Minnesota Public Radio
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Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) is a regional public radio network based in the U.S. state of Minnesota that has been broadcasting since 1967. The network includes more than 50 FM transmitters ranging from low-power translators in small and hard-to-reach areas up to full-power stations serving larger markets and wider areas. The organization broadcasts three different services in the state: "news and information," classical music, and another "eclectic" music service known as "The Current" that plays selections from a broad range of musical genres. The main studios for MPR are located in St. Paul, Minnesota.
MPR is affiliated with and a member of both National Public Radio and Public Radio International (PRI). Under the brand American Public Media, MPR produces a host of programs for national distribution. Included is the signature show A Prairie Home Companion, hosted by Garrison Keillor. Following a 2004 decision to distribute programming itself, Minnesota Public Radio | American Public Media is now the second-largest public radio organization in the United States behind NPR, though the network is still in close contention with PRI, also based in Minnesota, for the spot (PRI distributes a higher number of programs, but American Public Media shows have higher listenership).
Services
Minnesota Public Radio began by broadcasting a mix of talk and music programming. In a transition beginning in 1980, listeners now have a choice between talk programs and classical programming (although one station in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan carries a mixture of those two services). A recent acquisition of a third powerful station covering the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area provided the opportunity to launch another musical service, The Current.
The network has claimed varying levels of membership between 2000 and 2004, ranging between 83,000 and 87,000 active contributors. It is reported that the ratio of members to listeners is very high—a fact sometimes attributed to "Minnesota nice" but is more reflective of Minnesota's overall culture of philanthropy&mdash. Overall weekly listenership is consistently above 800 thousand, or about 15% of Minnesota residents over the age of 12.
News and information
Shows carried on MPR's news & information stations are a mix of programs produced locally and national/international shows. Mornings start out with the National Public Radio show, Morning Edition, which MPR edits heavily and adds local material. Following Morning Edition are two MPR-produced talk shows intended for a local audience, Midmorning and Midday. Talk of the Nation from NPR is broadcast in the afternoon, followed on Monday-Thursday by NPR's Day to Day, leading in to NPR's All Things Considered. MPR also heavily edits and adds local material to All Things Considered. MPR carries The World (co-produced by the BBC and Public Radio International), WHYY's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, The Story with Dick Gordon from WUNC, As It Happens (from the CBC), and the BBC World Service in the evening and nighttime hours.
Weekend programming on MPR has shifted around with moderate frequency, though it includes national favorites such as Car Talk and This American Life. Weekends also bring some music to MPR's talk listeners, as it seeps into A Prairie Home Companion, and is the main subject of shows like American Routes and The Jazz Image.
Twenty-three MPR transmitters carry the news and information service exclusively as of 2006. The Twin Cities flagship station for news & information is KNOW 91.1 FM.
Classical music
Until January 2007, the classical music stations of MPR devoted most of the day to orchestral tracks. However, in January 2007, MPR took over production of the national classical music show titled Performance Today. Performance Today is a live, 2 hour, daily show that is devoted to playing live concert recordings, interviews with musicians and composers. The show is hosted by Fred Child, who has been hosting the show since 2000.
At night, transmitters switch over to using MPR's Classical 24 service, which is distributed nationally. Classical 24 is produced in Saint Paul and serves audiences throughout the United States in markets that would not otherwise be able to support a full-time classical music service.
MPR's regional classical music service offers programming such as Favorites on Friday with Melissa Ousley, a three-hour all-request program; broadcasts of performances by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra; broadcasts of local performers on Steve Staruch's 3:00 broadcast on Thursday afternoons; the daily Composers Datebook with John Zech; and many special broadcasts of temporary programs.
Nationally, American Public Media distributes programming such as the immensely popular Pipedreams with Michael Barone and Saint Paul Sunday with Bill McLaughlin.
There are 27 transmitters broadcasting the classical music service, including one station in Sun Valley, Idaho. This network's flagship station is KSJN 99.5 FM in the Twin Cities.
MPR's Eileen R. Bigelow Music Library has 60,000 compact discs available to the classical network.
The Current
MPR's third service, The Current, went on the air on at 9 AM on January 24, 2005, and is very free-form in the music that is played. On-air hosts program an eclectic mix of local bands and music from rock, alternative, punk, jazz, hip-hop, rap and oldies. The Current also provides a venue for local musicians and bands through recordings and live in-studio performances.
Several people on the initial staff are well known in the area for previous work at stations that highlight music from Minnesota and the Upper Midwest. The music and program directors as well as some DJs spent time at REV-105 before it was bought out in 1997, and at 770 Radio K, the University of Minnesota's Twin Cities station. At least one had also volunteered at, but did not hold a regular program at Independent Public Radio station KFAI in Minneapolis.
