Early broadcasting activities and radio-television bureau While the UA did not begin its current television and radio services until 1959 and 1968, respectively, the first broadcasting activities from the university predate both by several decades. In the fall of 1922, it began offering a radio course, with a university radio station on the way; previously, tests had been made from March to May of that year. A license was granted on December 9, 1922, for a 250-watt station on 360 meters (833 kHz) with the call sign KFDH; power was later reduced to 150 watts. By March 1923, KFDH was broadcasting on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. However, the equipment was quickly made outmoded by advances in radio technology, and in late 1925, it was reported that nearly $30,000 ($ in dollars) would be needed to rebuild KFDH. The license was renewed but allowed to lapse in November 1925. After it opted not to build its own station, the university got involved with radio program production for air on radio station
KVOA. In 1939, a radio bureau was established. By 1951, UA radio offerings—each of them on a different Tucson station—included the
Arizona Farm and Ranch Hour, a weekly agricultural news program; the discussion program
University of Arizona Forum;
University of Arizona Concert, broadcasts of the UA's choral groups; and
University Sketchbook, a biography program. After beginning to produce spot news film for use by
KPHO-TV in Phoenix that same year, the radio bureau became a radio-television bureau in 1953, and its output rapidly increased as more television stations started. Its expanding activities as well as an increasing offering of courses to students led to the renovation of the 1903 Herring Hall, once the UA gymnasium, into a facility with radio and television studios.
Becoming a station owner As a result of these new facilities, when the UA applied to start a television station in 1958, most of the costs and construction related to erecting a tower and transmitter facility for the new
KUAT. A mast was installed behind Herring Hall to hold the antenna for the channel 6 station, which began regular programming on March 8, 1959. Initially broadcasting to the immediate Tucson area, regional coverage became a reality on October 1, 1968, with the activation of a transmitter atop Mount Bigelow. The university was also expanding in radio with the launch of KUAT (1550 AM) in 1968 and KUAT-FM 90.5 in 1975. Concomitant with this expansion, the status of the radio-television bureau at the university was elevated to a department in 1971, and it began offering its own degree programs the next year. By 1991, before the 1992 launch of a second FM service on
KUAZ-FM 89.1, the broadcasting operation was known as the KUAT Communications Group. The umbrella name Arizona Public Media was adopted in 2008 to better reflect the services' connection to the university and changes in the media business. In 2021, the UA announced it was exploring the construction of a new $45 million complex for AZPM south of the campus at The Bridges, home to
Tech Parks Arizona, having already raised 75 percent of the projected cost without launching a public campaign. The university released renderings of the proposed facility, the Paul and Alice Baker Center for Public Media, in September 2023. ==Structure==