On weekdays, KGOU has a news and information format with programming from NPR and other public radio networks.

On weekdays at 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. and most of the day on weekends, KGOU airs one-hour specialty shows from NPR and other public radio networks.

They include Reveal, Radiolab, Freakonomics Radio, This American Life, Zorba Paster on Your Health, Snap Judgment, The TED Radio Hour, The Splendid Table, To the Best of Our Knowledge, Travel with Rick Steves, Left, Right and Center and Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.

KGOU had a progressive rock format and sold advertisements, even though it was owned by the University of Oklahoma, a non-profit organization.

In the early 1980s, OU decided to use KGOU as a public radio station and discontinue the rock music and commercial ads.

The station's new public radio format, featuring news and talk, took effect on New Year's Day, 1983.

KGOU's main signal operates at 6,000 watts, which is fairly modest for a full NPR member station on the FM band.

Soon after joining NPR, OU sought a license for a repeater station that would better cover Oklahoma City's northern suburbs.