| Type | Public radio network |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| First air date | January 1967 |
| Availability | Global |
| Founded | American Public Media Group |
| Key people | Jon McTaggart, President |
| Launch date | 1967 |
| Former names | Saint John's University Broadcasting Minnesota Educational Radio |
| Official website | www.mpr.org |
Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), is the flagship National Public Radio member network for the state of Minnesota. With its three services, News & Information, Classical Music and The Current, MPR operates a 42-station regional radio network in the upper Midwest serving over 8 million people. MPR has 127,150 members and more than 850,000 listeners each week, the largest audience of any regional public radio network.[1]
Minnesota Public Radio has won more than 875 journalism awards, including the Peabody Award, both the RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting award of the same name, and the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Gold Baton Award.
Minnesota Public Radio, operating as American Public Media, is the nation's second-largest producer and distributor of national public radio programs, reaching 14.6 million listeners nationwide each week. It is the largest producer and distributor of classical music programming in the country.
Minnesota Public Radio's 1,058-seat Fitzgerald Theater and 100-seat UBS Forum provide a venue for live remote broadcasts, discussion forums, political debates, cultural programming and more.
As of 1999 the company operates on $32 million dollar a year with 30 stations in 6 states, and it has a $110 million endowment.[2]
As of September 2011, MPR was equal with WNYC for most listener support for a public radio network, and had the highest level of recurring monthly donors of any public radio network in the United States.[3]
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Minnesota Public Radio began on January 22, 1967, when KSJR signed on from the campus of Saint John's University in Collegeville, just outside St. Cloud. The Director of Broadcasting for the station was William H. Kling, a graduate of Saint John's.[2]
It soon became apparent that St. Cloud and surrounding Stearns County didn't have enough listeners for the station to be viable, so Kling more than tripled KSJR's power in hopes of reaching the Twin Cities. However, it only provided grade B coverage to Minneapolis and the western portion of the metro, and completely missed St. Paul and the east. Realizing that the station needed to cover the Twin Cities to have a realistic chance of survival, St. John's signed on KSJN, a low-powered repeater station for the Twin Cities, in 1968. However, the operation was still awash in debt. It soon became apparent that St. John's was in over its head operating a full-fledged noncommercial radio station, so it transferred KSJR/KSJN's assets to a community corporation, St. John's University Broadcasting. This corporation later changed its name to Minnesota Educational Radio, and finally Minnesota Public Radio.[4] Kling led MPR as president and CEO for 44 years, before retiring in 2011.[2][5]
In 1969 and 1970, MPR assisted in the formation of National Public Radio as a founding member of the organization. Gradually, the station moved its operations to St. Paul, and KSJN became the flagship station.
MPR began live broadcasting of Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion, one of the best-known programs on public radio, in 1974. In 1980, MPR originated the Peabody Award-winning show, Saint Paul Sunday, which went national via syndication in 1981.
MPR assisted in the formation of American Public Radio (now known as Public Radio International) in 1983, .
In 1991, MPR bought WLOL (99.5 FM) in the Twin Cities. This allowed MPR to split its services into two networks. The KSJN calls moved to 99.5, which began playing classical music full-time. News and talk remained on KSJN's original 91.1 frequency, which took new calls, KNOW-FM.
MPR acquired Marketplace Productions, which produces Marketplace, "Marketplace Morning Report" and "Marketplace Money" from studios in Los Angeles, in association with the University of Southern California, in 2000. That same year, MPR founded Southern California Public Radio, which entered into a public service operating agreement with Pasadena City College for the operation of KPCC in Pasadena, California.
In 2004, MPR announced it would buy WCAL (89.3 FM), the classical music station operated by St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. WCAL (and a repeater station, KMSE in Rochester), were sold in a deal valued at $10.5 million, which was approved by the Federal Communications Commission in 2004. The next year, following the acquisition by MPR, WCAL was transformed into MPR's third service, "The Current".
In 2008, a WCAL advocate group took St. Olaf College to court for breach of trust for selling the radio station. (A June 2008 judge's opinion described the station as a charitable trust and not the college's property to freely dispose with. [2])) MPR's General Counsel and three attorneys took part in the proceedings.[3]) The case is ongoing.
Today, MPR serves a regional audience of 850,000 listeners through 37 stations presenting three broadcast network services.
With the addition of later stations, MPR originally offered a mix of classical music and NPR news/talk programming on a single service. Beginning in 1991, MPR's programming split in two, forming separate news and classical music services (although one station in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan still carries a combination of those two services). The 2005 acquisition of WCAL in Northfield, Minnesota, which covers the Minneapolis-St. Paul and Rochester areas, provided the opportunity to launch another music service, "The Current". This third service has gradually expanded to most of southern Minnesota.
MPR's news and information service, originating from KNOW-FM (91.1 FM) in the Twin Cities, includes a mix of locally-produced programs and national/international shows.
The MPR newsroom has garnered international acclaim, most recently earning the inaugural Knight News Innovation EPpy Award in 2008.[6] MPR's newsroom is known for its Public Insight Network, a database of citizen sources who contribute their expertise on a wide array of topics. The Public Insight Network grew to 100,000 sources in 2011 and partners with other news media, journalism schools, foundations and community groups.
As of 2011, 41 transmitters carry MPR's News and Information service.
MPRNews.org is a non-profit news website maintained by MPR. This online news source covers issues that affect the state including politics, business, education, health, environment and the economy. MPR News offers headline news, video, blogs, audio and multiple ways for readers to become involved in the news-making process.
