| City of license | East Lansing, Michigan |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Lansing, Michigan |
| Branding | NewsTalk 870 |
| Slogan | News/Talk 870 |
| Frequency | 870 kHz |
| First air date | August 18, 1922 (experimental 1917–22) |
| Format | News/Talk |
| Power | 10,000 watts |
| Class | D |
| Facility ID | 41684 |
| Affiliations | NPR |
| Owner | Michigan State University |
| Sister stations | WKAR-TV, WKAR-FM |
| Website | www.wkar.org/am870 |
WKAR is a National Public Radio member station in East Lansing, Michigan; broadcasting at 870 kHz. It is owned by Michigan State University, and carries news and talk shows from NPR. It is part of MSU's Broadcasting Services Division, and is a sister station to the FM radio and television stations with the same call letters. Its studios and offices are located in the Communication Arts and Sciences Building, at the southeast corner of Wilson and Red Cedar Roads on the MSU campus.
The station dates to experimental broadcasts at Michigan State, then known as Michigan Agricultural College, beginning in 1917. WKAR-AM's first official broadcast was a "Founder's Day" speech on May 13, 1922. MAC was granted a full license on August 18, 1922. The station's call letters were assigned randomly by Herbert Hoover, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce (which was the sole radio licensing authority). It was the only radio station in the Lansing area until 1934.
Originally broadcasting at AM 1050, it moved to 1080 in 1928. It moved to 1040 in 1930 to alleviate interference with KRLD in Dallas, but had to move to its current home on 870 in 1939 (some sources say 1936).[1]
WKAR-AM and WKAR-FM were among the original "public" radio stations to join the then-newly formed NPR network. The debut on May 3, 1971 of NPR's "All Things Considered" connected for the first time nearly 100 non-commercial public radio stations in a nationwide network.
The only local programs heard on WKAR AM are a weekday one-hour sports-talk show hosted by Earle Robinson (Monday-Friday 1-2pm) and the long-running Spanish-language "Ondas en Espanol" hosted by Tony "El Chayo" Cervantes on weekends.
The station is one of the few NPR stations that does not operate 24 hours a day. It must sign off at sundown to protect WWL-AM in New Orleans. During the winter months, it generally signs off between 5 pm and 6 pm, returning to the air at 8 am. During the summer months, it generally signs off at 8 pm and returns to the air at 6 am. WKAR AM programming is simulcast on the HD2 channel of WKAR-FM 90.5 during the AM station's hours of operation. The NPR news and talk format continues after AM signoff, making WKAR AM and NPR programming available 24 hours a day to listeners with HD radios tuned to WKAR-FM. This feed is also streamed via the station's website.
Its 10,000-watt signal reaches as far east as Flint and Ann Arbor, and as far west as Grand Rapids.
|
||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||