Sizzle & Fizzle: Highs and lows from the last week in S.F. music: R.I.P. KUSF 90.3 FM Edition

Fizzle
Free-form community radio station KUSF 90.3 FM died last Tuesday after University of San Francisco officials abruptly sold its broadcast license to an organization planning to host a nonprofit classical station on the frequency. Listeners and station volunteers were given no warning of the closure and no chance to keep the station broadcasting (it had been on the air since 1977). Pressed by an angry public, USF president, Father Steven Privett, said the reasons for the sale and details of the $3.75 million deal were confidential, but that KUSF would continue online. That's a deeply unsatisfying response, considering there's no other place on the FM dial to find KUSF's kind of programming — especially the local underground music its DJs often played.

Chris Stevens

KUSF's DJ Schmeejay protests the selling of the station's FM license.

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• FCC Narrows Inquiry Into KUSF 90.3 FM Sale
  July 28, 2011
• USF Reverses Decision to Evict Upward Bound, Popular College-Prep Program
  April 18, 2011
• KUSF In Exile Broadcast Goes Live Tonight
  March 19, 2011
• In Print: Looking Back at the Year in Bay Area Music
  December 28, 2011
• USF Dissolves Popular College-Prep Program for Low-Income Students
  February 24, 2011

More About

• University of San Francisco
• Steven Privett
• Radio
• Nonprofits and NGOs

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