Chronology Highlights

1958: Radio-TV-Film Professor Robert Schenkkan, and a group of University of Texas at Austin, led the effort to establish a full-power FM station. The application to establish a public radio station was approved by the FCC and the call letters KUT were assigned to the frequency 90.7 FM on August 21, 1958. The first broadcast was in November of that year with “The Eyes of Texas.”

1961: KUT moves to newly-refurbished quarters in the Radio/Television building on Speedway Street, a site now occupied by Robert A. Welch Hall.

1965: KUT reformats to an arts and information program schedule following the demise of Austin’s commercial classical music station (KHFI), and begins the first live Saturday afternoon broadcasts in Austin of The Metropolitan Opera.

1970: Eklektikos has evolved into the regular morning show, hosted by John Aielli.

1970: KUT qualifies by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to receive financial assistance provided to non-commercial radio stations for the first time ever by the federal government. Of some of the 600 noncommercial radio stations that were licensed by the FCC at the time, only KUT and 69 others met the CPB qualification criteria.

1971: KUT becomes a charter member of National Public Radio (NPR); contributed the first of what would become in time 14 of the station’s employees to the NPR staff; and carried the first-ever NPR broadcast (All Things Considered) in May.

1974: KUT moves to completely new, specially-designed quarters in the College of Communication complex at Guadalupe and 26th Street.

1975: KUT hosts Bob Edwards, then co-anchoring All Things Considered, and the NPR news production team during dedication week for the new Communication complex. The national All Things Considered broadcasts were transmitted each evening that week from the new KUT studio facilities.

1979: KUT carries the November inaugural broadcast of NPR’s Morning Edition, with Bob Edwards as host; in doing so, KUT joins 106 others of NPR’s 157 member stations in launching what has become one of the best and most honored of public radio’s national programs.

1980: KUT installs its new public radio network satellite earth terminal and becomes NPR’s southwestern regional uplink, one of only 17 network stations with the capability to transmit as well as receive satellite-delivered radio programs.

1982: KUT begins broadcasting in stereo at 90.5MHz with 100,000 watts of power, antenna height at 1,595 feet, and a total signal radius of 97 miles — bringing to fruition the federal funding and extraordinarily lengthy regulatory application process that began in 1972.

1984: KUT wins Texas Governor’s Barbara Jordan award for “excellence in the communication of the reality of disabled people” through production of SoundSight, a weekly news and features program for blind and print-impaired listeners.

1986: KUT, jointly with the UT McDonald Observatory, wins the Ohio State University Award for production of the astronomy radio series Star Date. The series was cited for “excellence in educational, informational and public affairs broadcasting.”

1988: KUT celebrates its 30th anniversary with a series of special events, capped by An Evening with Bob Edwards, NPR’s Morning Edition host.

1990: KUT is recognized, for the 10th consecutive year, as the “Best Radio Station” in Austin by The Austin Chronicle’s readers’ poll.

1991: KUT holds a special one-day fundraiser to assist NPR in meeting emergency budget needs for news coverage of the Persian Gulf War. The $25,000 raised by KUT was the second highest amount raised among all of NPR’s participating member stations.

1992: KUT presents the first of its continuing annual celebrations of the short story — Selected Shorts on Tour — a collaboration with New York City’s Symphony Space, producer of NPR’s weekly series Selected Shorts.

1993: KUT celebrates its 35th anniversary and — in partnership with UT Austin’s Center for Mexican American Studies and with major initial grants from The Ford Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — launches the national radio series Latino USA at a Cinco de Mayo reception in Washington, D.C., with President Bill Clinton in attendance along with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and cabinet secretaries Federico Pena and Henry Cisneros.

1994: KUT completes construction of a new on-air control room and library suite, using 50 percent federal matching funds to replace and upgrade the equipment in this control room and in the production control room; total project cost was in excess of $100,000.

1995: KUT achieves a listenership benchmark according to Arbitron research: more than 100,000 persons were listening to the station each week.

1996: KUT completes installation of its first repeater station (KUTX 90.1 FM) using 75 percent federal matching funds and, delivering its signal via satellite, initiated a first public radio service for 100,000 residents of San Angelo in the West Texas Heartland; total project cost was in excess of $150,000.

2000: Stewart Vanderwilt joins KUT as director and general manager.

2001: KUT ranked #1 among 25-54-year-olds. Arbitron, the radio industry’s collector of audience data, often ranks KUT above commercial stations.

2001: KUT + NPR partner on one-hour documentary about Spindletop, Texas called “A Salute to the Oil Industry”.

2001: After hosting various overnight programs on KUT for nine years, and Left of the Dial since 1995, Jeff McCord joined the station full-time as its first music director.

2002: Longtime KUT music host Larry Monroe receives the “Keeping The Blues Alive” award for Public Radio from the Blues Foundation.

2002: After assembling a team of journalists led by veteran newswoman Emily Donahue, KUT launches Central Texas’ first full-time public radio news operation in June.

2003: KUT’s Sonic IDs hit the airwaves in September. Intended to reflect back to the community the various interpretations of what it means to live in Central Texas, Sonic IDs give listeners a peek at the sometimes quirky side of life.

2005: Marketplace’s David Brown joins KUT and launches Texas Music Matters, a signature music news series focusing on Texas music.

2005: In August, KUT begins podcasting locally produced programs, including local news and the Austin Music Minute.

2005: KUT begins producing Radio Without Borders, its first program created exclusively for podcasts and featuring 30 minutes of live music performances recorded in KUT’s Studio 1A. The weekly program highlights a wide variety of musical genres with a focus on Central Texas artists.

2005: Get Involved, KUT’s community service program highlighting Central Texas non-profit organizations in need of volunteers, begins broadcasting during the first week of each month.

2007: KUT launches HD channel KUT2, an all-news channel, featuring NPR programs you don’t hear on 90.5 FM, such as The Diane Rehm Show, Talk of the Nation, BBC’s The World Today, Open Source from PRI, On Point and The Tavis Smiley Show, among others.

2007: KUT launches HD channel KUT3, an all-jazz channel, featuring music from JazzWorks.

2008: KUT launches the iPhone application designed to stream all three signals in HD, along with a full-functional mobile site.