KUAT-TV and the UA's radio stations, KUAT-FM and KUAZ, are grouped under the unified brand of Arizona Public Media (AZPM).

In addition to airing national PBS and public television programming, it produces several local shows focusing on southern Arizona life and issues.

[5] The university had already remodeled Herring Hall to house radio and television studios,[6] with the latter occupying a space once used as part of a gymnasium and auditorium.

[7] Filed on April 3, the application and permit were granted on July 16,[8] sending $40,000 of Ford Foundation monies the university's way to begin construction.

[19] The Federal Aviation Administration approved the tower site,[20] but the university decided to relocate its main transmitter to Mount Bigelow, already in use by the three commercial stations in town, after protests from the Air Line Pilots Association over the proximity of the mast to the Tucson International Airport.

[22] The Arizona Board of Regents approved the plans in April 1967,[23] and color transmission from the new studios and transmitter began on October 1, 1968.

[24] In preparation, K71BQ, a channel 71 translator, was built at the Tumamoc Hill site to serve neighborhoods in northwest Tucson that are shaded from Mount Bigelow by terrain.

[25] A day before the color conversion, on September 30, 1968, the University of Arizona returned to radio for the first time since the 1920s after receiving the donation of KFIF (1550 AM), which became KUAT (and is now KUAZ), from John Walton.

[34] The university released renderings of the proposed facility, the Paul and Alice Baker Center for Public Media, in September 2023.

[38] In 2007, KUAT produced the documentary Phoenix Mars Mission: Ashes to Ice, which became the first of the station's productions to air nationally on PBS.

V-me moved to cable only from 6.2, making way for PBS Kids from the Mount Bigelow transmitter, while the UA Channel became an online-only service.