KPVU Local Content and Service Report

KPVU continues to serve the Prairie View community in new and innovative ways, while staying true to our mission of strengthening the civic and cultural fabric of our communities of service. KPVU’s key initiatives included the continuation for the development of programs and services including community engagement enterprises…working collaboratively with a variety of PVAMU partners. The station collaborated with PVAMU’s Schools of Agriculture, Business, Allied Health, Communications, Music, Dance Theater, Business, the Athletic Department and Department of Institutional Advancement-Communications and Media. The results of these collaborations were outstanding. The station continues to expand its capacity to reach a variety of target audiences that other media (i.e.) … commercial…does not cover.

For the many regular listeners of 91.3 KPVU we’ve changed the way we introduce our programs and services. 91.3 KPVU has a new brand identification, “The Art of Soul”. Our new brand accurately reflects the essence, the indomitable spirit and formidable partnership between KPVU and the Students, Faculty, Staff, the Colleges, and enterprises that encompass Prairie View A&M University and the Greater Prairie View/Houston community. 91.3 KPVU through our new brand, “The Art of Soul”, continues our service as “The Front Porch of Prairie View A&M University”, signaling the value and magnitude of our University licensee.

Soul often refers to Black popular music of the sixties and seventies and virtually all Americans, regardless of color, class, geographic location, have a special connection to it. KPVU will use this common understanding of soul music as a cornerstone of a unique, engaging new brand: The Art of Soul. The Art of Soul moves beyond the expected and breaks new ground — engaging, educating, informing, and inspiring — listeners along the way. KPVU has created a new storytelling platform for Prairie View A&M University and the Greater Prairie View/Houston communities. You’ll hear Prairie View A&M University students, faculty and administrators telling stories of the innovative research, programs and successes that make up the story of the Prairie View A&M University. Accordingly, we will tell the stories that emanate from our communities of service, with the express purpose of presenting story’s that reflect the diverse voices and perspectives of our communities. 

KPVU’s music construction is rooted in Neo Soul, Jazz, Latin, World Music, compelling new music, classic hip-hop, R&B, and indigenous Texas Soul Music. Additionally, KPVU programs daily and weekly, NPR news and talk programs geared to a diverse audience… The station is on a mission to provide a “bridge” between Millennials, Generation Xers, and Boomers. We’ve learned there is a connective tissue that binds the three generations… and that connective tissue is “music”, and relevant and timely information. KPVU’s approach is positive, clean, and family friendly, submitting to public radio’s core values. And most importantly, more than any public and/or commercial station in the Prairie View/Houston market… we offer indisputable diversity. 

Our original and acquired programming intends to educate, enlighten, and inform the Prairie View A&M University, and the Greater Prairie View community on local and national issues. In 2020, “The TakeAway brought many issues to light that are of relevance to our audiences in Prairie View like election and ballot issues, sexual harassment, education issues, guns and mental health. These investigative reports and stories addressed issues that affect communities of color that are often underserved by other news outlets.

KPVU continued to produce our own local cultural-educational-civic digest, “On the Hill”, featuring Frank Jackson. On, The Hill is KPVU’s longest-running public affairs talk show featuring news, information and discussions about Prairie View A&M University and its relevance to the city of Prairie View, Waller County, Texas, the United States, and the world.  Additionally, KPVU airs It’s been a Minute with Sam Sanders. Each week, Sam Sanders interviews people in the culture who deserve our communities of service attention. This includes weekly wraps of the news with other journalists.

 KPVU airs Latino USA, hosted by Maria Hinohosa. Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective. NPR’s Latino USA is the longest running Latino-focused program on U.S. public media.

KPVU is licensed to a Historically Black University. For over 140 years PVAMU has been a leader in serving under-served communities and has maintained a strict adherence to its founding principles of teaching, research, and science. A cornerstone of KPVU’s mission is to extend and advance PVAMU’s educational mission and its founding principles. Over the next year KPVU will continue its efforts to assist the University in its quest to advocate the importance of higher education and college readiness and correspondingly, assist PVAMU in its efforts to recruit, retain and reward its diverse constituencies of students, faculty, and staff.