Iowa Public Radio

Iowa Public Radio

Type	Public radio network
Country	United States
First air date	2004
Availability	Iowa, parts of Illinois, Minnesota and Nebraska
Affiliation	National Public Radio Public Radio International American Public Media
Official website	http://iowapublicradio.org/

Iowa Public Radio is a state network in the U.S. state of Iowa that combines the operations of the National Public Radio member stations run by Iowa State University, the University of Iowa, and University of Northern Iowa. They broadcast programs from National Public Radio, Public Radio International and American Public Media, along with local content (notably music) on weekends and evenings.

The network is headquartered in Des Moines, with studios on the ISU campus in Ames, the University of Iowa campus in Iowa City and the UNI campus in Cedar Falls.

For many years, Iowa's three state universities each operated their own set of radio stations, each with slightly different program offerings and coverage areas. The three universities competed somewhat as each station sought to expand its coverage area. In late 2004, the Iowa Board of Regents, which governs the three universities, voted to merge the three radio operations, to consolidate operations. The first network to launch was a "News and Information" service in January 2007, followed by a Classical service in September 2007. Nighttime adult alternative music programming that had already aired on several stations, such as "Night Music" and KUNI's "Live from Studio One", was expanded into a third full service called "Studio One". This matches the network structures maintained by Minnesota Public Radio and Wisconsin Public Radio, which also break their stations off into different networks.