Yellowstone Public Radio is a public radio regional network based in

Billings, Montana Billings is the largest city in the U.S. state of Montana, with a population of 117,116 as of the 2020 census. Located in the south-central portion of the state, it is the seat of Yellowstone County and the principal city of the Billings Met ...

with transmitters covering most of Montana, as well as northern

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...

and eastern

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...

. It is operated by

Montana State University Billings Montana State University Billings (or MSU Billings) is a public university in Billings, Montana. It is the state's third largest university. Its campus is located on 110 acres in downtown Billings. Formerly Eastern Montana Normal School at its ...

. It airs a mix of programming from

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 ...

, classical music and

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 ...

History

The network's first station, KEMC in Billings, signed on in 1972 as a 10-watt station owned by what was then Eastern Montana College. It boosted its power to 24,500 watts in 1978. It gradually transitioned from a college radio station to a more professional operation. This culminated in 1984, when it hired a professional station manager and joined

, becoming the state's second NPR member. Over the next decade, it boosted its signal to 100,000 watts, and built a network of translators and repeaters across Montana, and now has one of the largest geographical coverage areas in the entire NPR system. Shortly after EMC merged with the

Montana State University System The Montana University System (MUS) was created on July 1, 1994, when the Montana Board of Regents of Higher Education restructured the state's public colleges and universities, with the goal of streamlining the state's higher education in the wak ...

, KEMC rebranded itself Yellowstone Public Radio, reflecting that its coverage area spanned across most of the area around

Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowst ...

. In the same year, its home since 1983, a three-story house west of campus, was renamed the Joseph L. Sample Studios in honor of the Montana broadcasting pioneer.

Stations and translators

Yellowstone Public Radio is broadcast by twelve full-power stations. The network is also relayed by an additional 28 translators to widen its broadcast area. Notes:

References

External links

Yellowstone Public Radio
{{American broadcast radio * Billings metropolitan area Montana State University Billings NPR member networks 1972 establishments in Montana American radio networks Radio broadcasting companies of the United States