Prairie Public Radio

"KMPR" redirects here. For the photoresist, see KMPR1000.

Prairie Public

Type	Public Radio Network
Country	United States
Broadcast area	North Dakota
Owner	Prairie Public Broadcasting
Launch date	February 1, 1999
Official website	PrairiePublic.org/radio

Prairie Public is the public radio network for the state of North Dakota. It is a service of Prairie Public Broadcasting, in partnership with in association with North Dakota State University in Fargo and the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. Prairie Public maintains active studios in Grand Forks, Fargo and Bismarck.

History

Noncommercial radio has a rich tradition in North Dakota. In 1923, KUND signed on from the UND campus as one of the first college radio stations in the country. It moved to several frequencies over the years before finally settling on 1370 AM. By the 1970s, it had adopted the on-air name of "Northern Lights Public Radio." It added an FM counterpart in 1995. The two stations briefly went off the air in 1997 due to flooding in the transmitter. KUND-FM swapped callsigns with UND's college radio station, KFJM, before its return. By the end of the 20th century, the two stations aired jazz, adult album alternative music, and NPR programming.

In 1952, students at North Dakota Agricultural College, forerunner of North Dakota State, signed on KDSC, a carrier current station. It began using the KDSU calls sometime in the early 1960s. The station went off the air in 1964 due to technical difficulties, but returned in 1966 as a fully licensed FM station. It originally tried to satisfy all tastes, airing jazz, blues, folk music, classical music, rock and opera. By 1981, however, it had evolved into a more traditional public radio station, airing news and jazz during the week and specialty programming on weekends.

Both stations were early members of NPR, but this still left western North Dakota without public radio. Prairie Public Television had its mission broadened to include radio in the late 1970s, and in 1981 KCND signed on as the first public radio station in the western part of the state, under the on-air name of Prairie Public Radio. Between 1981 and 1993, four more stations signed on.

On February 1, 1999; Prairie Public Radio, KDSU and KUND merged to form North Dakota Public Radio, with the goal of providing a full NPR service to all of North Dakota. On September 26, 2006, the service reverted to the Prairie Public Radio name, so chosen in order to achieve brand consistency with Prairie Public Broadcasting's other operations. [1]

Programming

Prairie Public is a member of National Public Radio, airing programs such as All Things Considered, and it also runs Public Radio International programs including Marketplace. Prairie Public also runs programming from Minnesota Public Radio's American Public Media, including A Prairie Home Companion. Prairie Public also has a locally produced call-in show, Hear it Now, hosted by Merrill Piepkorn. Most of the music played on Prairie Public is classical, adult album alternative or jazz.

Regional networks

The Prairie Public radio chain is split up into two networks: Radio Eastern Service (KUND, KPRJ, KDSU, KPPD) and Radio Western Service (KCND, KDPR, KMPR, KPPR).

KFJM/KDSU

KFJM in Grand Forks, formerly one of the FM stations of UND's now-defunct Northern Lights Public Radio, is a part of the Prairie Public radio network and carries some network programming, but originates its own programming as well. KDSU of Fargo rebroadcasts KFJM during the midday and overnights on weekdays outside of NPR and Prairie Public programming. KDSU is also part of Prairie Public's Radio Eastern Service. KFJM and KDSU primarily air an adult album alternative music format along with blues, folk, and jazz. KFJM is simulcasted the HD-2 channel of all of Prairie Public Radio's stations, branded as their Roots, Rock & Jazz service.

Coverage

Prairie Public has 9 full power stations and 8 low-power translators broadcasting across North Dakota, northwest Minnesota, and eastern Montana.

Location	Frequency	Call sign	Call sign meaning
Beach	91.9	K220FI (KDPR)
Bismarck	90.5	KCND	Capital of North Dakota
Bowman	91.9	K220FJ (KDPR)
Crosby	91.9	K220FF (KPPW)
Devils Lake	91.7	KPPD	Prairie Public Radio Devils Lake
Dickinson	89.9	KDPR	Dickinson Public Radio
Fargo	91.9	KDSU	North Dakota State University
Grand Forks	89.3	KUND-FM	University of North Dakota
	90.7	KFJM	Folk and Jazz Music
Jamestown	91.5	KPRJ	Public Radio Jamestown
Harvey	91.9	K220FD (KMPR)
Hettinger	91.9	K220FG (KDPR)
Lisbon	99.3	K257DW (KDSU)
Minot	88.9	KMPR	Minot Public Radio
Plentywood, MT	91.9	K220FE (KPPW)
Thief River Falls, MN	88.3	K202BK (KUND)
Tioga	91.9	K220FH (KMPR)
Wahpeton	105.9	K290BI (KDSU)
Williston	88.7	KPPW	Prairie Public Williston
	89.5	KPPR	Prairie Public Radio

Prairie Public's full power stations are now broadcasting digitally (in addition to their standard analog carrier) using HD Radio, with KFJM in Grand Forks being rebroadcast over these stations on their "HD-2" subchannel.

Prairie Public's eastern radio service is also carried in Winnipeg on Shaw Cable's radio system at 107.9 FM.

See also

• Prairie Public Television
• Prairie Public Broadcasting

External links

• Listen Live
• Prairie Public radio website
• KFJM website
• Query the FCC's FM station database for KCND
• Query the FCC's FM station database for KDPR
• Query the FCC's FM station database for KMPR
• Query the FCC's FM station database for KPPR
• Query the FCC's FM station database for KPRJ
• Query the FCC's FM station database for KDSU
• Query the FCC's FM station database for KUND
• Query the FCC's FM station database for KFJM
• Query the FCC's FM station database for K220FF
• Query the FCC's FM station database for K220FH
• Query the FCC's FM station database for K220FI
• Query the FCC's FM station database for K220FJ
• Query the FCC's FM station database for K220FG
• Query the FCC's FM station database for K220FD
• Query the FCC's FM station database for K218AV
• Query the FCC's FM station database for K208BF
• Query the FCC's FM station database for K219AX
• Query the FCC's FM station database for K202BK
• Query the FCC's FM station database for K220FE
• Query the FCC's FM station database for KPPD