes, this was a tough one. An honorable mention goes to NorhillJoe, whose spirit guide pointed the way to . . . Humble.
Before we give details on this week’s home, a quick word about sponsors: Swamplot has a few more RDA memberships to give out to first-place Neighborhood Guessing Game winners. But after that, we’ll be looking for prize sponsors. If you or your company or organization would like to earn some attention and appreciation from Swamplot readers by donating the prize for one or more of our games, please contact us at our advertising email address.
And now:
Each bedroom of this home at 19502 Gamble Oak Dr. in the Pines of Atascocita has its own distinctive personality!
So . . . what color is the Breakfast Room?
A few fun — and not-so-fun — sights around town: First, Houston visitor Mike Smith’s photo shows some of the few letters left after Ike’s attack.
More hurricane photo souvenirs below!
Fall Creek is only 15 minutes from Downtown Houston!!! . . . Unless you believe those silly Google Maps, which show it around 25 minutes away. But Google’s probably figuring how long it would take if you drove while sending text messages with your iPhone — that can slow you down. Whether you believe the real-estate developers or the software developers, you might want to add in some sort of factor for traffic.
There likely won’t be so much traffic along I-59 this weekend, so you can explore the open houses on this tour and test the drive times yourself!
Location: 8510 Mineral Springs Ln.
Details: 5 bedrooms, 4 full and 2 half baths, 4,857 sq. ft.
Price: $424,900
The Scoop: Ginormous 2005 home “has hidden room in gameroom wired for internet.” Could that be the secret World of Warcraft bunker you’ve been looking for? On market since late October; marked down twice from $449,900.
Open House: Sunday, 1-4 pm
You’ll find three more Fall Creek open houses for this weekend . . . below the fold.
