Northwest Public Radio

Northwest Public Radio Logo

Northwest Public Radio is the public radio service of Washington State University. It is an affiliate of National Public Radio, Public Radio International and American Public Media. It operates 19 radio stations and 13 translators across Washington State, Oregon, and Idaho, and provides coverage to parts of British Columbia. The network broadcasts public radio news, talk, entertainment, classical music, jazz, and folk music. Station programming is separated into two main program streams, "NPR News" and "NPR & Classical Music", with simulcast periods during Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. Since November 2013, Northwest Public Radio also operates a 24-hour jazz station, KJEM 89.9, broadcasting in the Pullman and Moscow area.

History

WSU has a long history in broadcasting, dating to 1908 when it was known as Washington State College. NWPR's flagship station, KWSU 1250 in Pullman signed on December 10, 1922 as KFAE and became KWSC (for Washington State College) in 1925. For many years, it served a large portion of the Pacific Northwest. It became KWSU sometime in the 1960s, after Washington State attained university status. Edward R. Murrow began his career at the station, as did Keith Jackson and Barry Serafin. KWSU was a charter member of NPR, and was one of the 90 stations that carried the inaugural broadcast of All Things Considered in 1971.

KWSU became a network in 1982, when KFAE-FM 89.1 Richland signed on, bringing public radio to the Tri-Cities for the first time. Two years later, WSU assumed operation of the University of Idaho's KUID-FM 91.7 FM due to budget cuts in Idaho. The station was renamed KRFA. From 1992 to 2012, 16 more stations joined the network. Combined with thirteen translators, NWPR serves large parts of Washington, Idaho, Oregon and British Columbia. Most of the stations are located east of the Cascades, though five stations are located west of the Cascades.

NWPR headquarters are in the Murrow Communications Center on the WSU campus, with satellite studios at WSU Tri-Cities' campus in Richland, the UI campus in Moscow, Idaho and studio offices in Tacoma and Wenatchee.

Stations

For the most part, NWPR behaves like two large networks. Seven stations, based on KWSU, broadcast NPR news and talk. Eleven other stations, based on KRFA, broadcast a mix of NPR programming and classical music. One station, KJEM 89.9, broadcasts 24-hour jazz music without any NPR news or talk programming.

NPR News

Translators at Pullman (which broadcasts 24 hours a day while KWSU must sign off from 12 am-6 am) and Clarkston, Ellensburg, Leavenworth, Bellingham and Forks.

NPR and Classical Music

Translators at Goldendale, Cashmere, Chelan, Ephrata, Wallowa Valley, Clarkston, Orofino and Kamiah in Idaho.

KFAE also broadcast the Washington Talking Book and Braille Library's Evergreen Radio Reading Service to blind and handicapped listeners on its 67kHz subcarrier, until the service's closure on 2014 August 15.^[1] KFAE was one of three major FM stations in Washington to do so; KPBX-FM in Spokane and KUOW-FM in Seattle were the others. However, this required a special FM radio capable of receiving such broadcasts; it could not be received on a standard FM radio.

Jazz

KJEM 89.9 is the first 24-hour jazz station in the network, and broadcasts at 89.9 from the WSU campus, serving the Pullman and Moscow area.

See also

• KWSU-TV

References

External links

• Northwest Public Radio Website
• Evergreen Radio Reading Service