Wisconsin Public Radio

Type	Public Radio Network
Country	United States
First air date	1948
Availability	Wisconsin, Eastern Minnesota and Northern Illinois
Headquarters	Madison, Wisconsin
Owner	Wisconsin Educational Communications Board & University of Wisconsin–Extension
Launch date	April 1921
Sister PBS member network	Wisconsin Public Television
Affiliation	National Public Radio, American Public Media
Webcast	Listen
Official website	www.wpr.org Listener Organization www.wpra.org

Wisconsin Public Radio is a network of 32 radio stations in the state of Wisconsin. WPR's network is divided into two distinct analog services, the Ideas Network and the NPR News and Classical Network, as well as the "HD2 Classical Service," a digital-only, full-time classical music service.

History [edit]

In 1932, WHA in Madison and WLBL in Stevens Point started limited simulcasting of certain programs. However, the first real steps toward the building of what would become Wisconsin Public Radio began in 1947, with the sign-on of WHA-FM (now WERN) as a sister station to WHA. Between 1948 and 1965, seven more FM stations signed on as part of what was initially dubbed Wisconsin Educational Radio.^[1] The network became Wisconsin Public Radio in 1971, when it became a charter member of NPR. Shortly afterward, the merger of the University of Wisconsin and Wisconsin State University systems greatly increased WPR's reach.

Ideas Network [edit]

The Ideas Network ("Talk about issues that matter to you") is devoted mostly to discussion and call-in shows, focusing on the state of Wisconsin and issues involving the state. The name of the network comes from the Wisconsin Idea concept associated with the UW System.

During the week, the Ideas Network airs locally-produced talk programming, longtime daily reading showcase Chapter a Day, and National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation/Science Friday throughout the daytime hours, while at night broadcasting repeats of the daytime talkshows and Chapter a Day, as well as WBUR's On Point, the CBC's Q and As It Happens, and, overnight, the BBC World Service. On the weekend, it airs WPR-produced shows, such as Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know?, Zorba Paster On Your Health and To the Best of Our Knowledge. Weekends also include NPR/PRI/APM entertainment programming such as Car Talk, Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, This American Life, Radiolab, On the Media and A Prairie Home Companion.

The flagship station of the Ideas Network is WHA 970 AM in Madison, one of the oldest existing radio stations in the world, with programming also originating from the Milwaukee studios of Delafield licensed WHAD, an FM station based between Milwaukee and Madison with facilities in downtown Milwaukee. All Ideas Network stations broadcast in analog monaural sound to provide those signals the largest coverage areas possible, while the HD Radio and Internet streaming feeds broadcast in stereo.

Personalities hosting call-in talk shows on the Ideas Network (as of May 2012) include Joy Cardin (early morning weekdays), Kathleen Dunn (mid-morning Monday through Thursday, from WHAD's Milwaukee studios), Veronica Rueckert (mid-morning Fridays), Larry Meiller (late morning and early afternoon weekdays), and Ben Merens (late afternoon/early evening weekdays). On the typical weekday, the Ideas Network broadcasts over nine hours of live, Wisconsin-produced call-in talk shows.

NPR News and Classical Network [edit]

The NPR News and Classical Network primarily broadcasts classical music but carries news and information programs, including NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Fresh Air and Weekend Edition, as well as APM's Marketplace, along with A Prairie Home Companion. The network also carries weekend jazz programming and by region, other forms of music such as blues, New Age, and Native American music. A few Ideas Network stations in areas not served by this network carry the above programs in place of the master Ideas Network schedule.

The flagship station of the NPR News and Classical Network is WERN in Madison.

The HD2 Classical Network service is available through the HD Radio subchannel of at least one of the WPR stations serving each market and features music in HD Radio's CD-quality audio. Stations with HD-2 service include WERN, WHAD, WHWC, WHBM, WHRM, KUWS, WPNE, WHHI, WHLA, WHDI, and WHAA.

All three services are broadcast in real-time on the Internet through the Windows Media, and streaming MP3 formats, with streaming WPR program archives available to all visitors in Windows Media and SHOUTcast formats. Downloadable versions of WPR shows in MP3 are available, but restricted to certain downloading guidelines and timeframes.

The only HD-3 service in the WPR Network is on WHRM, with a full-time feed of the Ideas Network to serve the Wausau area, due to WLBL-FM being a time-share operation with Rhinelander's WXPR as WXPM.

Network stations [edit]

WPR's stations are licensed to several different organizations; most stations belong to either the University of Wisconsin System and are administered by the University of Wisconsin–Extension, or to the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board, a state agency. Other stations are affiliates, owned by local schools or colleges.

The network's headquarters are located on the Madison campus, but a substantial amount of Ideas Network programming originates from studios in Milwaukee, and all of the regional studios produce some local programming, such as the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay facilities producing programming in the Hmong language for weekend broadcast over Green Bay Ideas Network flagship WHID. Not all UW-owned stations are part of the network; some are student-run, and others, like WUWM, are independently-operated public stations. Two high school radio stations (one, WEPS, is located in the northwest Chicago suburb of Elgin, and its signal does not reach the Wisconsin state line) carry the network outside of school hours and summer periods, providing a form of license protection to those stations (WEPS began to program the Ideas Network in order to fend off a license challenge due to being off-air after school hours), while WLBL-FM in Wausau shares time on its frequency with WXPW, a repeater of independently-owned NPR member WXPR in Rhinelander.

Wisconsin Public Radio shows with national distribution [edit]

• Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know?
• To the Best of Our Knowledge
• Zorba Paster On Your Health
• Tent Show Radio
• Chapter a Day

See also [edit]

• National Public Radio
• Public Radio International
• Wisconsin Public Television
• Wisconsin Educational Communications Board
• Wisconsin Idea

References [edit]

1. ^ WPR's Tradition of Innovation

External links [edit]

• Wisconsin Public Radio
• Wisconsin Public Radio Association
• Wisconsin Public Radio on Facebook
• Wisconsin Public Radio on Twitter
• Webcast