Prairie Public Radio
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| Type | Public Radio Network |
|---|---|
| Country |  United States |
| Availability | North Dakota, northwestern Minnesota, eastern Montana |
| Headquarters | Bismarck, North Dakota |
| Owner | , University of North Dakota (KUND & KFJM), North Dakota State University (KDSU) |
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Launch date
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February 1, 1999 |
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Former names
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Prairie Public Radio, North Dakota Public Radio |
| Prairie Public Television (PBS) | |
| Affiliation | National Public Radio, American Public Media, Public Radio International, Public Radio Exchange |
| Webcast | Listen |
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Official website
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PrairiePublic.org/radio |
Prairie Public is a network of 10 radio stations in the state of North Dakota. Prairie Public's radio network provides NPR news and programming, local and regional news, and two distinct music formats, the News and Classical network and the adult album alternative formatted Roots, Rock, and Jazz network.
It is a service of , 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.
KUND's lineage can be traced to 1923, when KUND (now KWTL) signed on from the University of North Dakota, one of the first college radio stations in the United States. KUND 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 two FM stations in 1980 and 1995.
The two stations briefly went off the air in 1997 due to flooding in the transmitter. In August of that year, KFJM was renamed KUND-FM, and UND's college radio station, KFJY, became the new KFJM.
In 1952, students at North Dakota Agricultural College signed on KDSC, a carrier current station. It began using the KDSU calls sometime in the early 1960s, when NDAC became North Dakota State University. 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 broadened its mission to include radio in the late 1970s, and in 1981 KCND in Bismarck 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.
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Wikipedia