KAMU-FM (90.9 FM) is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

College Station, Texas College Station is a city in Brazos County, Texas, Brazos County, Texas, situated in East-Central Texas in the heart of the Brazos Valley, towards the eastern edge of the region known as the Texas Triangle. It is northwest of Houston and east-n ...

, United States. It is owned and operated by

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

, and is a sister station to

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

member

KAMU-TV KAMU-TV (channel 12) is a PBS member television station licensed to College Station, Texas, United States. Owned by Texas A&M University, it is a sister station to NPR member KAMU-FM (90.9). The two stations share studios at the Moore Communica ...

(channel 15). The two stations share studios at the Moore Communications Center on the university's campus, and KAMU-FM's transmitter is located at adjacent Hensel Park. KAMU-FM began broadcasting in

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrat ...

with a primary function of a teaching the art of broadcast to Texas A&M students, local high school students and others interested in careers in the radio industry. Potential careers included broadcast news, radio announcing, production, audio engineering, sound, electronics, scriptwriting, audio documentary production, programming, promotion and marketing, syndication, and

weather forecasting Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the conditions of the atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia and formally since the 19th cent ...

. Don Simons was the first Station Manager for the National Public Radio-affiliated KAMU-FM. In 1977, he hired Sunny Nash as the station's first Program Director, whose duties included teaching radio skills to student personnel and others with interests in radio, and coordinating volunteers and other contributors. Nash had worked in news and public affairs at

WTAW (AM) WTAW (1620 kHz), branded as "News Talk 1620 94.5 WTAW", is a commercial talk AM radio station licensed to serve College Station, Texas. Owned by the Bryan Broadcasting Company, WTAW covers College Station, Bryan and much of the Brazos Valley. ...

Country Radio while attending Texas A&M University, where in 1977, she became the first African American journalism graduate in the school's history. Simons also hired Texas A&M University graduate Linda Lea as the station's first Traffic Director. First KAMU-FM staff 1977: * Don Simons, Station Manager * Sunny Nash, Program Director and Meteorologist * Linda Lea, Traffic Director * Mike Andrews, Engineer * Dana Steele, Student Announcer * Bob French, Student Announcer * Bob Rose, Student Announcer and Meteorologist * Gary Messer, Student Announcer * John Copeland, Student Announcer * Paul Rios, High School Radio Intern Linda Lea created and produced ''Poetry Southwest'', hosted by Paul Christianson, which featured local and regional poets and artists from around the state. A frequent contributor to National Public Radio programs, Sunny Nash created and produced the award-winning KAMU-FM classical music program ''Collector's Choice'', hosted by Dr.

Gilbert Plass Gilbert Norman Plass (March 22, 1920 – March 1, 2004) was a Canadian physicist who in the 1950s made predictions about the increase in global atmospheric carbon dioxide () levels in the 20th century and its effect on the average temperature of ...

, still airing currently in syndication. Nash and Bob Rose created and co-hosted KAMU-FM's nationally syndicated series ''Classical Music from Festival Hill''. All performances were recorded live in Roundtop, Texas. The performance lists included Round Top Festival Institute founder and pianist James Dick, cellist

Yo-Yo Ma Yo-Yo Ma ('' Chinese'': 馬友友 ''Ma Yo Yo''; born October 7, 1955) is an American cellist. Born in Paris to Chinese parents and educated in New York City, he was a child prodigy, performing from the age of four and a half. He graduated from ...

, chamber musician and Yo-Yo Ma accompanist Patricia Zander, pianist and conductor

Leon Fleisher Leon Fleisher (July 23, 1928 – August 2, 2020) was an American classical pianist, conductor and pedagogue. He was one of the most renowned pianists and pedagogues in the world. Music correspondent Elijah Ho called him "one of the most re ...

, violinist Young Uck Kim, and concertmaster Isidor Saslav. KAMU-FM festival staff included series co-creators and co-hosts Sunny Nash and Bob Rose, series engineer Mike Andrews, and project documentarian Nobutomi Shimamoto. The radio station shares the same facility as

, at the Moore Communications Center. KAMU-FM programming includes 35 hours of local content each week. On March 30, 2007, it became the first HD Radio station in the

Brazos Valley Brazos Valley ( ) is a region of the U.S. state of Texas comprising the following 7 counties in Central Texas: Brazos, Burleson, and Robertson (which collectively comprise the Bryan–College Station metropolitan area), and the neighboring coun ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kamu-fm AMU Radio stations established in 1977 Texas classical music NPR member stations AMU-FM

See also

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External links