NV Public Radio exited St. George, NPR Utah stepping in

[seattlefollower]

KUER goes big in Southwest Utah (their words, not mine)

As seems to be the pattern, many western state public broadcasters have worked to replace translator networks with larger strength full signal stations (just look at "Oregon Public Broadcasting" radio reach sometime).

KUER has acquired a station in the commercial band (I would assume the license has been converted to non-commercial) and is broadcasting KUQU-FM 93.9 to better cover southwestern Utah. They have also stationed one reporter in St. George - Washington, kind of similar to OPB, who has a reporter stationed in Bend, Ore.

I am not sure why Nv-P-R exited St. George, but I would assume that the support base of pledging was not there to justify the power bill, etc.

[CAwasinNJ]

KUQU is indeed licensed as non-commercial.

It makes a lot more sense to me to have a KUER relay in the Cedar City/St George area than a Nevada-centric station. The national shows will obviously be the same but do southwest Utah listeners care about the politics of Carson City? Likely not a lot.

[friendlee]

From the article cited above: "The new frequency, KUQU 93.9 FM, restores NPR programming to one of the country’s fastest growing communities following the exit of Nevada Public Radio from St. George in April 2020."

Funny....if I have my facts straight (and I believe I do), K215CF, K206AM, K214EH, and K247AG have never signed off, been bumped, or otherwise ceased to relay NPR programming to the residents of St. George, Washington County, Springdale (Zion National Park), and Cedar City since they signed on 20+ some-odd years ago.  Perhaps I should check the licenses in big black binder next door to my office in the KUSU-FM transmitter room?!?

I believe there is room for everybody but if one believes one's own press......well, you know.

[amanuensis]

Is it an accident of history that Utah has de facto competition in the non-commercial radio sphere? With the consolidation going on with the national program providors, there seems to be decreasing need to have two different statewide networks.

[CAwasinNJ]

The phrase "restores NPR programming" is unfortunately ambiguous. It could be interpreted as 'there wasn't any NPR programming and now there is' or 'some NPR programming wasn't available and now it is.' The first one is incorrect but the second one is correct and I suspect was what they meant. The statement should have been written more clearly.

[friendlee]

Nov 25, 2020 9:20:44 GMT -7 amanuensis said:

Is it an accident of history that Utah has de facto competition in the non-commercial radio sphere? With the consolidation going on with the national program providors, there seems to be decreasing need to have two different statewide networks.

Utah State University, the licensee of KUSU-FM and its network of translators and stations, is the Land Grant education and research institution for the State of Utah. USU fulfills that role by distributing information from the university to the citizens of the State of Utah through a variety of methods: printed and online publications, physical and virtual coursework, county Extension offices and agents, Distance Education, and outreach including Utah Public Radio. Other state colleges and universities are encouraged (wisely so) to play a key role in their cities and counties of influence however, USU by mission mandate, is required to do so on a state-wide level in order to fulfill its role as the Land Grant university. UPR fulfills its role within the university's mission through dissemination of research, education, public affairs/news, and cultural programming. UPR furthers its mission by taking a "rural-centric" approach (compared to a "capitol-city-centric" viewpoint) in its news and public affairs coverage. There is room for both institutions to have state-wide radio networks as each institution's goals and missions, though similar in some regards, are very distinct in other ways.