Prairie Public is a network of ten

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

radio stations. It is a service of Prairie Public Broadcasting, in association with

North Dakota State University North Dakota State University (NDSU, formally North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Sciences) is a public land-grant research university in Fargo, North Dakota. It was founded as North Dakota Agricultural College in 1890 as t ...

in Fargo. Prairie Public maintains active studios in Grand Forks, Fargo, and Bismarck. It provides

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 ...

(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, 2 ...

formatted Roots, Rock, and Jazz network.

Programming

Prairie Public produces and broadcasts ''Main Street'', a weekday interview show hosted by Ashley Thornberg and Alicia Hegland-Thorpe, ''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 ''

The Thomas Jefferson Hour ''The Thomas Jefferson Hour'' is a syndicated public radio program and podcast produced in Bismarck, North Dakota. It features author-historian Clay S. Jenkinson in a first-person portrayal of Thomas Jefferson, the third US President, and is ...

''. 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 (such as ''

The World In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

'') 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'' (''TAL'') is an American monthly hour-long 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 internatio ...

). Prairie Public's radio network offers two programming services. The primary News and Classical network originating from

KCND KCND (90.5 FM) is a public radio station licensed to Bismarck. It signed on the air in 1981 as Prairie Public Radio, which later became part of the statewide North Dakota Public Radio network, the entirety of which was later renamed Prairie Pu ...

in Bismarck is carried on most stations, and split into eastern and western schedules. The

formatted Roots, Rock, and Jazz network originating from KFJM in

Grand Forks Grand Forks is the third-largest city in the state of North Dakota (after Fargo and Bismarck) and the county seat of Grand Forks County. According to the 2020 census, the city's population was 59,166. Grand Forks, along with its twin city o ...

has gradually expanded its programming to additional stations since its launch in 2002.

KDSU KDSU (91.9 FM) is a radio station licensed to Fargo, North Dakota. The station is owned by North Dakota State University, but is operated by Prairie Public Radio. It airs NPR news and talk programming for most of the day, but simulcasts KFJM's ' ...

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

The primary network of Prairie Public airs classical music, 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, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

Roots, Rock, and Jazz network

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

, blues,

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

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.

HD Radio

Prairie Public's full power stations broadcast HD Radio 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. is a Canadian telecommunications company which provides telephone, Internet, television, and mobile services. Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Shaw provides home telecommunications services primarily in Alberta and Br ...

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...

system carried Prairie Public's News and Classical service at 107.9 FM (via KUND-FM), until Shaw discontinued FM distribution in 2012. Prairie Public's News and Classical network is carried on MTS Ultimate TV across

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...

, 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), KUND-FM (89.3 FM) which dated to 1976, and KFJM (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, 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 ...

, but this left western North Dakota without public radio.

Prairie Public Television Prairie Public Television is a state network of public television stations operated primarily 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 fla ...

had broadened its mission to include radio in the late 1970s, and in 1981

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 HD Radio 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