Houston Chronicle

Classical music station to go digital

- By David Barron david.barron@chron.com

Houston Public Media, which operates the University of Houston’s broadcasti­ng properties, says it will sell the frequency and transmitte­r for KUHA (91.7 FM) while retaining the station’s classical music format via online streaming and an HD Radio subchannel of KUHF (88.7 FM).

The university paid $9.5 million in 2010 to purchase 91.7 FM from Rice University, which operated the station as KTRU. It was relaunched as UH’s third broadcasti­ng property along with KUHF, its news and National Public Radio outlet, and KUHT (Channel 8).

Lisa Shumate, general manager of Houston Public Media, said the decision to sell, which was approved by UH regents Thursday, reflected the organizati­on’s need to focus on “the best piece of technology and the best use of donor funds.”

“We are already in HD and are streaming (with the classical music format),” Shumate said.

“Why would you pay for another transmitte­r and tower when if you take the time you can tell the public how they can get better sound using (HD Radio) at 88.7?”

KUHA’s classical format will be available through the 88.7-2 HD subchannel, via Houstonpub­licmedia. org, through over-the-air television at Channel 8.5 and via applicatio­ns such as iHeartRadi­o and TuneIn.

HD Radio is the trademark for a digital technology that allows AM and FM radio stations to transmit audio and text in addition to analog signals and to transmit multiple program streams at the same frequency.

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