Prairie Public's radio service is a network of ten radio frequencies in

North Dakota North Dakota ( ) is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...

. It is a service of Prairie Public Broadcasting based in Fargo. Prairie Public maintains active studios in Fargo and Bismarck. It is a member station of

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

(NPR) and provides NPR news and programming, local and regional news, and two distinct music formats: the News and Classical network, and the

adult album alternative Adult album alternative (also triple-A, AAA, or adult alternative) is a radio format. See pages 9 and 10Mills, Joshua. "A New Radio Music Format: Rock for Prosperous Adults" New York Times, Feb 28 1994, p. 2. ProQuest. Web. Accessed September 4, ...

formatted Roots, Rock, and Jazz network.

Programming

Prairie Public produces and broadcasts ''Main Street'', a weekday interview show hosted by Ashley Thornberg and Craig Blumenshine, ''Dakota Datebook'', ''Into the Music with Mike Olson'', ''Prebys on Classics'', and ''Why?'', hosted by UND philosophy professor Dr. Jack Weinstein. Prairie Public is also the distributor for ''Listening to America with Clay Jenkinson''. Prairie Public offers news programming on weekday mornings and afternoons from its newsrooms in Bismarck and Fargo. It also airs news from NPR. Prairie Public is a member station of

, airing programs such as ''

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 also carries programming from

Public Radio International Public Radio International (PRI) was an American public radio organization. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, PRI provided programming to over 850 public radio stations in the United States. PRI was one of the main providers of programmi ...

(such as ''

The World The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk of a "plu ...

'') 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 from

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 ...

(such as

This American Life ''This American Life'' is a weekly hour-long American radio program produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media and hosted by Ira Glass. It is broadcast on numerous public radio stations in the United States and internationally, and is ...

). Prairie Public's radio network offers two programming services. The primary News and Classical network originating from KCND in Bismarck is carried on most stations, and split into eastern and western schedules. The

formatted Roots, Rock, and Jazz network originating from

KFJM KFJM (90.7 FM) is a public radio station in Grand Forks, North Dakota airing an adult album alternative format with news in the mornings, jazz in the late evenings and blues and folk on the weekends. It carries programs from NPR and Public Ra ...

Grand Forks Grand Forks is a city in and the county seat of Grand Forks County, North Dakota, United States. The city's population was 59,166 as of the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in the state, after Fargo and Bismarck. Grand For ...

has gradually expanded its programming to additional stations since its launch in 2002. KDSU in Fargo carries a combination of both networks, airing Roots, Rock and Jazz programming when the rest of the main network airs classical music.

News and Classical network (FM1)

The primary network of Prairie Public airs

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

, news, talk, and weekend specialty shows, including

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. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

Roots, Rock, and Jazz network (FM2)

originates Prairie Public's second music format, a mixture of

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

, and

. The network is rebroadcast full-time on KPPR Williston and the HD-2 channel of Prairie Public's other full-power News and Classical stations. KDSU of Fargo broadcasts the network midday weekdays and overnights.

Stations

Prairie Public has 10 full power stations and 5 low-power

translators Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

broadcasting across North Dakota, northwest Minnesota, and eastern Montana.

News and Classical stations

Roots, Rock and Jazz stations

HD Radio

Prairie Public's full power stations broadcast

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. HD radio generally simulcast, simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD R ...

signals, adding full-digital simulcasts of their analog channel, plus the Roots, Rock, and Jazz network on subchannel " HD-2" of the News and Classical stations.

Cable systems

Shaw Cable Shaw Communications Inc. was a Telecommunications in Canada, Canadian telecommunication, telecommunications company which provided telephone, Internet, television, and mobile services. The company was founded in 1966 as Capital Cable Televisio ...

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

system carried Prairie Public's News and Classical service at 107.9 FM (via

KUND-FM KUND-FM (89.3 FM) is a radio station licensed to Grand Forks, North Dakota. It airs a format consisting of jazz, classical music and news and talk programming. KUND-FM and sister station KFJM share their coverage area with Minnesota Public R ...

), until Shaw discontinued FM distribution in 2012. Prairie Public's News and Classical network is carried on Bell MTS Fibe TV across

Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...

, on channel 733.

History

Prairie Public was established on February 1, 1999 as the North Dakota Public Radio network. It consisted of three partners — Prairie Public Broadcasting, the North Dakota State University, and the University of North Dakota — with the goal of providing a full public radio service to all of North Dakota. At the time of North Dakota Public Radio's formation, the University of North Dakota operated three stations in Grand Forks: KUND (AM),

(89.3 FM) which dated to 1976, and

(90.7 FM) which started in 1995. KUND (AM) had been established, as KFJM, in 1923 as one of the first college radio stations in the United States. It left the network after it was sold in 2004. North Dakota State University's station, KDSU (91.9 FM) in Fargo dated to 1966. These stations were early members of

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

, but this left western North Dakota without public radio.

Prairie Public Television Prairie Public's television service is a state network of public television signals operated by Prairie Public Broadcasting. It comprises all of the PBS member stations in the U.S. state of North Dakota. The state network is available via flags ...

had broadened its mission to include radio in the late 1970s, and in 1981 KCND in Bismarck signed on as the first public radio station in the western part of the state, under the on-air name of Prairie Public Radio. Between 1981 and 1993, four more stations signed on. On September 26, 2006, North Dakota Public Radio was renamed Prairie Public, chosen to achieve brand consistency with Prairie Public Broadcasting's television and other operations. In 2009, KPPD signed on as a full-power station for the Devils Lake region, and

was rolled out to all Prairie Public full-power stations. In 2012, KPPW signed on as the new full-power News and Classical network station for Williston, with KPPR moving to the Roots, Rock, and Jazz network. In September 2018, KFJM and KUND-FM were sold by the University of North Dakota to Prairie Public Broadcasting."Station Sales Week Of 9/14: UND Exits Radio"
by Lance Venta, September 14, 2018 (radioinsight.com)

References

External links

*Listen live
News and Classical

Roots, Rock, and Jazz

KDSUPrairie Public radio websiteRoots, Rock, and Jazz network website
{{American broadcast radio HD Radio stations Radio stations in Minnesota * American radio networks NPR member networks