KSBJ Educational Foundation closed on the acquisition of Classical 91.7 KUHA Houston from from Houston Public Media this morning.

The station went Silent at 9:00 this morning to allow KSBJ to install their distribution equipment and a new transmitter. When it returns to the air it will do so with the Christian CHR “NGEN Radio” brand and new KXNG call letters.

The Classical programming will now be heard on 88.7 KUHF-HD2.

Original Report 2/24: KSBJ Educational Foundation will pay $10 million for KUHA and 91.3 K217GB Houston.

Original Report 2/24: Houston Public Media has announced it has agreed to sell Classical 91.7 KUHA Houston to KSBJ Educational Foundation for an undisclosed price.

KSBJ will flip KUHA to its Christian CHR “NGEN Radio” brand currently heard in the market on 89.3 KSBJ-HD2 and a small network of stations serving the areas south and west of Houston. HPM, owned by the University of Houston, put KUHA on the market in August of 2015 and intends to keep the Classical programming on 88.7 KUHF-HD2 once the sale of KUHA closes.

In addition to KSBJ-HD2, the NGEN programming is currently heard on 92.5 KWUP-HD2 Navasota/College Station, 89.5 KZBJ Bay City, 91.1 KYBJ Lake Jackson, 99.5 K258BZ Sugar Land and 99.7 KUBJ Brenham TX.

Houston Public Media purchased then KTRU from Rice University in 2010.

KSBJ Educational Foundation (KSBJ) and University of Houston System (UHS) announced today that they have entered into a purchase agreement for KSBJ to acquire KUHA-FM from UHS. KUHA-FM is a 50,000 watt non-commercial station serving the Houston market area. The transaction requires Federal Communications Commission approval which is expected later this spring.

KSBJ intends to use the newly acquired signal to broadcast sister station NGEN radio, which would expand NGEN radio’s Houston-area reach with their ministry. With numerous signals throughout the Gulf Coast Region, NGEN radio has been reaching a younger generation with Christian hip-hop and pop music for over five years.

“This is a significant milestone for KSBJ. For 34 years, we have dreamed of having a full power FM station covering all of Houston that reaches young people,” says Tim McDermott, president of KSBJ. “We are so excited about having this and the impact for good it will have on our city.”

Currently KUHA-FM is licensed to the University of Houston and operates as Houston Public Media’s Classical 91.7. Last August the Board of Regents of the University of Houston approved the transition of its continuous classical music programming to all-digital distribution in recognition of the superior broadcast quality and greater efficiency of digital broadcasting.

“Our commitment to multi-platform arts and culture coverage is stronger than ever before as we are now incorporating online video and television programming in addition to classical music for the Houston community,“ said Lisa Shumate, associate vice president and general manager of Houston Public Media where broadcast operations also include News 88.7 (KUHF-FM), NPR in Houston and TV 8 (KUHT-TV) Houston PBS.

“We’re happy that the ownership of KUHA will stay in local hands with an experienced broadcaster and look forward to working with KSBJ on a smooth transition,” said Shumate.

Shumate added that, since the announcement of the transition last year, Houston Public Media has continued broadcasting classical on KUHA-FM while educating listeners about this coming change and how they can access the all-classical digital broadcast through a variety of channels including 88.7 HD-2, Houston Public Media classical app, streaming online at Houstonpublicmedia.org, free applications like iHeartRadio and TuneIn, and via television at TV 8.5.