The Current is carried on three transmitters. The main one is KCMP 89.3 FM, located near Rosemount, Minnesota on the southeastern periphery of the Twin Cities, though the signal covers most of the Minneapolis - Saint Paul metro area. A lower-power station serves Rochester, Minnesota, and a translator serves Hinckley, Minnesota, just north of the Twin Cities. The Current is receivable on these three transmitters by roughly one-half of the state's population, which is mostly concentrated in the Twin Cities. In addition, the station is broadcast on a HD Radio sideband to listeners of KPCC in Los Angeles. The Current includes The Morning Show during morning drive time. The Morning Show is carried on the Classical Music Service outside the Twin Cities.
Internet radio streams are available for all three of the MPR regional services.
Additional services
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, with rollout likely to happen in 2005. 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. They will also make additional digital channels possible.
History
Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota built and began operating the first station in the network, KSJR, 90.1 FM, in January 1967. The Director of Broadcasting for the station was William H Kling, a graduate of Saint John's. The station was soon spun off from Saint John's, with Kling as its first president, first as Saint John's University Broadcasting, then as Minnesota Educational Radio, and finally as Minnesota Public Radio. KSJR still operates with studios on the Saint John's campus. Kling still heads the network today.
In 1969 and 1970, MPR assisted in the formation of National Public Radio and was a founding member of the organization. Four years later, in 1974, the network began live broadcasting of Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion, perhaps the best-known program on public radio.
In 1983, MPR got into the network-building business again and assisted in the formation of American Public Radio (now known as Public Radio International), partly because NPR had declined to distribute Prairie Home nationally. Current MPR CEO Bill Kling formed the consortium with public radio stations throughout the country.
Minnesota Public Radio began offering a full-time classical music service in 1991 after the purchase of WLOL 99.5 FM in the Twin Cities. In the following years, MPR built and acquired enough stations across the state to offer both a news service and a classical music service to most of the state. A classical service is also provided to subscribing stations around the country as Classical 24.
In 2000, the network 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. Also in 2000, 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 2007, SCPR entered into a public service operating agreement with the University of Redlands for the operation of KUOR in Redlands, California.
2004 was a year of major transitions for the network. In mid-year, MPR severed ties with Minneapolis-based PRI as a distributor, citing [1] a desire to eliminate the middleman and distribute its programs nationally under the banner of American Public Media.
Also in 2004, MPR announced it would buy the classical music station operated by St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. WCAL 89.3 FM (and a repeater station, KMSE near Rochester), were sold in a deal valued at $10.5 million, which was approved by the Federal Communications Commission in 2004. WCAL had about 80,000 regular listeners.
St. Olaf, a Lutheran liberal arts college, reportedly turned down a larger offer from a Christian radio company. Some believe that the college preferred to keep the station in the hands of a public radio organization; others that the other offer was either not all in immediate cash, or did not include as valuable non-cash consideration. Some public opposition appeared, and there were several attempts to stop the sale.
Funding
As a public radio network, MPR obtains much of the money it needs to operate by asking for donations from the listening public. The network claims that a greater percentage of its audience donates money than any other public radio audience in the country. In addition, other for-profit and non-profit organizations sponsor or underwrite MPR programming in exchange for small mentions of their contributions. Many of the stations in the radio network are also funded by colleges in the areas they cover. Listener contributions and underwriting account for about 60% of funding. Government funding, mostly through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, amounts to 8% of the network's budget. The State of Minnesota provides modest capital grants but no operating grants to the organization.
Minnesota Public Radio also receives funding from its parent company, the American Public Media Group, also a non-profit entity. The APMG Group partially funds its two nonprofit subsidiary companies with the profits taken from a third. MPR and Southern California Public Radio (SCPR) are both non-profit organizations, but the Greenspring Company is a taxable for-profit company. Greenspring gets its income from operating Minnesota Monthly Publications, which publishes the magazine Minnesota Monthly among others. Greenspring formerly had several other operations, but they have now been sold off. One, Rivertown Trading Company, was sold in 1998 for $124 million.
Broadcast coverage
For the most part, MPR operates as two very large networks. It claims to have radio coverage of 98% of Minnesota as well as parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan. It also reaches portions of the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario. Other public radio and television networks use this same model, such as Wisconsin Public Radio and Prairie Public Broadcasting in North Dakota). In most markets across the state, two services, the Classical music network and the news and information network, can be received. [1]
The newest service, The Current, is only available in the Twin Cities, Rochester and Hinckley. It has been rumored to be the next service to be replicated statewide, but MPR has not announced plans to do so at this time.
