KXNG

KXNG
City Houston, Texas
Broadcast area Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land
Branding 91.7 NGEN Radio
Slogan "Powering a World of Good!"
Frequency 91.7 MHz (also on HD Radio)
Translator(s) K217GB 91.3 MHz
K258BZ 99.5 MHz
First air date July 30, 1971 (license, as KTRU)
August 8, 2016 (as NGEN Radio)
Format Christian CHR
Language(s) English
ERP 50,000 watts
HAAT 150 meters (490 ft)
Class C2
Facility ID 72685
Transmitter coordinates 30°3′54″N 95°16′10″W / 30.06500°N 95.26944°W / 30.06500; -95.26944
Callsign meaning KX NGEN Radio
Former callsigns KTRU (7/30/1971–5/9/2011)
KUHA (5/9/2011–7/15/2016)
Owner KSBJ Educational Foundation
Sister stations KSBJ, KXBJ
Webcast Listen Live
Website ngenradio.com

KXNG is a non commercial radio station serving the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area. It broadcasts on a frequency of 91.7 Megahertz on the FM dial. The station is owned and operated by the KSBJ Educational Foundation. KXNG formerly operated as a Classical music station owned and operated by the University of Houston System from 2011 to 2016, under the KUHA call letters. The low ratings and financial losses of the Classical format led the University of Houston to sell the station to the KSBJ Educational Foundation, who launched the current Christian CHR/Hip Hop format in 2016.

KXNG, along with sister stations KSBJ and KXBJ, are the only full powered stations operating at 50 kilowatts or greater in the Greater Houston area owned and operated by the KSBJ Educational Foundation. The ministry also owns several translators and lower class full power facilities throughout southeast Texas.

KXNG is relayed by translators 91.3 K217GB in the Medical Center and 99.5 K258BZ in Sugar Land/Fort Bend County.

History

Rice era

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.[1]

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.

Ownership by the University of Houston

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[2] (originally announced as KUHC, but those call letters were already in use).[3] The FCC approved the purchase and transfer of license to the University of Houston System on April 15, 2011[4] and at 6:00 AM on April 28, 2011, KTRU went dark.

KUHA began broadcasting May 16, 2011. The student-run KTRU programming was transferred to the HD2 subchannel of local Pacifica Radio member station KPFT. KPFT dropped KTRU on its HD2 subchannel in October 2015, when KTRU programming began broadcasting on KBLT-LP (regardless, the station brands itself as KTRU), which presently broadcasts the KTRU programming.

On November 7, 2013, KUHA fired almost all of its on-air talent,[5] and replaced nearly all of its locally produced programming with Public Radio International's Classical 24, a nationally syndicated program produced in Minnesota.

KSBJ Ownership

On August 20, 2015, the University of Houston System announced its intention to sell KUHA, after which the classical music format would be jettisoned exclusively to KUHF's HD2 subchannel and online streaming platforms, in addition to the fifth subchannel of television sister station, KUHT. The sale was approved by the UH System Board of Regents. On February 24, 2016, it was announced that the station was being sold for $10 million to the KSBJ Educational Foundation, which announced plans to flip the station to its NGEN Radio format upon taking control. With the impending sale, KUHA dropped almost all references to the 91.7 frequency in May and rebranded itself as Houston Public Media Classical, running advertisements for the digital streams of the format to redirect listeners.

On May 20, 2016, the license reassignment for KUHA was granted by the Federal Communications Commission. NGEN programming was set to launch on KUHA in early June but was later delayed to early to mid July for undisclosed reasons. As the University of Houston did not grant KSBJ rights to the KUHA calls in the sale, KSBJ was required to change the call letters upon the consummation of the sale.

On July 1, 2016, KUHA announced that it would cease broadcasting on July 15. One week later, KSBJ announced that the NGEN programming would begin broadcasting on 91.7 on August 8. On July 14, KUHA abruptly ended regular programming and began stunting with pre-taped announcements that the station had ceased broadcasting as of that day and began redirecting listeners to the digital streams in a similar fashion to the advertisements that had been airing prior to stunting. The 91.3 translator, which was included in the sale to KSBJ and had simulcast 88.7 HD2 instead of 91.7, was silenced that day and did not run the announcements that had been airing on 91.7.

