Preliminary Guide to the Northwest Public Broadcasting Media, circa 1973-2008

Northwest Public Broadcasting is the public radio and public television service of Washington State University. In 2018, Northwest Public Radio merged with Northwest Public Television to become Northwest Public Broadcasting. It is an affiliate of National Public Radio, Public Radio Exchange and American Public Media. It operates 2 television stations, 19 radio stations and 13 translators across Washington state, Oregon, and Idaho, and provides coverage to parts of British Columbia.

It was in December of 1922 that the college radio station, KFAE, first transmitted a weekly program to its' listeners at 250 watts of power. The three men most responsible for creating the station were: H.V. Carpenter, Dean of the College of Engineering; Frank Nalder, Director of General Extension Service; and Homer Dana, Professor of Electrical Engineering. The goals of the station they created were to provide an information and cultural service to a wide area of population, to draw on the expertise of the faculty and present their findings, to provide a vehicle for further research in broadcasting and to train young people in the use, operation and "human service" of radio.

By 1926 the station had changed to the call letters "KWSC" an broadcast programs three days a week. It became KWSU on March 1, 1969, ten years after Washington State attained university status. In 1982, KFAE-FM 89.1 at Richland signed on, bringing public radio to the Tri-Cities for the first time. The next year, WSU activated a series of low-powered translators at Ellensburg, Goldendale/The Dalles, Yakima, Lewiston/Clarkston, Ephrata/Soap Lake, Wenatchee, Cashmere/Dryden, and Chelan/Waterville. In 1984, after budget cuts in Idaho, WSU assumed operation of the University of Idaho radio station and renamed it KRFA-FM; this gave it its first FM service in the Pullman area and resulted in the new outlet assuming many of the classical programs on KWSU. The launch of KNWR, a full-power transmitter at Ellensburg, in 1992 heralded the beginning of two decades of expansion, in several cases, the university acquired or began broadcasting over preexisting public radio stations. On November 1, 2013, WSU launched a third station in Pullman: KJEM (89.9 FM), broadcasting jazz music 24 hours a day to the Pullman and Moscow area.

KWSC-TV was granted special permission by the FCC to telecast a two-hour student orientation program on September 19, 1962. Since that first telecast the purpose of the television station has been to provide a primary public broadcasting service to the people of southeastern Washington, and to provide a learning opportunity for WSU students. KWSU-TV [name changed March, 1969] has its studios in Edward R. Murrow Communications Center where they have audio and video control systems and equipment among the most modern available.

KWSU-TV, broadcasting from Kamiak Butte, covers local public affairs, special events on the WSU campus, and many Cougar sports contests. KWSU-TV operates sister station KTNW in Richland, Washington, which serves the Tri-Cities area. Although this station maintains its own studios on the WSU Tri-Cities campus in Richland, master control and most internal operations are based at KWSU-TV's facilities. The two stations cover southeastern Washington and north central Idaho as well as Wallowa County, Oregon.

The stations are members of the Public Broadcasting Service which supplies high quality, nationally produced program material. Upon the presentation of scripts, and with proper planning, students are also given an opportunity to produce programs for broadcast. KWSU-TV is a member of the National Educational Television-Radio Center, the National Association of Educational Broadcasters, the National Association of Broadcasters, and the Washington State Association of Broadcasters.