Northwestern Media

Northwestern Media is the Christian radio ministry of the University of Northwestern – St. Paul, an evangelical university in Roseville, Minnesota. Northwestern Media operates two radio networks serving listeners primarily in the Midwestern United States: the Life Network, a contemporary Christian music station, and the Faith Network with Christian talk and teaching programming.

History

Northwestern Schools, as it was then known, entered the broadcasting business with the launch of KTIS-AM- FM in the Twin Cities on February 7, 1949. The construction of KTIS, costing $40,000, was entirely underwritten by the school's students. Its radio ministry soon expanded. On April 1, 1953, it bought KBOK in Waterloo, Iowa and changed its call letters to KNWS. Growth continued with the October 25, 1955, launch of Fargo's KFNW and its 1961 acquisition of KIHO in Sioux Falls, which became KNWC. Northwestern built FM stations in all three cities in 1965 (Fargo's KFNW-FM and Waterloo's KNWS-FM) and 1969 (KNWC-FM in Sioux Falls). Northwestern acquired WRVB-FM in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1973, changing it to WNWC; the college would buy an AM station there in 1997.

In 1983, KDNI in Duluth, Minnesota came to air; it was joined by KDNW, a second frequency, in 1992. Des Moines, Iowa, became part of Northwestern Media's footprint when radio stations KJJC and KLRX were bought out of receivership and became KNWI and KNWM in 2004. KJNW FM in Kansas City was acquired in 2013 from Calvary Bible College.

Station sales

In 2010, citing years of low listener support and the fact that it was subsidized by the rest of the network, Northwestern College closed WSMR in Sarasota, Florida, which it had built in 1996; the station was sold to the University of South Florida for $1.275 million and began broadcasting classical music.

Between 2007 and 2012, Northwestern owned a third station, KFNL in the Fargo, North Dakota, area. The station was sold to a commercial broadcaster, Mediactive, LLC, in 2012 and is now KBMW-FM.

Between April and August 2018, UNW briefly owned two secular stations, KDSN-AM- FM, in Denison, Iowa. UNW had acquired the stations in order to move KDSN-FM to another frequency and facilitate a signal upgrade for KNWI.

Expansions

Northwestern acquired KLBF near Bismarck, North Dakota, from the Educational Media Foundation in 2017; KLBF became a Faith station, making it the westernmost station in the Northwestern Media portfolio and one of its few markets without a Life station. EMF had previously donated WNWW, an AM radio station in Hartford, Connecticut, to the university in 2016.

In 2018, Northwestern Media entered Omaha with its acquisition of KGBI-FM from Salem Media Group for $3.15 million.

Northwestern Media made two major network acquisitions in 2019. The first came in July when the entire Refuge Radio network was donated to UNW. Refuge owned three full-power stations and 13 dependent translators in Minnesota, Iowa and South Dakota. The Refuge network was dismantled and almost all of its transmitters converted to repeat Life and Faith stations; former network key station WJRF in Duluth was taken silent (as Northwestern already had two stations there), the two other full-power stations began simulcasting Life stations, and the translators were spread around the Life and Faith networks.

On August 6, 2019, the Illinois Bible Institute announced it would sell its New Life Radio Network (WBGL/WCIC), a two-network radio ministry primarily broadcasting in Illinois, to the University of Northwestern. UNW will pay $9,901,558.34 to acquire its 13 full-power stations and eight translators. The acquisition will bring UNW's number of broadcast licenses to 81 in 10 states.

An asset purchase agreement filed with the FCC on October 29, 2021 says Northwestern is buying KLMP/88.3 (Rapid City, South Dakota) and KSLT/107.1 ( Spearfish-Rapid City, South Dakota) from Bethesda Christian Broadcasting for $249,000. The deal also includes KSLT satellites KSLP/90.3 (Pierre, South Dakota) and KSLS/90.7 (Dickinson, North Dakota) and boosters KLMP-1/KSLT-1 in Rapid City and translator K292DN in Newcastle, Wyoming. KLMP and KSLT fit in with Northwestern’s existing stations, which all carry either Adult Contemporary Christian or teaching and preaching from the “Faith Radio Network.” Bethesda Christian Broadcasting's KTPT (Rapid City, South Dakota) and KSLT/KSLP translators owned by the "International Church of the Foursquare Gospel" are not included in the transaction.

Northwestern Media closed on its purchase of KLMP/88.3 (Rapid City) and KSLT/107.1 (Spearfish-Rapid City) from Bethesda Christian Broadcasting on Jan. 31, 2022.

The University of Northwestern-St. Paul has been granted a new full power station in Ashland, Wisconsin not yet assigned call letters: 91.9 FM, 25kW/43m, class C3 (granted 1/12/2022)

The University of Northwestern-St. Paul has been granted a new full power station in Grand Rapids, Minnesota not yet assigned call letters: 88.1 FM, 24kW/44m, class C3 (granted 4/17/2022)

The University of Northwestern has filed a $5,000 deal to buy seven FM translators from the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. The stations include the Hemingford, NE-licensed K219LV at 91.7 FM; the Alliance, NE-licensed K296DS at 107.1 FM; the Bowman, ND-licensed K293BN at 106.5 FM; the Dickinson, SD-licensed K295BR at 106.9 FM; Chadron, NE-licensed K276DM at 103.1 FM; the Hot Springs, SD-licensed K292EC at 106.3 FM; and the New England, ND-licensed K274CC at 102.7 FM. The translators will all simulcast the contemporary Christian “Power 107.1” format based at KSLT Rapid City, SD.

Stations

Faith Network

Life Network

Silent

Acquired Stations of New Life Media Network from the Illinois Bible Institute

Notes

References

{{American broadcast radio

University of Northwestern – St. Paul
1949 establishments in Minnesota
Christian radio stations in the United States
Christian mass media companies