KUHA

KUHA

City of license	Houston, Texas
Broadcast area	Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown
Branding	Classical 91.7
Slogan	Listener-funded radio from the University of Houston
Frequency	91.7 MHz
Translator(s)	91.5 MHz
First air date	1971
Format	Classical music
ERP	50,000 watts
HAAT	150 meters (490 ft)
Class	C2
Facility ID	72685
Transmitter coordinates	30°3′54″N 95°16′10″W
Callsign meaning	K University of Houston Arts
Former callsigns	KTRU (1971-2011)
Owner	University of Houston System
Sister stations	KUHF
Website	www.classical917.org

KUHA (branded as Classical 91.7) is a public radio station serving the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. It broadcasts on a frequency of 91.7 Megahertz on the FM dial. The station is owned by and licensed to the University of Houston System. KUHA shares broadcast facilities with KUHF and KUHT at the Melcher Center for Public Broadcasting, located on the campus of the University of Houston.

History

The station first signed on in 1971 as KTRU, operated by Rice University. Studios were located in Sid Richardson College on the Rice campus. Initially broadcasting at 10 watts, the students engineered an increase to 340 watts in April 1974 and 650 watts in October 1980. The broadcast day also increased from the initial evening-only hours to 10 to 12 hours a day on weekdays and most of the weekend. In 1981, the station expanded its broadcast hours to 24 hours per day. In 1987, a major expansion of the student center was completed and the station's studios were relocated to the 2nd floor of the Ley Student Center.

In 1991, the station's transmitter was moved to the north of Houston, increased in power to 50,000 watts and presented with an operating endowment by Mike Stude, the owner of Houston-area radio station KRTS (now KROI) and an heir of the founders of Brown & Root. This move enabled KRTS to increase from 3,000 watts to 50,000 watts without interfering with the station's signal.

On August 17, 2010, the University of Houston System announced its intent to purchase KTRU's tower, frequency and license from Rice. KUHF's 88.7 FM frequency would be converted to an all-news format (KUHF News) and the 91.7 frequency would contain classical music and fine arts programming (91.7 FM Classical), with the proposed call letters KUHA (originally announced as KUHC, but those call letters were already in use). The FCC approved the purchase and transfer of license to the University of Houston System on April 15, 2011, and KUHA began broadcasting May 16, 2011. The student-run KTRU programming was transferred to the HD2 subchannel of local Pacifica Radio member station KPFT, and continues to this day under the name Rice Radio.

Programming

Unlike most other classical stations, KUHA hosts select their own playlists from its 50,000 classical music CD library, one of the largest in the world. Because of this freedom, each live classical program on the station has its own unique flavor.

KUHA is the Houston home for Public Radio International's Classical 24, specifically its Music Through the Night overnight programming. It also broadcasts other nationally distributed programs commonly heard on classical music stations, such as From the Top, Performance Today and Pipedreams (which features organ music).

KUHA is the flagship radio home of the Houston Symphony; its broadcasts are heard on Wednesday evenings when in season.

Translator

Included in the purchase of KTRU was a broadcast translator that improved reception in the area near the campus of Rice University. The translator has been relocated off-campus after the sale and moved to an adjacent frequency.

Call sign	Frequency MHz	City of license	ERP W	Class	FCC info
K217GB	91.3	Houston	99	D	FCC

External links

• Classical 91.7 - Official Site
• The various signal strength areas of 91.7 FM
• FCC Grants Assignment of 91.7 FM License to UH System
• Query the FCC's FM station database for KUHA
• Radio-Locator information on KUHA
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for KUHA