Pacific Lutheran University announced today it will sell KPLU public radio to the University of Washington.
Although the deal isn’t final, the two universities say moving forward there will still be two radio stations, but they will each have distinct programming.
KUOW will continue to air news and talk, and KPLU’s frequency will play jazz music, and drop NPR and local news.
Pacific Lutheran University President Thomas Krise says the timing is right to sell KPLU and its assets.
“The fact that the Seattle-Tacoma, greater Puget Sound area is one of the largest metropolitan areas that still has competing public radio stations is one of the big issues, so this will consolidate our resources in the region, and I think listeners will benefit from having a dedicated jazz station and a dedicated news station.”
Federal regulators will need to approve the deal, and that can take months.
In the meantime, KUOW General Manager Caryn Mathes says that leaves time to work out programming details.
“Now that everything’s out in the open, we can have some very open discussions about that and figure out what we’re building,” she said. “You know, the news will be more than likely an expansion, and the music…we’ll be building something new.”
Pacific Lutheran University stands to net $8 million from the station’s sale. That’s $7 million in cash, and one million dollars’ worth of promotion on the new stations.
