PLU President Thomas W. Krise: “A hearty congratulations to Friends of 88.5”

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

We heard the news today that the Friends of 88.5 — the community group seeking to raise funds to buy KPLU and create a community-supported station – has reached its fundraising goal of $7 million well ahead of the June 30 deadline established by the University of Washington and PLU. We offer the Friends of 88.5 hearty congratulations on reaching their fundraising milestone and we’re ready and willing to negotiate specific details of an asset purchase agreement with them.

As PLU and the UW publicly stated in January, if the community group can demonstrate a matching offer of $7 million, complete the asset purchase agreement, and meet other thresholds required by the Federal Communications Commission, then the UW and KUOW have agreed to step aside, and PLU will move forward in selling the license to them. It’s important to note that we’re contractually bound with the UW to accept nothing less than a matching offer of $7 million in immediately available funds and $1 million in on-air underwriting consideration, and on substantially the same terms as the UW agreement.

A bit of background: PLU has supported the campaign throughout, allowing KPLU station management to run the Save KPLU effort, and the entire KPLU team to focus their efforts on the campaign, while remaining paid employees of the university.  In addition PLU has continued to cover all KPLU operating costs and has allowed the Friends of 88.5 campaign to run online fundraising efforts on kplu.org and to air spots totaling well over $500,000.

We look forward to negotiating in good faith with the Friends of 88.5 over the next few weeks. Once a final agreement is reached, the Friends must then apply to the FCC for a license transfer, which could take several more months. For now, please join me in congratulating the Friends of 88.5 on their unprecedented fundraising efforts.

Best regards,

Thomas W. Krise, Ph.D.
President and Professor of English