At 9:00 AM the following morning, KSBJ's purchase of KUHA closed. Consequently, at that time the station stopped airing the looped announcements and went dark. KSBJ announced plans that morning to replace the old transmitter that had been used since 1990 with a brand-new transmitter. They also announced that the call letters would be changed to KXNG, which occurred later that day. K217GB also stopped broadcasting dead air and went dark that day.

KXNG returned to the air two weeks later on August 1, 2016 stunting with a varied playlist of secular dance music under the branding K-Dance. The following Friday, the K217GB translator returned to the air rebroadcasting KXNG and the dance music stunt. Unlike KXNG, K217GB's transmitter was not replaced or modified.

At 6:00 AM on August 8, 2016, the stunting ended and the NGEN Radio format made its debut with a launch party that was simulcast on KSBJ. Despite the launch of 91.7, the NGEN Radio format continues to simulcast on KSBJ-HD2 as of September 2016.

Programming

KUHA debuted in 2011 with a distinctive classical format in which, unlike most stations airing the format, hosts selected their own playlists from the 50,000 classical music CD library owned by the station, one of the largest in the world. Because of this freedom, each live classical program on the station had its own unique flavor.

On November 9, 2013, KUHA fired almost all of its on-air talent,[6] and replaced nearly all of its locally produced programming with Public Radio International's Classical 24, for example its Music Through the Night overnight programming. During its time as a classical music station, it also broadcast other nationally distributed programs commonly heard on classical music stations, such as From the Top, Performance Today and Pipedreams (which features organ music).

KUHA was the flagship radio home of the Houston Symphony; its broadcasts were heard on Wednesday evenings when in season. When the classical format moved to KUHF-HD2, the agreement with the Houston Symphony remained in place and their broadcasts are now heard on KUHF-HD2.

The Classical music format moved to KUHF-HD2 in May 2016. KUHA continued to broadcast classical music, but only broadcast pre-recorded blocks of Classical 24 and other programming hours or days after it had aired on KUHF-HD2. As such, KUHF-HD2 had effectively broken off its simulcast with KUHA. KUHA continued this practice until July 14, 2016, when the stunting began.

As of August 8, 2016, 91.7 NGEN Radio utilizes a live and local lineup, featuring the "Morning Show with Chris" from 6am to 10am, the "Mid-Day Show with Drew" from 10am to 3pm the "Afternoon Show with Ayana Mack" from 3pm to 7pm, and the "Evening Show with Angela" from 7pm to 12mid.

Translators

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. This translator was also included in the sale to KSBJ.

During its ownership by the University of Houston, the translator rebroadcast KUHF-HD2, which simulcast KUHA. Upon the completion of the sale to KSBJ, the translator reverted to rebroadcasting the 91.7 feed. On August 8, 2016, KXNG added a second translator, K258BZ, with both translators relaying the main KXNG signal.

Call sign Frequency
(MHz) 		City of license ERP
W 		Class FCC info
K217GB 91.3 Houston, Texas 99 D FCC
K258BZ 99.5 Sugar Land, Texas 99 D FCC

References

  1. ↑ Kern, Lauren (January 11, 2001). "Rice University's slow, systematic makeover of KTRU is just the latest example of a college determined to pattern itself after corporate America". Houston Press. Retrieved 2008-08-31.
  2. ↑ "FCC Grants Assignment of 91.7 FM License to UH System". April 15, 2011. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
  3. ↑ "UH Moves to Purchase Radio Station". kuhf.org. 2010-08-17. Retrieved 2010-08-17.
  4. ↑ FCC. "Correspondence for KTRU". Retrieved 18 April 2011.
  5. ↑ "Houston radio station fires its main on-air talent: A classical music bloodbath?". November 7, 2013. Retrieved November 7, 2013.
  6. ↑ "Houston radio station fires its main on-air talent: A classical music bloodbath?". November 7, 2013. Retrieved November 7, 2013.

External links

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