Did I miss a key post about this topic? I love NPR too, but I always listen to KUOW. I didn't even know KPLU was separate, and I don't see how this will affect anyone outside KPLU's doors.

The ones losing their jobs are certainly justified in being upset -- and it's always unfortunate when one loses their job for reasons other than their own behavior -- but as someone not drawing a paycheck from KPLU, what is supposed to be the reason for my righteous indignation? I feel like Ansel jumped past that step and gone straight to the "Can you believe this shit?!" stage, assuming we're all there with him.

I'm not trolling, I honestly feel like I'm missing some bit of information.

"What is supposed to be the reason for my righteous indignation?" Because of the loss of KPLU's news staff, your ability to get high quality, thoughtful local news coverage is shrinking further, that's why.

@1, if you didn't know KPLU was a separate entity, you've missed a lot more than one post.

I hope the Stranger keeps pursuing this story, as it sounds as if there's quite a bit that we don't know.

@1, there have been a number of posts about this, which you seem to have missed.

The call to righteous indignation—which I'm somewhat lukewarm to—is because with the consolidation, there will be a reduction in the news staff. The duplication of national programing is redundant, and consolidating that to one station makes sense. However, some people feel that KPLU does better local coverage than KUOW, and that the consolidation will have a greater impact on local news coverage, likely loosing some of the better journalists from KPLU.

Also, because of the magic of radio waves and antennas, some people get better reception on KPLU than KUOW, depending on where they are (like south King county). So for some people, the switch to all-jazz on KPLU, and moving all news to KUOW means some people might lose news coverage if they can't pick up the KUOW signal. That may be somewhat mitigated by KUOW gaining all of KPLU's broadcast antennas as well, so there may not be a great loss of coverage. Hard to know, exactly.

I mostly listen to KUOW, and mostly to national programming. I have thought their local broadcasters have been fair to poor for more than a decade. I doubt the merger can be stopped, or even if it should be. But I'm kind of hoping that KUOW might pull some of the better journalists from KPLU into the fold, and improve their local programing.

I don't always involve the public in major mergers of local public media, but when I do I do it at 2 p.m. on a Monday.

@5: Thanks all, especially Reverse Polarity for going into a bit more detail. I had been under the impression that these were affiliate stations in that they basically provided wider coverage for NPR in the region. I had no idea they produced separate programming.

Outrageous! someone call the FBI !

The deal is not a merger. KUOW is not merging with KPLU KUOW is buying KPLU outright and doing away with its staff, mission and programing. Every single KPLU employee is losing their job and is 'invited' to apply for a job at the UW with no guarantee that they will be hired. The whole deal was done in complete secrecy. PLU allowed KPLU to hold its pledge drive and still collect donations not knowing that the university was finalizing the sale of the station. KUOW was no better in that they are using banked surplus donation money to purchase KPLU. KUOW has been banking surplus donations for years while continuing to solicit donations on the pretext that it was a 'poor struggling' public radio station and hiding the fact that they had 7+ million in reserves. So yes, the sale of KPLU to KUOW is outrageous.

The public does not have a say on the sale. As it's privately owned. If you don't like it, then don't listen. As simple as that, really!

I'm with Cliff Mass: Opposed

http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2015/11/wh…

Ansel, how could you jump the shark, AND, miss Cliff Mass's detailed analyses @11?

@1, you need to read link in @11

I listen to both, prefer KPLU, and am very sad about this.

For the past few years, I had assumed that KUOW was hurting for money, based on the fact that they have so much CBC programming (lately I know a lot more about what's going on in Canada than I do about what's going on in Seattle). But apparently that's not the case. That's frightening. And now the same people who have made KUOW nearly unlistenable are going to be running KPLU, too. Well, at least we still have KBCS, the best station in the are.

The rage on the PLU side is that the whole thing was negotiated in secret. The announcement and subsequent releases were dishonest, saying there are no enrollment issues (there are) and that the university has no financial issues (a private university with low enrollment by definition has financial issues). During President Krise' two years at PLU he has shown an inability to raise money, to keep up enrollment, retain competent staff, or to lead in anything but a secretive authoritarian manner. His main interests seem to be taking small groups of students to the Caribbean each winter for his vanity course in Caribbean literature, or sailing the San Juans in the summer. PLU needs and deserves better.