Howard University has been having cash flow problems for a while but this seems like a drastic solution.

The Washington Post reports.

Howard University considers selling its airwaves. Is this the end of WHUT?

Howard University might sell its valuable TV airwaves as a part of the Federal Communications Commission’s controversial auction, a move that could put the future of its public television station WHUT-TV in jeopardy.

The premier historically black university owns the rights to what’s known as a spectrum, airwaves used to carry the signal for its television station. Cell service providers, which are seeing exploding demand for mobile broadband, are clamoring to get their hands on those airwaves because they can carry signals through walls and across long distances.

“There is the potential for the university to realize significant income as a result of the sale of its spectrum,” Howard President Wayne A. I. Frederick said, in an Oct. 16 letter to the university community obtained by The Washington Post. “The upcoming incentive auction of television station spectrum will be a unique marketplace. It is unlikely to occur again.”

Howard, in Washington, D.C., has faced financial challenges in recent years, with rounds of staff cuts, two credit downgrades tied to the fiscal health of its teaching hospital and allegations of financial mismanagement. Frederick, the school’s 17th president, took office last year and set out to bring in new revenue through the university’s intellectual property rights and sought-after real estate. It stands to reason that the president would contemplate a sale that could net the school as much as $461 million.