KVTI (90.9 FM) is a

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 ...

affiliate station operated by

Northwest Public Radio Northwest Public Broadcasting is the public radio and public television service of Washington State University. It is an affiliate of National Public Radio, Public Radio Exchange and American Public Media. It operates 19 radio stations and 13 tr ...

, licensed to

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, Washington, Olympia, and northwest of Mount ...

, and operates at 90.9 MHz with an ERP of 51 kW. As an "NPR & Classical Music" station, it broadcasts NPR news, local and syndicated classical music shows (switching to jazz music on weekends), and other

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 ...

programming. The station is owned by

Clover Park Technical College Clover Park Technical College (CPTC) is a community college in Lakewood, Washington. There is also a smaller campus located at Thun Field in Puyallup, Washington (South Hill), for Aviation Training. Academics The main CPTC campus has an enrollm ...

in Lakewood, but since 2010, has been operated by the

Edward R. Murrow College of Communication Edward is an English given name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”. History The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-Sa ...

Washington State University Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant unive ...

. It is one of three NPR member stations in the Seattle/Tacoma area, with fellow Tacoma-based station

KNKX KNKX (88.5 MHz) is a public broadcasting, public radio station licensed to Tacoma, Washington, United States. A member of National Public Radio (NPR), it airs a jazz and all-news radio, news format for the Seattle metropolitan area. The st ...

and Seattle-based

KUOW-FM KUOW-FM (94.9 MHz) is a National Public Radio member station in Seattle, Washington. It is the largest of the three full-fledged NPR member stations in the Seattle and Tacoma media market, with two Tacoma-based stations, KNKX and KVTI being the ...

being the other two stations.

History

The station began in 1955 as KCPS and also had the call letters KPEC-FM from 1972 until 1983. During this time instructors Bill Doane and Bob Piatt brought many radio professionals to speak to their classes and radio veteran Bill Glass claims this was a sound foundation for his career. From March 1988 until June 2010 KVTI was known as i-91fm and featured Top 40 music (with news in the morning and afternoon), Tuesday nights featured live acoustic music from 7-10PM and Talk and Public Affairs from 10PM to Midnight. In 2006 and 2007, KVTI was recognized as the Top 40 Radio Station of the year by the

New Music Awards The New Music Awards are honors given annually in music to both recording artists and radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a pu ...

. In the same ceremonies, music director Beth Valiant was recognized as Top 40 Music Director of the year. In 2008, program director John Mangan was recognized as New Music Weekly's Top 40 Program Director of the Year and music director Beth Valiant won Top 40 Music Director of the Year for the 5th consecutive year. On April 7, 2010, CPTC announced that it would outsource KVTI's operations to Northwest Public Radio effective June 1, 2010. Washington State University had been looking for some time to enter the Seattle market, even though it would be going head-to-head with two of the highest-rated NPR stations in the country,

and KPLU-FM. However, KVTI's signal is not nearly as strong as its main competitors. While it decently covers Tacoma and

Olympia The name Olympia may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Olympia'' (1938 film), by Leni Riefenstahl, documenting the Berlin-hosted Olympic Games * ''Olympia'' (1998 film), about a Mexican soap opera star who pursues a career as an athlet ...

, it only provides grade B coverage of Seattle. It can't be heard at all in major portions of

Snohomish County Snohomish County () is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. With a population of 827,957 as of the 2020 census, it is the third-most populous county in Washington, after nearby King and Pierce counties, and the 75th-most populous ...

because it is short-spaced to

KSER KSER (90.7 FM) is a non-commercial radio station and airs a mix of music and news/public affairs. The station, which is owned and operated by the non-profit KSER Foundation, broadcasts at 90.7 MHz with an ERP of 5.8 kW and is licensed ...

in Everett at 90.7. Fifty-five years of programming and operation by Clover Park students and staff ended at the close of the broadcast day June 16, 2010. On June 17, it became a repeater of Northwest Public Radio's "NPR and Classical Music" service. CPTC no longer offers radio broadcasting classes."Northwest Public Radio To Operate KVTI" from All-Access (April 7, 2010)
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References

External links

* {{coord, 47.161, N, 122.578, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title VTI Lakewood, Washington NPR member stations Radio stations established in 1955 1955 establishments in Washington (state)