Politicians and faculty back effort to block KUSF sale

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Opponents of the pending deal to sell the frequency of KUSF-FM by the University of San Francisco (USF) have gathered more support. Both the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and the USF Faculty Association has voted for a halt to the pending sale. Neither, though, has any power to do anything about it.


The city supervisors voted 8-3 in favor of a resolution by USF alumnus Ross Mirkarimi, who now represents the district where USF is located. It claims that the sale to a Classical music group violates the FCC requirement that licensees must serve the “public interest, convenience and necessity” and calls for the sale to be rejected.

The FCC has historically refused to consider challenges to sales based on format changes.

Although USF President Father Stephen Privett has insisted that the university “had to sell” the radio station because it no longer served the Jesuit school’s educational mission, the school’s faculty is not backing the boss. The USF Faculty Association adopted a resolution declaring that the station served “as an extraordinary educational tool” and called for the sale to be called off.

KUSF has already been LMA’d and the Classical format is being broadcast on its transmitter. The Alternative station has resumed operation from the USF campus, but online only.