PULLMAN, Wash. – The Yakima School District today announced a new partnership with Washington State University’s Northwest Public Radio to bring National Public Radio News programming to that region’s airwaves via KYVT 88.5 FM.
The NPR News programming will be launched on KYVT in mid-August. The radio station has 3,000-watt transmitter in Yakima as well as West Valley, Union Gap and Selah.
KYVT
KYVT-FM has served as the broadcast outlet for the audio productions program at YV-TECH. The station originally began operations in 1980 as KYSC before changing its call letters in 2000.
“The Yakima School District continues to explore partnerships that will benefit our students and the community, and this is clearly one of those partnerships,” said Martha Rice, president of the Yakima School Board.”The Yakima School Board is delighted at the opportunities it will provide for the YV-TECH students, the Yakima community and NWPR.”
Classical music plus NPR News
NWPR is a service of The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at WSU. The NWPR network includes 17 stations and 14 translators across Washington, and in portions of Idaho, Oregon and southern British Columbia, and is available online at http://www.nwpr.org/. NWPR offers two program services: NPR & Classical Music service, heard in the Yakima on KNWY 90.3 FM (since 1992); and the NPR News service.
Until now, only the NPR & Classical Music service was available in Yakima. With the Yakima School District/Northwest Public Radio partnership, the NPR News service soon will be available as well.
Yakima students benefit
Students in YV-TECH’s digital media class also will benefit from the partnership. NWPR staff will offer assistance to the program in areas of journalism, radio programming and technology, and will work to help integrate student learning into broadcast and online streaming opportunities. Student programming also will be available on the HD2 service of Northwest Public Radio’s KNWY 90.3FM. Listeners with HD capable radios will be able to enjoy the music programming currently offered on KYVT-FM.
“We’re proud to increase our presence in Yakima, and pleased about the opportunity to help students find their way in this critically important profession,” Lawrence Pintak, dean of The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication.
NWPR Station Manager Kerry Swanson said this collaboration will strengthen NWPR’s statewide commitment to public broadcasting. “Public broadcasting is an essential resource for life-long learning. Yakima listeners have turned to Northwest Public Radio to connect to people and places nationally and internationally. Now Yakima residents will be able to expand those connections with more programs that encourage deeper thinking and conversation on issues that matter,” Swanson said.