PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Brown University President Christina Paxson has made a last-minute pitch to try and avoid the sale of WBRU’s 95.5 FM license to a Christian music network.

In an email obtained by Eyewitness News dated Monday, Oct. 23, Paxson urged WBRU board members and student station members to consider an alternative plan, where Rhode Island Public Radio would instead purchase the valuable 95.5 FM license.

The proposal was crafted by Brown University alum Bill Lichtenstein, who launched a movement to stop the station’s sale earlier this year.

“I was recently made aware of the proposal that Bill Lichtenstein sent to you, which would enable WBRU to continue to operate its signal under the ownership and guidance of Rhode Island Public Radio (RIPR),” wrote Paxson in the email. “RIPR management believes that, with its broad experience and support capabilities, WBRU would be able to benefit from the continued utilization of its spot on the broadcast spectrum in a sustainable manner.”

“I believe that this is a proposal worthy of your consideration,” she continued.

RIPR’s general manager Torey Malatia told Eyewitness News that the public radio station’s leaders had decided in January – before the decision was made to sell WBRU – that they would “assist in any way we could to help [Brown Broadcasting Services] avoid sale.”

“This included finding some efficiencies for some costs to make the operating budget of WBRU less of a burden,” wrote Malatia in an email. “WBRU is a unique asset, revered by the community, and we wanted to help. After the sale was announced, I assumed that BBS was no longer interested in retaking the station.”

But Lichtenstein contacted Malatia, asking if RIPR’s former offer still stood.

“I told him it certainly does,” said Malatia. “Our January idea did not and does not involve changing the format of WBRU, but consisted in preserving it-helping to make it possible to operate WBRU with less financial pressure.”

The plan would involve the 95.5 FM license being sold to RIPR instad of EMF. Paxson said in her email that sale would be financed by a long-term loan from Brown University, which would be repaid through fundraising and operating profits.

Paxson’s email to the WBRU board and students came one day before the station and Brown Broadcasting Services, the nonprofit that owns the station, announced the FCC’s approval of the sale.

“FCC approval is a critical and near-final step in the transfer of the license,” Kishanee Haththotuwegama, general manager of WBRU, said in a statement.

Art Norwalk, a spokesman for WBRU, said the final step will be closing on the sale, though he said it’s unclear when that will happen. Norwalk said the RIPR proposal was considered as part of the process that led to the sale, but the ideas “were found to be impractical, contrary to what the students wanted, or both.”

The wheels of the sale have already been turning. After 51 years, WBRU ended its over-the-air broadcast on Sept. 1, switching immediately to EMF’s Christian adult rock programming, which is currently being aired under a lease agreement for the 95.5 FM signal.

The sale generated $5.63 million, which will be put towards an endowment for the educational workshop component of the radio station, which is still broadcasting online.

Paxson had previously cautioned students about selling, telling members of WBRU in an email that the university would financially assist the station if necessary, asking them to “carefully consider the view that the station can indeed be brought back to health.”

“As you know, Brown stands ready to provide the station with a loan that will give you the time to make the necessary changes to the station’s operations,” Paxson wrote in April. “We have done this in the past, and it has worked out well.”

In her most recent email, Paxson said she believed the RIPR deal “would allow students already working in the digital space to retain a mutually beneficial pairing with legacy broadcast media for a more robust and enriching experience.”

She told students interested in the alternative proposal she would meet with them to review the details.