KAMU is public media for Texas A&M University and the Brazos Valley. Owned and operated by Texas A&M University in College Station as part of the Division of Marketing and Communications, KAMU is both a television and FM radio entity. KAMU exists primarily to provide public broadcasting to the Brazos Valley, but also contributes to the academic mission of Texas A&M by providing on-the-job training for students while fulfilling a unique niche in the broadcast space as a storytelling outlet for Texas A&M and the entire Brazos Valley. In 1964, Texas A&M established the Educational Broadcast Services department as part of the “Educational Television Program” with an initial focus of providing closed-circuit television broadcasts from classrooms and lecture halls across the campus. Eventually, KAMU-TV and KAMU-FM were added to the department. KAMU-TV began broadcasting on February 15, 1970 as a public television station licensed to the university, providing broadcast services to the Texas A&M University community, the cities of Bryan and College Station and the surrounding Brazos Valley area. Originally an analog broadcast on channel 15, KAMU-TV transitioned to HD broadcast in 2009 on Channels 12.1, 12.2 and 12.3.
Located in the Joe Hiram Moore Communications Center on the Texas A&M campus, a 17,000 square-foot one-story brick building constructed in 1972, KAMU operates two television studios and two radio studios. Both are staffed by a combination of full-time employees, student workers and volunteers.
KAMU-FM (90.9 FM) began programming on March 30, 1977 and is an affiliate of National Public Radio (NPR), Public Radio Exchange (PRX) and others. Programming on the original FM channel includes classical music, jazz, international music and much more, including award-winning news programs from NPR. In 2008, KAMU began broadcasting a high-definition (HD) signal on the same frequency.
