New Jersey Public Radio (NJPR) is an

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

member

network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematic ...

serving portions of

northern New Jersey North Jersey comprises the northern portions of the U.S. state of New Jersey between the upper Delaware River and the Atlantic Ocean. The designation of northern New Jersey with a distinct toponym is a colloquial one rather than an administrati ...

on four licensed stations: 88.1 WNJT-FM in Trenton, 88.5

WNJP WNJP (88.5 FM) is a radio station licensed to Sussex, New Jersey. The station is owned by New York Public Radio, and is an affiliate of their New Jersey Public Radio New Jersey Public Radio (NJPR) is an NPR member network serving portions of no ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the Englis ...

, 89.3

WNJY WNJY (89.3 FM) is a radio station licensed to Netcong, New Jersey. The station is owned by New York Public Radio, and is an affiliate of their New Jersey Public Radio network. WNYC WNYC is the trademark and a set of call letters shared by WN ...

in Netcong, and 90.3

WNJO (FM) WNJO (90.3 FM) is a radio station licensed to Toms River, New Jersey, with its transmitter located on the Barnegat Peninsula south of Seaside Park. The station is owned by New York Public Radio, and is an affiliate of their New Jersey Public Radi ...

in Toms River, which were the four northernmost radio stations of the

New Jersey Network The New Jersey Network (NJN) was a network of public television and radio stations serving the U.S. state of New Jersey. NJN was a member of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) for television and the National Public Radio (NPR) for radio, br ...

(NJN) until 2011. NJPR is owned by

New York Public Radio New York Public Radio (NYPR) is the owner of WNYC (AM), WNYC-FM, WNYC Studios, WQXR-FM, New Jersey Public Radio, and the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space. Combined, New York Public Radio owns WNYC (AM), WNYC-FM, WQXR-FM, WQXW, WNJT-FM, W ...

(NYPR), which also owns the two

WNYC WNYC is the trademark and a set of call letters shared by WNYC (AM) and WNYC-FM, a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations located in New York City. WNYC is owned by New York Public Radio (NYPR), a nonprofit organization that ...

and two

WQXR-FM WQXR-FM (105.9 FM) is an American non-commercial classical radio station, licensed to Newark, New Jersey and serving the North Jersey and New York City area. It is owned by the nonprofit organization New York Public Radio, which also operates ...

stations.

Overview

The seeds which led to the formation of New Jersey Public Radio were planted in 2008, when NJN officials asked the

New Jersey Legislature The New Jersey Legislature is the legislative branch of the government of the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, as defined by the New Jersey Constitution of 1947, the Legislature consists of two houses: the General Assembly and the ...

for permission to explore the possibility of spinning-off into a non-profit entity, independent from state funding. However, on June 6, 2011,

New Jersey governor The governor of New Jersey is the head of government of New Jersey. The office of governor is an elected position with a four-year term. There is a two consecutive term term limit, with no limitation on non-consecutive terms. The official res ...

Chris Christie Christopher James Christie (born September 6, 1962) is an American politician, lawyer, political commentator, lobbyist, and former federal prosecutor who served as the 55th governor of New Jersey from 2010 to 2018. Christie, who was born in N ...

, who vowed to end state-funded public broadcasting upon taking office in 2010, announced the sale of the radio network. The northern part of the network was sold to New York Public Radio, which used the stations to start a new New Jersey-focused public radio network.NJN Press release (via WMGM-TV): "GOV. CHRISTIE SELECTS WNET FOR NJN TAKEOVER", June 6, 2011.
A formal agreement was signed on June 29. NYPR assumed control of the stations under a management agreement on July 1; 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 ...

approved the sale on August 29, 2011.

Programming

Originally, New Jersey Public Radio's programming was largely identical to the programming that had been offered by NJN; consisting primarily of national programming from NPR,

Public Radio Exchange The Public Radio Exchange (PRX) is a non-profit web-based platform for digital distribution, review, and licensing of radio programs. The organization is the largest on-demand catalogue of public radio programs available for broadcast and internet ...

, and

American Public Media American Public Media (APM) is an American company that produces and distributes public radio programs in the United States, the second largest company of its type after NPR. Its non-profit parent, American Public Media Group, also owns and o ...

, as well as a simulcast of

WBGO WBGO (88.3 FM, "Jazz 88") is a public radio station licensed to Newark, New Jersey. Studios and offices are located on Park Place in downtown Newark, and its transmitter is located at 4 Times Square in Manhattan. The station primarily plays ja ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

programming in the overnight hours. On January 12, 2012; NJPR rolled out a new schedule. Among the highlights were a local host for ''

Morning Edition ''Morning Edition'' is an American radio news program produced and distributed by NPR. It airs weekday mornings (Monday through Friday) and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 5:00 to 9:00 A ...

'' and increased New Jersey-centric news and information content in partnership with the New Jersey News Service, headquartered at

Montclair State University Montclair State University (MSU) is a public research university in Montclair, New Jersey, with parts of the campus extending into Little Falls. As of fall 2018, Montclair State was, by enrollment, the second largest public university in New ...

Stations

Due to the crowded state of the noncommercial end of the FM dial in the northeastern United States, the four New Jersey Public Radio stations all operate at relatively low power. None has an ERP greater than 4,000 watts. All four NJPR stations were knocked off the air on October 29, 2012 after

Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as ''Superstorm Sandy'') was an extremely destructive and strong Atlantic hurricane, as well as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spann ...

. While WNJY, WNJP and WNJT returned to the air by November 3, it took until December 14 to get WNJO back on the air as its transmitter is located near Seaside Park on the

Barnegat Peninsula The Barnegat Peninsula, also known as the Island Beach Peninsula or Barnegat Bay Island and colloquially as "the barrier island", is a long, narrow barrier peninsula located on the Jersey Shore in Ocean County, New Jersey, United States, that div ...

, which was inaccessible from mainland New Jersey for some time after the storm. New York Public Radio engineering director Jim Stagnitto initially feared that the WNJO transmitter was knocked into

Barnegat Bay Barnegat Bay is a small brackish arm of the Atlantic Ocean, approximately long, along the coast of Ocean County, New Jersey in the United States. It is separated from the Atlantic by the long Island Beach State Park (colloquially called a "ba ...

, but found it intact when his team was able to access the site.Lapin, Andrew
WNJO transmitter back on-air nearly six weeks after Sandy
Current, 2012-12-11.

References

External links

* * {{American broadcast radio * Radio stations established in 2011 NPR member networks New York Public Radio