Ngen the little HD Station that could

In 1982 a public supported radio station rumbled on to the air in Houston. KSBJ was born on 88.1 fm, later she would move to 89.3fm. She grew to own the CCM market on the Texas coast. Buddy Holiday, its founder wanted a 100,000 watt fm station to stand tall for his savior. At first the station had some talk. Later it moved to 95% music. They still have some talk on Sunday nights. From the early days of the station they would play Christian Rock late on Saturday nights. This segment carried several names, Rock of Love and Light Force come to mind. The kids loved that music, but mainstream CCM with Amy Grant and Micheal Smith paid the bills. The station developed a lock on Christian concert promotion that still holds today. HD radio arrived in 2010. Most public stations jumped in, as they got a good deal on the medium.

KSBJ realized their music played well with the “Mommy Van” crowd but not the rock, rap and next generation. In 2010 they put up NGEN on their HD2 signal. HD2 signals allow radios with HD to receive secondary digital signal with great clarity of sound. This signal runs under the analog big brother. The signal is also weaker than the big brother. KSBJ also put the station online with its website and a host of phone apps. Ngenradio.com is available on most platforms. (Tune In is good)

August 8^th, 2016, at 6am NGEN went live on 91.7fm KXNG (analog) and became a major player in the crowded Houston Radio landscape. 50,000 watts of Hip Hop and Rock to reach a new generation. This represents a Digital and HD success story of sorts. This station birthed online, nurtured in HD and some low power fm analogs has come into its own. It will be an expensive baby for KSBJ. KSBJ has been run well a long time and will see the station become a titan like KSBJ, whose PPMs typically rank her 4^th in Houston – Galveston's radio market.

There is a flip side to this story. KUHA (now KXNG) was previously Rice University's radio station. The station was sold to UH and Rice's station ended up a HD2 and then just digital. UH wanted to use 91.7 fm to be their classical outlet. Classical music had shared the airwaves with KUHT. In )))) that station decided to go all news and put classical on HD2. NPR program left classical music playing at night. Now at least classical music could be heard all day. They also purchased 91.7fm from Rice with the intention of having a free standing classical music station that was analog. The station tanked from lack of support, then most of the on air personalities where fired. UH decided that 10 million being offered by KSBJ was too much to pass up.

Interestingly enough, the classical station is not dead. She is alive on HD2 under the Public Radio of UH, a great NPR affiliate. She also has a robust online presence and the greatest tutorial about streaming I have seen any station use. https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/classical/ways-to-listen/ She also has a presence on on digital tv as an audio only channel 8.5. How she will survive is a good question. UH can keep the format alive, but it will lack any real connection to Houston if it is simply a network outlet. Sadly classical music has been in full retreat to internet streaming for a few years.

I really hope both stations do well. As a Christian we need more than tightly programmed CCM. NGEN and her team will give Houston some alternatives, that even this 50 plus guy likes to hear. Classical music is just important. In that format world history has a chance to sing and play in our heads. It will be up to a very dedicated group of donors to keep it alive.

Programming note: I have moved back to Texas. I am still a pastor. I still have too many radios and not enough time to listen to everything.

Web Reference:

http://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/2016/07/15/160454/houston-public-media-completes-sale-of-classical-station-kuha-91-7-fm-to-ksbj/