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| Broadcast area | Greater Houston |
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| Frequency | 90.1MHz (HD Radio) |
| Branding | KPFT 90.1 |
| Programming | |
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| Format | |
| Subchannels | HD2: Alternate programming |
| Affiliations | Pacifica Radio Network |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Pacifica Foundation |
| History | |
First air date | March 1, 1970 (55 years ago) (1970-03-01) |
Call sign meaning | Pacifica Foundation Texas |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 51244 |
| Class | C1 |
| ERP | 100,000 watts |
| HAAT | 205 m (673 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 29°53′15″N95°31′22″W / 29.88750°N 95.52278°W /29.88750; -95.52278 |
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KPFT (90.1FM) is a listener-sponsoredcommunity radio station inHouston, Texas, which began broadcasting March 1, 1970, as the fourth station in thePacifica radio family. The station airs a variety of music, news, talk, and call-in programs, most ranging from center-left to far-left. Prominent persons who have been regulars on KPFT include science educatorDavid F. Duncan and humoristJohn Henry Faulk.
KPFT was established by journalists Larry Lee of theAssociated Press and Don Gardner of theHouston Post after the two became disillusioned with the lack of reporting on racial issues by existing Houston media. Sam Hudson, the first Program Director at KPFT, described difficulty in convincing the Pacifica Foundation to establish a station in Houston, saying that the standard response by Pacifica to requests for new stations anywhere in the country amounted to "put [a radio station] on the air and give it to [the Pacifica Foundation]", and that the founders of KPFT followed that advice.[2] The station commenced broadcasting on March 1, 1970, on the 90.1FMfrequency with the song "Here Comes the Sun" from theAbbey Road album byThe Beatles.[3]
From the beginning, the station emphasized the quality of its news programming; the station monitored the "A" news wire of the Associated Press, which was more in-depth and primarily used by newspapers, as well as a French news wire due to the wire's reporting on theVietnam War, which was described by Hudson as "excellent".[2]
The station chose to adopt afull-service radio format; KPFT's first evening news program,Life on Earth, lasted 90 minutes or less and focused on non-space matters[clarification needed], as other stations would broadcast space-focused programming. Afterwards, the station would begin broadcasting music, which was unusual for commercial broadcasters at the time. KPFT used the variety of its programming as a selling point; music programs includedjazz,rock and roll, and opera, and talk shows were aired covering a variety of subjects, emphasizingfreedom of speech. The station has always beennon-commercial, initially asking listeners to contribute $12 per year to fund the station's operations.[2]
Beginning in the mid-1970s, KPFT began airing multiple shows for the local LGBT audience, includingWilde 'n' Stein (1975-early 1990s) andAfter Hours (1987-early 2000s). In a 1979 episode of Wilde 'n' Stein, the hosts interviewed activistsLarry Bagneris and Charles Law, and Tony Lazada, a former manager of theStonewall Inn during theStonewall riots.[4] Throughout the 1980s, the station also aired a number of other programs featuring minority groups and languages, including news programs inPersian, music programs in Hungarian, and talk shows in Vietnamese. The station ultimately broadcast programs in more than a dozen languages.[5]
In July 2021, Pacifica and KPFT management chose to sell the station'sMontrose-area premises at 419 Lovett Blvd., citing "prohibitive" repair costs to the building. The station had been operating remotely since the beginning of theCOVID-19 pandemic, and would continue to do so while the building was being sold.[6] In May 2022, Pacifica and KPFT management announced the purchase of new premises at 4504 Caroline St. in Houston'sThird Ward.[7]
The station'stransmitter was bombed and destroyed by theKu Klux Klan on May 12, 1970, two months after going on the air. The new station was off the air for three weeks until it was repaired. Five months later, October 6, 1970, while the station was broadcastingArlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant," the transmitter was bombed yet again and the damage was significantly more extensive.[8][9] The second bombing took KPFT off the air for three months. No other U.S. radio station or transmitter has been bombed.[10]
On January 21, 1971, KPFT management invited Guthrie to visit the Houstonstudios, where he performed "Alice's Restaurant" live as the station commenced transmitting yet again.
After months of inactivity by theFederal Bureau of Investigation and local police, Pacifica took the initiative to mount a media campaign designed to draw attention to the unsolved case and seek support for pressuring authorities to act. Federal agents ultimately arrested a member of theKu Klux Klan, Jimmy Dale Hutto,[11] and charged him with the KPFT bombings, as well as with plotting to blow up radio stationsKPFA andKPFK. Hutto was convicted and imprisoned in 1971.[12]
Raj Mankad wrote atOffCite that the KPFT bombings in 1971 were part of a larger campaign of "threats and acts of violence against progressive and radical institutions in Houston," including underground newspaperSpace City![13]
In the early morning hours of August 13, 2007, a bullet was fired into the studio, breaking a window and narrowly missing a woman's head, but no one was injured. The shooting followed a week-long fundraising drive. After the shooting, one of the windows was covered with the KPFT banner and the front entrance was locked.[14]
On July 16, 2008, a man demanded access to KPFT's studios. After being rebuffed, he punched out a window pane on the back door with a knife. The man was apprehended without resistance, and was promptly arrested.[15]
An assailant severed power lines to the station's transmitter on June 28, 2010, leaving the station's program available only to online listeners. Damages were estimated at $10,000. Power was restored the following day, and regular broadcasting resumed.[16]
The station currently broadcasts over 25 news and talk programs and over 20 music programs,[17][18] both locally produced and syndicated.
Locally produced news and talk programming includes criminal justice-focused talk showThe Prison Show,[17][19] LGBT-focused talk showQueer Voices,[17] news and local affairs showsOpen Journal[17] andThe People's News,[17] and political call-in talk showsPolitics Done Right with Egberto Willies[17] andThinkwing Radio with Mike Honig.[18] Locally produced music programming includes variousroots programming;blues programming; specialty programming including jazz andelectronic music;Zydeco andCajun programming; rock programming; various international programming includingCeltic,Bollywood,K-pop, andLatin music;hip-hop programming; andpunk andmetal programming.[17][18]
Syndicated programming includes daily national news showDemocracy Now!,[17] weekday national news commentary showThe Thom Hartmann Program, The R & R Show, Border Radio w/ Susan Darrow,[17] and weekday national political talk showThe Attitude with Arnie Arnesen.[17]
KPFT was one of three US radio stations to introduce Al Jazeera English with Pacifica stations in Berkeley and New York December 7, 2010.[20] Past programming on KPFT includes Americana showWide Open Spaces, a Monday-Friday Americana show hosted by Roark Smith, from June 2010 to May 2021;[21][non-primary source needed]Soular Grooves, the weekly music show of recording artistDJ Sun, from January 1995 to May 2015;[22][non-primary source needed] andGrowing Up in America, the weekly talk show produced by the non-profit organizationChildren at Risk, from 2012 to December 2018.[23][non-primary source needed]
KPFT's main programming is broadcast on the station's HD-1 channel at 64kbps. Alternate programming is broadcast on HD-2, which radio listeners can only access viaHD Radio. The station streams both channels live on its website,[24][25] with past broadcasts of shows on both channels available on the KPFT archive.[26]
HD-2 was formerly home to the student-runRice University radio stationKTRU, but fell silent after KTRU signed a deal in September 2015 to broadcast on the 96.1 frequency via a newlow-power FM station located in southwest Houston.[27] The then-blank HD-2 channel was soon replaced with the programming of the HD-3 channel, which was shut down.
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