Northwest Public Radio, the public radio service of Washington State University, has completed a major upgrade at its Yakima station, KNWY, using HD Radio™ technology. KNWY is the first Washington radio station east of the Cascades to enter the age of digital broadcasting and, as a result, is now providing Yakima with its “NPR News” service for the first time.
Listeners with HD Radio compatible receivers can now enjoy the CD-quality sound of KNWY’s digital HD Radio signal. However, the biggest advancement provided by HD Radio is the ability to provide multiple channels of programming on each frequency.
HD Radio technology allows FM stations to divide their signals into separate channels of unique programming. Multicasting, as this is called, increases the amount of content available to listeners. This translates into an expanded range of programming not previously available due to technological limitations of analog.
As with all HD Radio stations, KNWY will remain at the same location on the radio dial (90.3). Northwest Public Radio’s “NPR and Classical Music service” will continue to be heard on the station’s analog signal and on channel HD-1. The network’s “NPR News” service is heard on HD-2.
For those who wish to take advantage of this new service, it will be necessary to purchase a new HD radio, though both services are also available online at nwpr.org. For those satisfied with the existing service from Northwest Public Radio, the analog service on KNWY remains the same and can be heard on existing analog radios. In fact, because of the new transmitter, KNWY’s analog signal sounds better than ever.
Northwest Public Radio’s “NPR News” service offers a variety of news, talk and information programs from National Public Radio, Public Radio International, and American Public Media. Among the programs newly-available to public radio fans in Yakima are “The Diane Rehm Show,” “ Day to Day,” “Talk of the Nation,” “The World, Marketplace,” “Weekend America” and “Whad’Ya Know.” The full schedule is available at nwpr.org.
“We selected KNWY as the first Northwest Public Radio station to convert to HD Radio because it was the only feasible way we could provide Yakima with our ‘NPR News’ service,” said Dennis Haarsager, general manager of Northwest Public Radio. “Many listeners have asked for this service, and we’re pleased to be able to provide it.”
The total cost for the project was about $105,000. The bulk of the total was covered by grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust. About $10,000 still needs to be raised to cover the full cost of the project.
Digital HD Radio technology was developed by iBiquity Digital Corporation and is the only digital broadcast system approved by the Federal Communications Commission for AM and FM broadcasting in the United States.
It works by transmitting digital audio and data in tandem with existing AM and FM analog signals. In the same manner in which digital technology enabled many new opportunities with CD’s, DVD’s, cameras, and cell phones, HD Radio technology is doing the same for AM and FM radio.
To learn more about HD Radio, including information on HD compatible receivers, go to either www.hdradio.com or www.nwpr.org.
Additional information on NWPR station technology upgrades and HD technology is available at www.nwpr.org/HDRadio/HDradio.aspx.
