The mission of the Nevada Public Radio Corporation is to enhance the quality of life and build a better community by providing high quality, non-commercial radio programming, leadership and services to a substantial audience.
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.
The Nevada Public Radio Corporation operates a non-commercial, radio broadcast network comprised of five stations, KNPR-FM, Las Vegas (88.9), KCNV-FM, Las Vegas (89.7), KTPH-FM Tonopah (91.7), KLNR-FM, Panaca (91.7) and 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, Mick Roemer, Chairman.
The corporation is managed by founder and President/General Manager Lamar Marchese. The staff is comprised of 17 full-time staff, plus part time and contract employees, and hundreds of radio reading service, administrative and fundraising volunteers. More than 7,000 members and 50 corporations and foundations support the station.
KNPR broadcasts with 100,000 watts (ERP), at 88.9FM. It programs a 24 hour service of National Public Radio (NPR) news and information, with speciality shows like A Prairie Home Companion and Car Talk. The station is active in original program production, with such award-winning shows as Making Nevada Home, Along the Way, Nevada Yesterdays, and KNPR's State of Nevada.
According to Arbitron ratings, Nevada Public Radio's audience has grown to 105,000 weekly listeners. The audience is predominantly adult, well-educated, and slightly more male than female.
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 availble to 98% of the Nevada population. KNPR also provides technical facilities for a closed-circuit Farsi language radio service.
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 $3.5-million. See our Annual Report. (October 2006-September 2007)
In 1996, Nevada Public Radio was one of seven applicants, out of 1300 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.
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.
EEO Public File (MSWord)
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The Public and Broadcasting.
How to get the most service from your local
station.
(Adobe PDF)
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The collection of essays written by historian Frank Wright that immortalize the real history of Las Vegas. 