| Market | Frequency/Call sign | Power (Class) | Service |
|---|---|---|---|
| Albert Lea | 103.9 K280EB (KGAC) | 10W (D) | Classical |
| Alexandria | 90.9 K215BL (KSJR) | 18 (D) | Classical |
| Appleton | 88.5 KNCM | 34,000 (C2) | News |
| 91.3 KRSU | 75,000 (C) | Classical | |
| Austin | 90.1 KNSE | 6,000 (A) | News |
| 103.3 K277AD (KLSE) | 100 (D) | Classical | |
| Bemidji | 91.3 KNBJ | 65,000 (C1) | News |
| 88.5 KCRB | 83,000 (C1) | Classical | |
| Brainerd | 88.3 KBPN | 5,000 (C3) | News |
| 90.7 KBPR | 34,000 (C1) | Classical | |
| Decorah, IA | 88.7 KLNI | 100 (A) | News |
| 89.5 KLCD | 100 (A) | Classical | |
| Duluth-Superior | 100.5 WSCN | 97,000 (C1) | News |
| 92.9 WSCD | 70,000 (C1) | Classical | |
| Ely | 101.7 W269AC (WSCN) | 31 (D) | News |
| 89.5 K208CR (WIRR) | 23 (D) | Classical | |
| Fargo-Moorhead | 90.3 KCCD | 100,000 (C1) | News |
| 91.1 KCCM | 67,000 (C1) | Classical | |
| Fergus Falls | 91.5 KNWF | 2,700 (A) | News |
| 89.7 KCMF | 2,700 (A) | Classical | |
| Grand Marais | 89.7 WLSN | 6,000 (C3) | News |
| 88.7 WMLS | 6,000 (C3) | Classical | |
| Thief River Falls/Grand Forks, ND | 102.7 KNTN | 100,000 (C1) | News |
| 91.5 KQMN | 84,000 (C1) | Classical | |
| Grand Rapids | 107.3 K297AD (WSCN) | 250 (D) | News |
| 104.1 K281AB (KCRB) | 250 (D) | Classical | |
| Hibbing-Virginia | 92.5 WIRN | 26,000 (C2) | News |
| 90.9 WIRR | 21,000 (C2) | Classical | |
| Hinckley | 93.1 W226AY (WSCN) 106.5 W293AV (KNOW) |
55 (D) | News |
| 104.5 K283AN (KSJN) | 55 (D) | Classical | |
| 97.5 W248AS (KCMP) | 55 (D) | The Current | |
| Houghton, MI | 91.1 WGGL | 100,000 (C1) | Mixed news/classical |
| 92.7 W224AO (WGGL) | 20 (D) | Mixed news/classical | |
| International Falls | 88.1 K201CN (KNBJ) | 7 (D) | News |
| 97.7 K249BK (KCRB) | 8 (D) | Classical | |
| La Crosse-La Crescent | 91.1 KXLC | 230 (A) | News |
| 88.1 K201BW (KLSE) | 18 (D) | Classical | |
| Minneapolis-St. Paul | 91.1 KNOW | 100,000 (C) | News |
| 99.5 KSJN | 100,000 (C) | Classical | |
| 89.3 KCMP | 100,000 (C1) | The Current | |
| Owatonna | 103.9 K280EC (KNGA) | 205 (D) | News |
| 105.7 K289AE (KGAC) | 170 (D) | Classical | |
| Rochester | 90.7 KZSE | 1,100 (C3) | News |
| 91.7 KLSE | 94,000 (C1) | Classical | |
| 88.7 KMSE | 250 (A) | The Current | |
| Roseau | 100.7 K264AR (KNTN) | 250 (D) | News |
| 90.9 W215AI (KQMN) | 37 (D) | Classical | |
| Collegeville/St. Cloud | 88.9 KNSR | 100,000 (C1) | News |
| 90.1 KSJR | 100,000 (C1) | Classical | |
| St. Peter-Mankato | 91.5 KNGA | 8,500 (C2) | News |
| 90.5 KGAC | 75,000 (C1) | Classical | |
| Sioux Falls, SD | 88.1 KRSD | 2,000 (A) | Classical |
| Sun Valley, ID | 91.9 KWRV | 100 (A) | Classical |
| Winona | 107.3 K297AH (KZSE) | 95 (D) | News |
| 101.9 K270AB (KLSE) | 8 (D) | Classical | |
| Worthington-Marshall | 91.7 KNSW | 99,000 (C1) | News |
| 89.3 KRSW | 100,000 (C1) | Classical |
See also
- American Public Media
- Public Insight Journalism (a newsgathering and networking initiative founded by MPR)
- In the Loop (radio show)
- Independent Public Radio (another public radio network in Minnesota, also known as AMPERS)
External links
- Minnesota Public Radio Web site, including history and list of stations
- Minnewiki: The Minnesota Music Encyclopedia – Wiki operated by Minnesota Public Radio
- American Public Media website
References
- Terry Fiedler and Deborah Caulfield Rybak (October 24, 2004). MPR chief 'sings his own song' in creating a national powerhouse. Star Tribune. Accessed November 18, 2004.