Northwest Public Broadcasting

Type	Public radio network
Country	United States
Programming
Affiliations	National Public Radio PBS
Ownership
Owner	Washington State University
History
Founded	May 15, 1922 (1922-5-15)
Launch date	December 10, 1922 (1922-12-10)
Former names	Northwest Public Radio Northwest Public Television
Coverage
Availability	24 hours a day
Links
Webcast	NPR News NPR & Classical Jazz
Website	nwpb.org

Northwest Public Broadcasting is thepublic radio andpublic television service ofWashington State University. It is an affiliate ofNational Public Radio,Public Radio Exchange andAmerican Public Media. It operates 19radio stations and 13translators acrossWashington state,Oregon, andIdaho, and provides coverage to parts ofBritish Columbia. The network broadcasts public radio news, talk, entertainment, classical music, jazz, and folk music. Station programming is separated into two main program streams, "NPR News" and "NPR & Classical Music", with simulcast periods duringMorning Edition,All Things Considered,Weekend Edition andWeekend All Things Considered. Since November 2013, Northwest Public Broadcasting also operates a 24-hour jazz station,KJEM 89.9, broadcasting in thePullman andMoscow area.

NWPB headquarters are in theMurrow College of Communications on the WSU campus, with satellite studios atWSU Tri-Cities' campus inRichland, theUniversity of Idaho campus inMoscow, Idaho and studio offices inTacoma andWenatchee.

WSU, which originated in 1908 as Washington State College, has a long history in broadcasting. NWPB's flagship station,KWSU 1250 inPullman signed on December 10,1922 as KFAE and became KWSC (forWashingtonStateCollege) in1925. For many years, it served a large portion of the Pacific Northwest. It became KWSU on March 1, 1969, ten years after Washington State attained university status.Edward R. Murrow began his career at the station, as didKeith Jackson andBarry Serafin. KWSU was a charter member of NPR, and was one of the 90 stations that carried the inaugural broadcast ofAll Things Considered in 1971.

In 1982, KFAE-FM 89.1 atRichland signed on, bringing public radio to the Tri-Cities for the first time. The next year, WSU activated a series of low-powered translators at Ellensburg, Goldendale/The Dalles, Yakima, Lewiston/Clarkston, Ephrata/Soap Lake, Wenatchee, Cashmere/Dryden, and Chelan/Waterville. In 1984, after budget cuts in Idaho, WSU assumed operation of KUID-FM 91.7 at theUniversity of Idaho and renamed itKRFA-FM; this gave it its first FM service in the Pullman area and resulted in the new outlet assuming many of the classical programs on KWSU.

The launch of KNWR, a full-power transmitter atEllensburg, in 1992 heralded the beginning of two decades of expansion. KNWY in the Yakima Valley went on air in 1993. In 1994, KNWO inCottonwood, Idaho, was added; additionally, three new translators were commissioned and KRFA increased its power tenfold. KNWV went on air in Lewiston and Clarkston in 1995. 1997 brought KWWS in Walla Walla, and after a $500,000 donation from the estate ofEphrata rancher Paul Lauzier, KLWS at Moses Lake. Port Angeles—andVictoria, British Columbia—were added with the signing on of KNWP in 1998. KQWS at Omak began broadcasting in January 1999; the next year, a translator of KWSU was added in Pullman, giving the station its first FM presence. A translator atForks was added in 2006. KSWS atChehalis was built in 2010.^[1]

In several cases, the university acquired or began broadcasting over preexisting public radio stations. On January 6, 1997, Northern Sound Public Radio'sKZAZ-FM inBellingham, was merged into the network as its first station west of the Cascades. The license forKMWS at Mount Vernon was acquired fromSkagit Valley College, which moved itsKSVR to a new license; the university chose the call letters to honor Murrow, a Skagit County native.

In 2010,KVTI inTacoma, owned byClover Park Technical College, began broadcasting Northwest Public Broadcasting full-time after budget cuts prompted the closure of its radio broadcasting program.^[2] In 2012, the Yakima School District'sKYVT began broadcasting NWPB's NPR News programming under an agreement in which the network provided the district's skills center and an HD2 subchannel for its student programming in exchange for studio space and a primary frequency for the news service, which had not been previously available in Yakima.^[3]

On November 1, 2013, WSU launched a third station in Pullman:KJEM (89.9 FM), broadcasting jazz music 24 hours a day to the Pullman and Moscow area and named forJ. Elroy McCaw.^[4]

In 2018, Northwest Public Radio merged with Northwest Public Television to become Northwest Public Broadcasting.^[5] NWPB broadcastsKWSU-TV fromKamiak Butte to serve the eastern Washington and western Idaho coveringPullman toSpokane.KTNW broadcasts fromRichland and covers theTri-cities area. KWSU-Broadcasts on channel 10. KTNW broadcasts on channel 31.

On April 19, 2022, the Sleeping Lady Foundation'sKOHO-FM began broadcasting NWPB's Jazz programming based atKJEM under a programming and services agreement, bringing NWPB's Jazz network to Central Washington for the first time.^[6]

With one exception, NWPB's transmitters are structured into two services: an NPR news/talk service based on KWSU, and a combined NPR andclassical music service based on KRFA.

KFAE-FM also broadcast theWashington Talking Book and Braille Library's EvergreenRadio Reading Service to blind and handicapped listeners on its67kHzsubcarrier until the service's closure on August 15, 2014.^[7] KFAE-FM was one of three major FM stations in Washington to do so;KPBX-FM in Spokane andKUOW-FM in Seattle were the others. However, this required a special FM radio capable of receiving such broadcasts; it could not be received on a standard FM radio.

KJEM (89.9 FM), is NWPB's flagship jazz service. It broadcasts jazz music 24 hours a day to the Pullman and Moscow area and named for J. Elroy McCaw. Unlike the rest of the network, KJEM is largely student-run.^[4] In 2022, NWPB acquiredKOHO-FM and began broadcasting NWPB's jazz programing to the Wenatchee Valley area.

• KWSU-TV andKTNW, associated television stations in Pullman and Richland

• Northwest Public Broadcasting

• Northwest Public Broadcasting
• NPR member networks
• Washington State University

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