Regarding Cathy Duchamp’s letter about the state of Northwest public radio (“KPLU sale or not, listeners will win”): I am sure that Cathy is proud of what they do at KUOW, and I have no quarrel with that. But I would strongly suggest that if KUOW purchases KPLU, the quality of public radio in the Northwest will diminish significantly.
KUOW and KPLU are two very distinct stations that produce very different programming. KPLU completed its last fund drive in three days, the shortest in history and raised $50,000 more than the goal. We raised that money because we love what KPLU does. Had KUOW successfully made the frequency grab that the sale would have allowed, their model of all news would have dominated the region and KPLU would have ended up with an all-jazz station that almost assuredly would have disappeared within the year.
And, though very few have acknowledged this, 94.9 FM is in commercial bandwidth — it is an anomaly since public radio stations are provided the bandwidth below 92.1. What this would almost certainly mean is that after KUOW 94.9 acquired KPLU 88.5, they would have been free to sell the 94.9 space on the dial to a commercial radio venture and made a huge profit, since commercial bandwidth is so much more valuable. In other words, KPLU would have lost — everything. It is one of the reasons why KPLU listeners are so passionately fighting to keep 88.5 as their own.
I have wished throughout this entire process, that the agents behind the top-secret sale had been more forthright and honest about their intentions.
John G. Woltjer
Tacoma
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