KPLU SAVED! Deal with KUOW is off, 88.5 FM to become an independent NPR affiliate

A major vic­to­ry for media diver­si­ty and inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ism has been won today with the news that Pacif­ic Luther­an Uni­ver­si­ty has agreed to sell NPR affil­i­ate KPLU to the non­prof­it group Friends of 88.5 FM, which suc­cess­ful­ly raised $7 mil­lion in the span of just a few months to keep the sta­tion independent.

The just-announced agree­ment nix­es a plan hatched in secret last year to to merge KPLU and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton-owned KUOW, which would have meant the loss of one of the region’s most respect­ed newsrooms.

Assum­ing the Fed­er­al Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Com­mis­sion signs off, 88.5 FM will soon be get­ting new call let­ters and declar­ing its inde­pen­dence from Pacif­ic Luther­an Uni­ver­si­ty, like­ly this autumn. It will be allowed to con­tin­ue using PLU facil­i­ties rent-free for three years, after which it will seek to move into a new home.

“I just want to thank every­one who donat­ed time, donat­ed mon­ey, helped out in any way, spoke up. You were heard, and it looks like we’re going to be suc­cess­ful,” said Friends of 88.5 FM Chair­man Stephen Tan.

“We are impressed by the fundrais­ing effort under­tak­en by the Friends of 88.5 FM,” said PLU Pres­i­dent Thomas W. Krise.  “We thank the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton for grace­ful­ly agree­ing to step aside and let KPLU con­tin­ue to serve its lis­ten­ers with the news and jazz pro­gram­ming they have come to rely upon. We wish the com­mu­ni­ty group well as they con­tin­ue to serve and cel­e­brate the greater Puget Sound area.”

Many oth­er NPR affil­i­ates around the coun­try are also owned by com­mu­ni­ty licensees. It’s won­der­ful to see 88.5 FM join the inde­pen­dent media movement.

In a state­ment, the lead­er­ship of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton con­firmed that its agree­ment to pur­chase KPLU from PLU had been ter­mi­nat­ed.

“Con­grat­u­la­tions to the Friends of 88.5 on their agree­ment with Pacif­ic Luther­an Uni­ver­si­ty to pur­chase KPLU, and on the unprece­dent­ed fundrais­ing effort that made it pos­si­ble,” said Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton Pres­i­dent Ana Mari Cauce. “We are delight­ed they were able to make it happen.”

“The gen­eros­i­ty of KPLU’s lis­ten­ers is a tes­ta­ment both to the excel­lence of the station’s pro­gram­ming and to the deep affec­tion that Puget Sound lis­ten­ers hold for pub­lic radio,” said KUOW Gen­er­al Man­ag­er Caryn Mathes.

“Through the North­west News Net­work, KUOW has long part­nered with KPLU to pro­vide lis­ten­ers of both sta­tions with cov­er­age of state gov­ern­ment and oth­er region­al news. We look for­ward to con­tin­u­ing that part­ner­ship as the Friends of 88.5 assume the oper­a­tion of the station.”

All of us at NPI con­grat­u­late Friends of 88.5 FM on the suc­cess­ful fundrais­ing cam­paign and suc­cess­ful nego­ti­a­tions to buy the sta­tion from PLU. We were proud to sup­port the dri­ve and fea­ture a link to donate to make 88.5 FM inde­pen­dent on our home­page from the cam­paign’s incep­tion through its glo­ri­ous finish.

This is tru­ly a great out­come, and every­one who had any­thing to do with it can feel very proud that the sta­tion will live on as an inde­pen­dent NPR affiliate.