WRNI (AM)
| City | Providence, Rhode Island |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Providence, Rhode Island |
| Branding | Latino Public Radio |
| Frequency | 1290 kHz |
| First air date | December 15, 1947 |
| Format | Public radio |
| Language(s) | Spanish |
| Power | 10,000 watts fulltime |
| Former callsigns | WDEM (1947–1952) WICE (1952–1983) WRCP (1983–1998) |
| Owner |
Rhode Island Public Radio (brokered to Latino Public Radio) |
| Sister stations | Rhode Island Public Radio |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | www |
WRNI (1290 AM; "Latino Public Radio") is a radio station in Providence, Rhode Island broadcasting Spanish-language public radio programming. It is owned by Rhode Island Public Radio, but brokers its airtime to Latino Public Radio.
The station went on the air in 1947 as WDEM. It changed to WICE in 1952 to signify its broadcasting the Providence Reds hockey team. During the 1960s and 1970s, WICE presented a top 40 music format, and was owned by Susquehanna Radio. It switched to Portuguese programming as WRCP in 1983.
In the 1990s, a group of Rhode Islanders formed the Foundation for Ocean State Public Radio in order to bring a local public radio station to the state. At the time, Rhode Island was the only state in New England (traditionally one of the bedrocks of support for NPR) and one of only two in the entire country (the other being Delaware) that didn't have a full-service NPR station within its borders. Most of the state got at least a grade B signal from Boston's WGBH (with Providence itself receiving a city-grade signal) and WBUR. After a few years of looking, they found a partner in Boston University, owner of WBUR. BU agreed to buy WRCP for $1.9 million; the foundation conducted a statewide drive to help raise the funds.
On May 1, 1998; WRCP's calls officially changed to WRNI, and the license was officially transferred to the WRNI Foundation, a separate fundraising group set up by WBUR to handle local underwriting.
Even though BU doubled WRNI's transmission power from 5,000 watts to 10,000 watts, its signal was not strong enough to reach the southern and western portion of the state (though it provides a city-grade signal to Newport, southern Rhode Island's biggest city). Accordingly, in 1999, BU bought WERI in Westerly, which had been on the air since 1949. BU changed WERI's calls to WXNI, and made it a full-time satellite of WRNI. The station brought a city-grade NPR signal to southern Rhode Island for the first time ever.
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Wikipedia