Texas Public Radio, or TPR is the on-air name for a group of non-commercial, listener-supported, public radio stations serving South Central Texas - including San Antonio, the Texas Hill Country and the Big Country region of West Central Texas. All are members of National Public Radio. The group consists of six stations on the lower end of the FM dial. Several stations have a format of news, talk and information: KSTX (89.1 MHz, San Antonio), KTPR (89.9 MHz, Stanton, serving portions of the Big Country and the Permian Basin); KVHL (91.7 MHz, Llano, serving the Highland Lakes); KTPD (89.3 MHz, Del Rio); and one AM station, KCTI (1450 AM, Gonzales, serving the I-10 corridor). In addition, KTXI at 90.1 MHz in Ingram, serving the Hill Country, airs a mix of classical music and news-talk-information. And all-classical KPAC is heard at 88.3 MHz in San Antonio.

Programming

On weekdays, KSTX and other stations carrying the news-talk-information format run several national programs, including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Fresh Air, Here and Now and Marketplace. Two Texas-oriented shows are also heard, Think from KERA-FM Dallas and Texas Standard, produced at KUT-FM Austin. TPR also produces its own one-hour interview and call-in show, The Source, hosted by David Martin Davies. It airs Monday to Thursday at 12 noon (Central) and is repeated at 7 p.m.(Central) The BBC World Service runs overnight. Weekends feature public radio shows on a variety of topics, including This American Life, Hidden Brain, Latino USA, Science Friday, Travel with Rick Steves, A Way with Words, On The Media, Freakonomics Radio, Radiolab, The New Yorker Radio Hour, The Moth Radio Hour, Snap Judgment and Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Saturday evenings feature shows on World Music with Deidre Saravia and The Music Archive Showcase with Paul Ingles. KPAC 88.3 MHz in San Antonio mostly carries programming from Classical 24, a music service from American Public Media. Weekends feature shows on classical music including From The Top, Sunday Baroque and Classical Guitar Alive. KTXI 90.1 MHz in Ingram airs news and information shows during the day, with classical music evenings and overnights. The KPAC Blog features classical music news and analysis. Cinema Tuesdays is a summertime weekly film event featuring a selected movie each week. TPR's Nathan Cone curates the series. Think Science is a quarterly TPR-hosted panel discussion event focusing on developments in science.

History

KPAC is the oldest station in the group. It signed on the air on. KPAC was a 24-hour classical music station, owned by the Classical Broadcasting Society of San Antonio. As San Antonio's growth exploded during the 1980s, many of the city's new residents wanted more choices in public radio programming. A group called "San Antonio Community Radio" won a construction permit in 1981. The want to build a second public radio frequency in San Antonio but had not been able to get it on the air. To solve this problem, the Classical Broadcasting Society and San Antonio Community Radio merged in the summer of 1988 to form "Texas Public Radio." The new group was able to sign on KSTX for the first time on October 3, 1988, bringing a full-time NPR news and information station to San Antonio. Before 1988, San Antonio was the largest city in Texas, as well as one of the largest in the nation, without a clear signal from an NPR member station. However, several portions of the Hill Country could not get a clear signal from KSTX or any NPR news and info station. To fill in this gap, KTXI began broadcasting on October 7, 1998, airing a mix of NPR news and classical music. Its signal covers Fredericksburg, Kerrville and other portions of the Central Hill Country. KTPR was launched on December 3, 2012, to serve the Big Country region, and in October 2013, KVHL began broadcasting to the Highland Lakes area of Texas. KTPD began broadcasting to Del Rio on May 5, 2016, and TPR began airing its programming on KCTI 1450 AM in Gonzales on January 2, 2017. In September 2020, KTPR moved its city of license and transmitter from Snyder to Stanton and upgraded its power from 19,000 watts to 100,000 watts.