KRPR (89.9 FM) is a non-commercial

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

licensed by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...

(FCC) to serve the community of Rochester, Minnesota. It is the only locally owned and programmed station in the city. The studios are located at 2630 (Suite 500) South Broadway in Rochester, Minnesota. The station broadcasts from a transmitter site East of the city and plays an expansive variety of

classic rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, prima ...

. Being a non-commercial station, KRPR presents brief underwriting messages produced by station personalities rather than commercials. KRPR is a member of AMPERS, The Association of Minnesota Public Educational Radio Stations.

News segments

World news headlines are provided and updated by Feature Story News. Local and regional news reports are provided by

KIMT-TV KIMT (channel 3) is a television station licensed to Mason City, Iowa, United States, serving North Central Iowa and Southeast Minnesota as an affiliate of CBS and MyNetworkTV. Owned by Allen Media Broadcasting, the station maintains studios o ...

Sound quality

KRPR uses a minimal amount of dynamic range compression combined with audiophile quality signal processing as well as no data compression to achieve its full fidelity sound.

History

KRPR began broadcasting in 1975 under the ownership of

Rochester Community and Technical College Rochester Community and Technical College (RCTC) is a public community college in Rochester, Minnesota. It serves more than 8,000 students annually. The college was founded in 1915 on a motion by Dr. Charles Mayo to the Rochester School Board an ...

where it was located. In the 1980s the station broadcast a New Wave (now often referred to as 1980s music), punk rock and hard rock format. Live listener call in request shows often featured local Minnesota bands such as

The Suburbs ''The Suburbs'' is the third studio album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released on August 2, 2010. Coinciding with its announcement, the band released a limited edition 12-inch single containing the title track and "Month of May".

Hüsker Dü Hüsker Dü () was an American punk rock band formed in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1979. The band's continual members were guitarist/vocalist Bob Mould, bassist/vocalist Greg Norton, and drummer/vocalist Grant Hart. They first gained notabili ...

, The Phones, Chameleon, Slave Raider,

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. T ...

, The Time, and The Replacements. The airways of the station were staffed students and teachers of the college during this time. Bright orange and black KRPR bumper stickers and T-shirts were a common sight throughout Southern Minnesota during this era of the radio station as fans displayed their support. In the late 1990s the station (now broadcasting a classic rock and

album oriented rock Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM radio format created in the United States in the 1970s that focuses on the full repertoire of rock albums and is currently associated with classic rock. Album-orient ...

format) was sold to Rochester Public Radio, the current operator and licensee. The station currently thrives in a market that supports several Classic Rock stations, due to its lack of lengthy ads and wide variety of deep tracks offered over the airwaves. An interactive website is also available for listeners to view tracks that have aired and submit song requests.

External links

* {{coord, 44.041, N, 92.340, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title Radio stations in Minnesota