I would like to recognize our loyal listeners in International Falls and the surrounding area, especially those who have been faithfully contacting Minnesota Public Radio to notify us of signal problems.
I’d like to provide a little background on Minnesota Public Radio’s two repeater stations: MPR News on 88.1 and Classical MPR at 97.7. The equipment for our services is located on the city water tower in International Falls and given the 80-mile distance of our signal feed from Blackduck as well as an increase in radio stations now interfering with our local MPR stations, at times it is difficult to clearly tune in our International Falls MPR signals. This is frustrating for both our listeners as well as for MPR as a public service provider.
Minnesota Public Radio has devoted considerable engineering time and resources to try to improve this situation, but due to Federal Communication Commission rules, we are unable to increase power to improve our current signals. But there is hope. In 2000, MPR submitted FCC paperwork requesting a construction permit to build a full power news station and we finally received FCC clearance this year. This past legislative session, we approached the Minnesota Legislature and were granted partial funding for the project. We also applied to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and received federal funds to partially fund the project. We are currently seeking bids for the construction project and hope to commence work on our new station in the spring of 2010.
In the meantime, we will continue to provide MPR News on 88.1 and Classical MPR at 97.7. Our stations can also be streamed on-line at www.mpr.org.
Kristi Booth
Regional Network Director
Minnesota Public Radio
Bemidji, MN
