Northwest Public Radio

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.

Northwest Public Radio

Type	Public Radio Network
Country	United States
Broadcast area	Washington Idaho Panhandle
Owner	Washington State University
Affiliation(s)	National Public Radio
Webcast	NPR News NPR & Classical Jazz
Official website	nwpb.org

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.

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 on March 1, 1969, ten years 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.

Expansion

In 1982, KFAE-FM 89.1 at Richland signed on, bringing public radio to the Tri-Cities for the first time. The next year, WSU activated a series of low-powered translators at Ellensburg, Goldendale/The Dalles, Yakima, Lewiston/Clarkston, Ephrata/Soap Lake, Wenatchee, Cashmere/Dryden, and Chelan/Waterville. In 1984, after budget cuts in Idaho, WSU assumed operation of KUID-FM 91.7 at the University of Idaho and renamed it KRFA-FM; this gave it its first FM service in the Pullman area and resulted in the new outlet assuming many of the classical programs on KWSU.

The launch of KNWR, a full-power transmitter at Ellensburg, in 1992 heralded the beginning of two decades of expansion. KNWY in the Yakima Valley went on air in 1993. In 1994, KNWO in Cottonwood, Idaho, was added; additionally, three new translators were commissioned and KRFA increased its power tenfold. KNWV went on air in Lewiston and Clarkston in 1995. 1997 brought KWWS in Walla Walla, and after a $500,000 donation from the estate of Ephrata rancher Paul Lauzier, KLWS at Moses Lake. Port Angeles—and Victoria, British Columbia—were added with the signing on of KNWP in 1998. KQWS at Omak began broadcasting in January 1999; the next year, a translator of KWSU was added in Pullman, giving the station its first FM presence. A translator at Forks was added in 2006. KSWS at Chehalis was built in 2010.[1]

In several cases, the university acquired or began broadcasting over preexisting public radio stations. On January 6, 1997, Northern Sound Public Radio's KZAZ-FM in Bellingham, was merged into the network as its first station west of the Cascades. The license for KMWS at Mount Vernon was acquired from Skagit Valley College, which moved its KSVR to a new license; the university chose the call letters to honor Murrow, a Skagit County native. In 2010, KVTI in Tacoma, owned by Clover Park Technical College, began broadcasting Northwest Public Radio full-time after budget cuts prompted the closure of its radio broadcasting program.[2] In 2012, the Yakima School District's KYVT began broadcasting NWPR's NPR News programming under an agreement in which the network provided the district's skills center and an HD2 subchannel for its student programming in exchange for studio space and a primary frequency for the news service, which had not been previously available in Yakima.[3]

Stations

With one exception, NWPR's transmitters are structured into two services: an NPR news/talk service and a service combining NPR programming and classical music.

NPR News

Location	Frequency	Call sign	Power W	ERP W	Height m (ft)	FCC info	Other cities served
Pullman, WA	1250 AM	KWSU	5,000 day 2,500 night			FCC	Moscow, ID
Walla Walla, WA	89.7 FM	KWWS		16,000	408 m (1,339 ft)	FCC	Tri-Cities
Moses Lake, WA	91.5 FM	KLWS		7,200	209 m (686 ft)	FCC	Ephrata and Ellensburg, WA
Omak, WA	90.1 FM	KQWS		3,000	749 m (2,457 ft)	FCC	Kelowna, BC
Mount Vernon, WA	89.7 FM	KMWS		1,500	36 m (118 ft)	FCC	Burlington, WA
Chehalis, WA	88.9 FM	KSWS		1,000	306 m (1,004 ft)	FCC	Centralia and Olympia, WA
Yakima, WA	88.5 FM	KYVT		135	258 m (846 ft)	FCC	Selah and Union Gap, WA

Broadcast translators of NPR News

Call sign	Frequency (MHz)	City of license	Facility ID	FCC info
K227BW	93.3	Pullman, Washington	71040	FCC
K216GE	91.1	Forks, Washington	138015	FCC
K248CN	97.5	Ariel, Washington	142354	FCC
K217AJ	91.3	Leavenworth, Washington	71017	FCC
K210DK	89.9	Ellensburg, Washington	71035	FCC
K212FK	90.3	Wenatchee, Washington	71037	FCC
K217GA	91.3	Clarkston, Washington	71026	FCC
K259CY	99.7	Bellingham, Washington	138079	FCC
K284BL	104.7	Bellingham, Washington	138227	FCC

NPR and Classical Music

Location	Frequency	Call sign	ERP W	Height m (ft)	FCC info	Other cities served
Moscow, ID	91.7 FM	KRFA-FM	28,000	282 m (925 ft)	FCC	Pullman, WA
Richland, WA	89.1 FM	KFAE-FM	100,000	258 m (846 ft)	FCC	Pasco and Kennewick, WA
Ellensburg, WA	90.7 FM	KNWR	5,000	777 m (2,549 ft)	FCC	Wenatchee/Moses Lake, WA
Yakima, WA	90.3 FM	KNWY	1,900	257 m (843 ft)	FCC	Selah and Union Gap, WA
Cottonwood, ID	90.1 FM	KNWO	250	612 m (2,008 ft)	FCC	Grangeville, ID
Clarkston, WA	90.5 FM	KNWV	350	340 m (1,120 ft)	FCC	Lewiston, ID
Forks, WA	91.5 FM	KNWU	170	−2 m (−6.6 ft)	FCC
Manson, WA	88.3 FM	KHNW	340	166 m (545 ft)	FCC	Chelan, WA
Bellingham, WA	91.7 FM	KZAZ	120	102 m (335 ft)	FCC
Port Angeles, WA	90.1 FM	KNWP	1,600	60 m (200 ft)	FCC	Victoria, BC
Tacoma, WA	90.9 FM	KVTI	51,000	111 m (364 ft)	FCC	Seattle and Olympia, WA

Broadcast translators of NPR and Classical Music

Call sign	Frequency (MHz)	City of license	Facility ID	FCC info
K213DU	90.5	Goldendale/The Dalle, Washington	71021	FCC
K226AK	93.1	Ephrata, Washington	71027	FCC
K272DO	102.3	Orofino, Idaho	71029	FCC
K274BK	102.7	Kamiah, Idaho	71034	FCC
K265DX	100.9	Enterprise, Oregon	138497	FCC

KFAE-FM 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 August 15, 2014.[4] KFAE-FM 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

Main article: KJEM

On November 1, 2013, WSU launched a third station in Pullman: KJEM (89.9 FM), broadcasting jazz music 24 hours a day to the Pullman and Moscow area and named for J. Elroy McCaw. Unlike the rest of the network, KJEM is largely student-run.[5]

See also

• KWSU-TV and KTNW, associated television stations in Pullman and Richland

References

1. "NWPR Announces Second Expansion in a Month". Washington State University. July 13, 2010. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
2. "NWPR to manage college radio station in Lakewood". Washington State University. April 6, 2010. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
3. "Yakima School District and NWPR partner to offer NPR News". Washington State University. July 30, 2012. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
4. "Evergreen Radio Reading Service Ending". www.wtbbl.org. Archived from the original on 7 January 2015. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
5. "WSU's Murrow College Launches New Jazz Station 89.9 KJEM". November 2013. Retrieved 7 November 2013.

External links

• Northwest Public Radio website