Our history...

Nurtured in its formative years by the Clark County Library District, Nevada Public Radio was incorporated in December, 1975 as an independent, Nevada non-profit corporation. Its flagship station, KNPR signed on the air March 24, 1980 as Nevada's first National Public Radio (NPR) affiliated station.

Nevada Public Radio operates a non-commercial, radio broadcast network comprised of six stations, KNPR-FM, Las Vegas (88.9), KCNV-FM, Las Vegas (89.7), KTPH-FM Tonopah (91.7), KLNR-FM, Panaca (91.7), KWPR-FM Lund/Ely (88.7), KSGU-FM St. George (90.3), plus five rural translators. It is overseen by a volunteer Board of Directors including founder and Director Emeritus, Lamar Marchese.

The staff is comprised of 25 full-time staff, plus part time and contract employees, and hundreds of radio reading service, administrative and fundraising volunteers. More than 7,500 members and 50 corporations and foundations support the stations.

KNPR broadcasts with 100,000 watts (ERP), at 88.9 FM. It programs a 24 hour service of National Public Radio (NPR) news and information, with specialty shows like A Prairie Home Companion and Car Talk. (See our program schedule.)

Nevada Public Radio produces 10 hours a week of original content. KNPR's State of Nevada is a national award-winning public affairs program supported by a dynamic web site. Launched with a $500,000 grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, KNPR's SoN has been honored locally and nationally for program excellence including the ACE Award from the Public Radio Program Directors Association.

As of 2008 independent research shows that the combined Nevada Public Radio weekly audience is approximately 130,000, our website attracts approximately 200,000 visitor sessions each month and more than 200,000 audio downloads of original content.

To serve the rural residents of southern Nevada and adjacent states, Nevada Public Radio launched an aggressive rural expansion project from 1985 to 1993. Translators extend service to more than 100,000 rural residents within its 49,000 square miles coverage area, including Beatty, Mesquite, Laughlin and Scotty's Junction, NV, and Death Valley and Ridgecrest, CA, plus Bull Head City and Lake Havasu City, AZ.

In 1993, responding to another unmet need, Nevada Public Radio established the state's first and only Radio Reading Service. This closed-circuit, 24 hour reading service delivers timely, original information totally free of charge to blind and visually-impaired listeners throughout the coverage area. With the cooperation of KUNR-Reno and KNCC-Elko, the service is now available to 98% of the Nevada population. It is also available online.

After many years of effort in 2003, Nevada Public Radio signed on a new full-service station in Las Vegas, Classical 89.7, which provides 24-hours a day classical music.

Our newest, full-service station is in St. George, Utah, News 90.3 KSGU, which provides 24-hours a day news and information.

Nevada Public Radio operates on an annual budget of $4.5-million. See our Annual Report. (October 2007-September 2008)

In 1996, Nevada Public Radio was one of seven applicants, out of 1,300 candidates, to receive a grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. KNPR received $4.5 million dollars to construct and equip a new permanent home for KNPR.

Endowment

In accepting the Reynolds award, the Board of Directors committed itself to raising a minimum of $1.5 million in endowment funding. That committment has increased to $2.2 million. The endowment campaign received a lead gift from the L. J. Castle family, along with early contributions from the Boyd Foundation, the Nevada Arts Council, the Lincy Foundation, Frances Saxton, Jim Rogers, J. A. Tiberti, John Klai, the Laub family (Bill Sr., Mary and Bill Jr.), Louis Castle and Westwood Studios, The National Endowment for the Humanities, the Union Pacific Foundation, as well as individual contributions from the listeners, staff and Board of Directors of Nevada Public Radio Corporation.

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