A Brief History of KUHF Houston Public Radio
- 2009 During July and August, KUHF participates with NPR Labs in testing higher power for HD digital broadcasting.
- 2009 Through a major gift to KUHF from the George Geary family, the Performance Studio is renamed The Geary Performance Studio.
- 2009 The Front Row originates its first live remote program from Discovery Green in downtown Houston.
- 2008 Through a grant from the Houston Endowment, KUHF constructs a new, state-of-the-art recording studio in Jones Hall, for production of the Houston Symphony broadcasts and compact discs.
- 2008 KUHF provides continuous live emergency coverage to the region of the impact of Hurricane Ike and its aftermath, once again in partnership with KTRK Channel 13. Widespread power outages rendered home television reception impossible in most areas, thus battery-powered radios became a crucial link in imparting emergency information. During the fall fundraiser, which came one month after Ike, KUHF once again partnered with IM/Meals on Wheels and also with Mayor Bill White's Hurricane Ike Relief Fund to generate extra funds for those two charities. This fundraiser is the first ever to reach — and surpass — the $900,000 mark.
- 2008 During the spring on-air fundraiser, KUHF partners with Interfaith Ministries/Meals on Wheels to assist in delivering meals to homebound senior citizens.
- 2008 KUHF re-launches www.kuhf.org, offering Internet radio channels KUHF News and KUHF Classical, plus on-demand program downloads and a cell-phone listening option.
- 2007 The national program and oral history project StoryCorps comes to Houston for a month residency with KUHF and the Museum of Natural Science. A Ford Foundation grant supports the taping of stories from those impacted by Hurricane Katrina.
- 2006 KUHF commences broadcasting in HD digital, adding three HD channels to its existing 88.7 FM channel. Independent and full-time program channels of news/information and classical music/fine arts are established.
- 2005 In response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, KUHF partners with KTRK Channel 13 to provide 24/7 emergency broadcast information to the region, serving, among others, over 1 million automobiles trapped on area freeways during the evacuation.
- 2005 The Association for Community Television (ACT) changes its name to Association for Community Broadcasting (ACB), the, to serve as a fundraising arm for both KUHT Houston PBS and KUHF Houston Public Radio.
- 2005 The KUHF Chamber Music Ensemble is organized, employing station staff who are also trained musicians as performers. The KUHF Ensemble performs regularly at such concert venues as The Menil Collection and the Rienzi Museum, as well as at outreach events, and has recorded compact discs for the KUHF label.
- 2004 In January, KUHF premieres The Front Row, its daily one-hour radio magazine of the performing arts. In August, Pulling Strings, debuts featuring music from the world of picked, plucked, and strummed strings.
- 2003 Capitol News Connection, our Washington, DC, news bureau, is hired to provide news of the Texas delegations on Capitol Hill.
- 2001 KUHF and the UH Moores School of Music co-produce a compact disc of the world premiere of Dr. Michael Horvit's choral symphony, The Mystic Flame, commemorating 100 years of Jewish history. UH Moores School faculty artist Timothy Hester recorded the first compact disc, The KUHF Sessions, in the Performance Studio.
- 2000 KUHF Houston Public Radio and KUHT Houston PBS move into the new Melcher Center for Public Broadcasting. KUHF's office and studio space increases from less than 500 square feet in its old facility to approximately 10,000 square feet in the new, including a 1,000 square foot Performance Studio for live music performance and broadcast.
- 2000 KUHF celebrates its 50th anniversary with a gala concert in the Moores Opera House. Business News fund established to increase coverage of Houston's business community.
- 1999 The station joins with Houston Grand Opera and NPR to co-produce recordings of HGO performances for nationwide broadcast in the NPR World of Opera series. KUHF begins recording and broadcasting the Houston Ballet Orchestra's season performances.
- 1998 To celebrate the opening of the Moores Opera House at UH, KUHF records the Verdi Requiem, with distinguished guest conductor Robert Shaw leading the combined choral and orchestras of the Moores School of Music, which was released on compact disc.
- 1997 KUHF co-produces its first of several commercial compact disc releases with the Houston Symphony.
- 1992 KUHF brings Garrison Keillor and A Prairie Home Companion to Houston's Music Hall.
- 1990 KUHF produces a live Houston Symphony concert broadcast via satellite from Miami, Florida. In subsequent years the station would accompany, and record for broadcast, Houston Symphony tours to Japan and Europe.
- 1988 The Engines of Our Ingenuity, written and produced by UH College of Engineering Professor Dr. John Lienhard, debuts, as does Houston in Concert, a locally produced series featuring in-concert recordings of various Houston-area classical music performing groups.
- 1986 Commercial classical music station KLEF-FM changes its format and donates its 20,000+ album and CD library to KUHF. Format is changed to classical music and NPR news. Houston Symphony begins broadcast partnership with KUHF. John Proffitt joins KUHF as General Manager.
- 1983 NPR's Morning Edition is added to the broadcast schedule.
- 1979 KUHF qualifies for Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) grant support by hiring, for the first time, a core staff of five full-time paid professionals. The station joins National Public Radio (NPR). The format as primarily jazz and NPR's afternoon news magazine, All Things Considered.
- 1978 KUHF moves into a broadcasting facility in the newly constructed UH School of Communications. The station provides a closed-circuit subcarrier radio channel to Houston Taping for the Blind to provide citywide audio services to the visually impaired.
- 1970 KUHF moves from Ezekiel Cullen to the old Communications Building along with the Radio/TV and Journalism departments. KUHF joins the National Educational Radio Network, based in Washington, DC—a predecessor of NPR. The FCC changes the KUHF frequency from 91.3 MHz to 88.7 MHz to reduce interference with KUHT Channel 8.
- 1969 The Federal Communications Commission authorizes a power increase to 12,000 watts.
- 1950 KUHF-FM signs on the air, November 6, with 9,600 watts of power, at 91.3 MHz on the FM dial. The studios are located on the 5th floor of the Ezekiel Cullen building at the University of Houston. The new station is operated by student volunteers.
April 2009