KPFT-FM moves into new headquarters

Not quite a year after its longtime Lovett Blvd. space was put on the market — and subsequently razed — the public radio station KPFT has a new home. The Pacifica station found at 90.1 FM will settle into 4504 Caroline, nestled amid the Museum District, Third Ward and Midtown. The move will end a two-year period of upheaval for KPFT, which halted most operations at its location during the early days of the pandemic. The exit from the Lovett location was initiated nearly a year ago due to what was described in an email to Pacifica Foundation members as a “favorable real estate market in Houston.” KPFT programming continued to exist remotely.

“We are very excited and look forward to moving into our new building and welcoming all of our programmers and community supporters back to their favorite new community station home,” said general manager Robert Franklin. In its announcement, Pacifica expressed excitement that KPFT would soon find itself immersed at a crossroads of Houston culture and institutions just steps away from the Houston Museum of African-American Culture, with Hermann Park, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Houston Museum of Natural Science, the Buffalo Soldiers Museum, Asia Society Texas, Holocaust Museum Houston and numerous other institutions within blocks of the new sdpace. KPFT began broadcasting more than 50 years ago. Launching in March 1970 at 90.1 on the FM dial, the station quickly found pushback in Houston when its transmitter was bombed that May. Over the years, KPFT has been a haven for local, regional and national music that rarely finds champions on the airwaves, while also touching on social, political and quality of life platforms that don’t often find time at other stations around the city.