WKAR-FM is a

public radio Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

station in East Lansing,

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

; broadcasting on the FM dial at 90.5 MHz. It is owned by

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It ...

, and is sister station to the

AM radio AM broadcasting is radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation (AM) transmissions. It was the first method developed for making audio radio transmissions, and is still used worldwide, primarily for medium wave (also known as "AM band") transmis ...

and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

stations with the same call letters. The station airs

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" al ...

, and several of

National Public Radio 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 n ...

's more popular programs, such as ''

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 ...

'', ''

Weekend Edition ''Weekend Edition'' is a set of American radio news magazine programs produced and distributed by National Public Radio (NPR). It is the weekend counterpart to the NPR radio program ''Morning Edition''. It consists of ''Weekend Edition Saturday ...

'', ''

All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...

'' and '' Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me''. Many of these are simulcast with its AM sister. In January 2013, WKAR launched the daily news/arts radio magazine ''Current State'', an hour-long program of interviews and produced reports devoted to Mid-Michigan and statewide politics, government, business, education, environment, science, technology, health, medicine and the arts. The program is broadcast Monday through Friday at 9 am and 6 pm on 90.5 FM and weekdays at noon on AM 870. ''Current State Weekend'' airs Saturdays and Sundays on both 90.5 FM and AM 870. The station is also the primary

Emergency Alert System The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national warning system in the United States designed to allow authorized officials to broadcast emergency alerts and warning messages to the public via cable, satellite, or broadcast television, and bot ...

(EAS) station for the state of Michigan, relaying emergency messages from the

Michigan State Police The Michigan State Police (MSP) is the state police agency for the U.S. state of Michigan. The MSP is a full-service law enforcement agency, with its sworn members having full police powers statewide. The department was founded in 1917 as a wart ...

to all media outlets in Michigan; WKAR-FM hosts statewide tests twice a year. WKAR-FM is also the secondary EAS station for Lansing and the South Central Michigan region (

WFMK WFMK (99.1 FM) is an adult contemporary radio station licensed to East Lansing, Michigan and serving the Lansing radio market. The station is owned by Townsquare Media and broadcasts in HD radio. WFMK is one of the United States' oldest adult con ...

is the primary station for the region). The station signed on for the first time on October 4, 1948, as the Lansing area's first FM station. Like most FM stations of the time, it simulcast its AM sister during its sunrise to sunset broadcast hours. When the AM station signed off at sunset to protect WWL in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

, WKAR-FM would then carry its own signature programming which included classical music and other arts-related programs. The two stations split their broadcasting schedules on March 1, 1965, with the FM station airing fine arts programming. The WKAR stations were charter members of NPR in 1971, and were among the 90 stations to carry the inaugural broadcast of ''All Things Considered.'' The station's 85,000-watt signal, combined with a 269.3 meter antenna can be heard as far east as

Flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start ...

and the

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

suburbs, and as far west as

Grand Rapids Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...

and

Kalamazoo Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropo ...

. WKAR-FM is a "Superpower Grandfathered" Class B FM station, providing a signal 7.6 dB stronger than would be granted today under current U.S.

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) rules.

HD programming

WKAR-FM is licensed by the FCC to broadcast in the HD (hybrid) format. Until 2017, its HD signal broadcast on three streams. HD1 was a simulcast of the analog FM signal's NPR and classical music format. HD2 was a simulcast of the ''

Classical 24 Classical 24 is a syndicated, satellite-delivered public radio service providing classical music to its carrying stations. It generally airs overnights on many non-commercial and a handful of commercial classical music stations. However, the se ...

'' classical music channel, which airs on the main signal from 7 pm to 5 am. HD3 was a simulcast of WKAR (870 AM), continuing from local sunset to sunrise when the AM station is not broadcasting. It was also simulcast on a low-powered translator at 105.1 FM giving most of the Lansing area access to a locally focused NPR news and talk station. As of June 30, 2017, WKAR-FM has discontinued HD Radio services. However, the classical stream remained, and has since been augmented with streams of the Lansing area's

radio reading service A radio reading service or reading service for the blind is a public service of many universities, community groups and public radio stations, where a narrator reads books, newspapers and magazines aloud for the benefit of the blind and vision-imp ...

along with a jazz channel.

Sources

External links

* {{Michigan State University NPR member stations Michigan State University Classical music radio stations in the United States KAR-FM Radio stations established in 1948 KAR-FM 1948 establishments in Michigan