Its founder, arts patron Wilford Stapp, sought to fill the void created when classical music slowly disappeared from San Antonio commercial station KMFM.

Ultimately, the permitholders and KPAC agreed to merge, enabling KSTX to begin broadcasting NPR to San Antonio in 1988.

Beginning in 1964, KMFM 96.1, founded by oilman Harry Pennington, had served as a commercial classical music station in the San Antonio area.

On January 21 of that year, the San Antonio Community Radio Corporation, headed by Pleas J. McNeel,[5] filed an application with the FCC for a station on 89.1 MHz.

[6] A competing application was received soon after from the Southwest Texas Public Broadcasting Council, the Austin-based owner of KLRN (channel 9).

[10] Though Yanaguana announced two months later it was joining forces with the San Antonio Community Radio bid,[11] a formal settlement agreement between the parties was not filed with the FCC until August 1978, and the construction permit was granted October 23, 1979.

Transmitter site negotiations failed; the heavy antenna needed for broadcasting a Class C, 100,000-watt signal limited options, and the Tower of the Americas was already full, forcing the station to contemplate building its own tower and finding a site in rapidly growing San Antonio.

Funds that had been raised were diverted to paying for lawyers and engineers, all as a new round of grants and the construction permit were set to expire, and San Antonio remained the largest city in the nation without NPR.

[22] In 1991, Texas Public Radio obtained a construction permit for a new facility for KPAC, broadcasting with 100,000 watts instead of 3,000 at 88.3 MHz.

In 1997, Hill Country Friends of Texas Public Radio was formed to support the expansion of TPR to the area.

[27] KTXI began broadcasting on October 8, 1998, airing a mix of NPR news from KSTX and classical music from KPAC.

[32] In 2016, TPR became part of the restoration project for San Antonio's historic Alameda Theater, a one-time Mexican-American movie house and entertainment venue, by agreeing to build a new headquarters behind it.

[39] KSTX and other stations carrying the news-talk-information format run several national programs on weekdays, including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Fresh Air, Here and Now, and Marketplace.

[40] TPR produces its own daily one-hour interview and call-in show, The Source, hosted by David Martin Davies.

[42] KPAC has used Classical 24 since 2013, when it dismissed its five local weekday and weekend hosts to save money and bolster the more popular KSTX.