Like its news and information service, MPR's classical music service is distributed via a statewide network of 37 stations originating from KSJN (99.5 FM) in the Twin Cities. MPR's classical music library consists of over 50,000 compact discs.
MPR's classical music service features several online initiatives, such as the popular "Classical Love Notes," which allow listeners to send romantic classical music selected by MPR on-air hosts to their loved ones.
In the fall of 2006, MPR's classical music service reached an all-time listener high with over 375,000 weekly listeners.
There are 36 transmitters broadcasting the classical music service, including one station in Sun Valley, Idaho.
MPR's third service, 89.3 The Current, debuted on January 24, 2005, and airs an Adult album alternative format.
Several people on The Current's initial staff are well known in the area for previous work at stations that highlight music from Minnesota and the Upper Midwest. Many of the staffers and on-air personalities came from other similar stations, such as the University of Minnesota's KUOM, community-oriented KFAI, and commercial alternative rock outlets REV 105 and Cincinnati, Ohio's WOXY.com.
Programming on The Current is mostly locally-produced, including Musicheads with Bill DeVille. The Current also airs nationally-produced shows such as Sound Opinions with Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot and American Routes with Nick Spitzer. In July 2007, The Current created a one-hour program of music hosted by Mark Wheat called "The Current Rotation." The program airs exclusively on WNYE 91.5 FM in New York.[7]
The Current is carried on seven transmitters, serving a majority of the state's population. The main transmitter is KCMP (89.3 FM), licensed to Northfield on the southeastern periphery of the Twin Cities, though the signal covers most of the metro area. A lower-power station, KMSE (88.7 FM), serves Rochester and southeastern Minnesota, and KCMP translators serve Hinckley and Mankato.[8] In addition, the station is broadcast on a HD Radio sideband channel to listeners of KNSR in St. Cloud and KPCC in Los Angeles. The Current also streams online at http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/services/the_current/streams.shtml in a variety of formats.
Minnesota Public Radio also programs several other music services, all available online, with a few offered on HD Radio in the Twin Cities area.
Local Current is a service programmed by the staff of The Current, and featured music from Minnesota artists. Local Current airs on the HD2 subchannel of KCMP and via a separate webstream.
Wunderground Radio is also programmed by personnel at The Current, and airs a variation of their AAA format, with music geared toward children and parents. Wunderground Radio airs via a separate webstream.
Radio Heartland features an eclectic mix of acoustic, Americana and roots music. The service can be found on the HD2 subchannel of KNOW-FM and also via a separate webcast. KNOW-FM also features an HD3 subchannel consisting of programming from BBC World Service and repeat airings of NPR shows.
Subsidiary Communications Authority (SCA's) are used to transmit a Minnesota version of the Radio Talking Book Network to disabled listeners around the state, in cooperation with Minnesota State Services for the Blind. MPR also serves as the radio backbone for the radio portion of the state's Emergency Broadcasting System, and as the backbone for the state's AMBER Alert System.
Plans are in place to add the digital HD Radio system across all of MPR's transmitters. Special receivers are required to decode these broadcasts. They will enable the main channel on each frequency to be broadcast with digital quality and to reduce the multipath interference that sometimes affects FM analog broadcasting. This move will also make additional digital channels possible.
Minnesota Public Radio is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization and relies on contributions from listeners, foundations, educational partners and corporations for its general operations. It also receives support through underwriting on the air and on the Web.
Listener contributions, corporations, foundations and educational partners account for approximately 60 percent of MPR’s total budget. Additional funding is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (8 percent). The State of Minnesota provides modest capital grants to upgrade infrastructure and equipment in greater Minnesota, but does not provide operating funding to the organization. MPR also receives operating funding through the sale of on-air and online underwriting.
Like other large nonprofit organizations with similar business models, additional funding for MPR comes from the for-profit Greenspring Media, a subsidiary of the parent nonprofit American Public Media Group (APMG), through sales of the magazine Minnesota Monthly and other ventures. APMG also owns and operates the Lake Wobegon USA store at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. and the Pretty Good Goods catalog. The for-profit Rivertown Trading Company, once a subsidiary of MPR’s parent company, was sold in 1998 for $124 million. Profits went toward creating MPR’s endowment, a percentage of which contributes to MPR's overall annual budget.
Minnesota Public Radio broadcasts on 43 stations that serve Minnesota and its neighboring communities and 42 translators providing additional local coverage. (40 + 41 = 81 total.) Stations are located in Minnesota, Wisconsin (La Crosse), North Dakota (Fargo and Grand Forks), South Dakota (Sioux Falls), Michigan (Houghton), Iowa (Decorah), and Idaho (Sun Valley). MPR also operates KPCC in Pasadena, California.
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| THIS 2006 MAP, from a PTFP web page, illustrates the then 90% coverage of Minnesota. Since the above page/article was published, it appears that MPR has added stations, as the network now has more stations than those mentioned on the PTFP page. |
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Most areas are served by both a classical music station and a news and information station. One location is covered by a single station that combines both services. Two locations are served by a classical music station, a news and information station, and The Current.
MPR's newest service, The Current, is available in Austin, Hinckley, Mankato, the Twin Cities, New Ulm, Rochester and St. Peter.
Minnesota Public Radio also broadcasts all three of its services — News, Classical and The Current — on HD Radio in several communities throughout the state of Minnesota. In the Twin Cities, MPR multicasts "Classical 24", BBC News and "More", a Spanish language service from Radio Netherlands called "Ahora", and "Wonderground Radio", a service specifically geared towards children.
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