N. Idaho gets public radio bureau

Coeur d’Alene already has big city offerings from sushi to open heart surgery, but the once-sleepy North Idaho town recently added another mark of urbanity: its very own public radio correspondent.

The region has been something of a neglected stepchild for public radio, with budget constraints keeping Spokane Public Radio’s editorial focus largely within city limits and geography blocking the signal from Idaho’s dominant public radio station based in Boise.

With help from a grant, however, Boise State Radio has opened a bureau in rented space at the KXLY studio in downtown Coeur d’Alene. The station’s signal is not broadcast in North Idaho, but reports from correspondent Elizabeth Wynne Johnson are being aired on Spokane Public Radio and nearly 50 other public radio stations across the Northwest, according to Terry Fitzpatrick, a regional editor for Seattle’s KUOW and coordinator of a consortium of regional public radio stations.

The $1.1 million three-year grant – with half from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting – will help pay for the expansion. The grant also pays for two reporters in Olympia and a new bureau in Richland, Wash. Much of the Richland reporter’s coverage will include farming and water issues of central Washington and northeastern Oregon.

“There is this vast area of listeners underserved in the Northwest,” Fitzpatrick said. “The northern part of Idaho is a perfect example of that.”

Johnson, the Coeur d’Alene correspondent, has a background in documentary film and recently worked at a public radio station in Astoria, Ore. Since opening the North Idaho bureau in spring, her stories have already ranged from field burning to expanded air service in Sandpoint and a recent audio “postcard” from Saturday’s white supremacist parade in Coeur d’Alene.

The stories are shared by a network of 49 public radio stations across the Northwest with a combined audience of about 1.1 million. The expansion will help “tear down the Cascade curtain,” Fitzpatrick said and will result in a better geographic balance of coverage. The regional partnership of public radio stations also is expected to help with fundraising.

“Individual stations might not be able to approach some of the big foundations,” Fitzpatrick said. “When we all approach a regional bank, a regional retail outlet or foundation, we have a much stronger chance of bringing in some new revenue.”

Work is under way to make the bureaus a permanent addition. Public radio’s popularity has boomed in popularity in recent years, Fitzpatrick said. Nationwide, listenership has gone from 10 million to 22 million in the last decade.

Reports from the North Idaho bureau will be aired regularly during morning and evening news shows on KPBX at FM 91.1 in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene, as well as a variety of translator stations in the area. The stories also will be heard during a daily local news show on KSFC, the fledgling public affairs and news channel of Spokane Public Radio.

Along with the local offerings, KSFC also broadcasts news programs from around the world, including coverage from the BBC. But the station’s signal is out of reach for news junkies in North Idaho. Spokane Public Radio is working to fix this, said Spokane Public Radio President and General Manager Dick Kunkel.

“Coeur d’Alene’s awfully important to us,” Kunkel said. “We really, desperately want to get in there with KSFC.”

KPBX and the weaker KSFC share the same FM 91.9 frequency in Coeur d’Alene. Last year, Spokane Public Radio filed applications with the Federal Communications Commission for a new home on the dial for KPBX, which carries classical music programming and the popular daily news programs, Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

A national Christian radio ministry also applied for the same radio real estate. The group, Radio Assist Ministries, applied for about 2,000 spots nationwide, Kunkel said. Spokane Public Radio now is trying to negotiate with the group to purchase the rights for a frequency for KSFC in North Idaho.

At best, it might be a year or two before the news and public affairs station is heard throughout Coeur d’Alene, Kunkel said. Along with the frequency, a new translator is needed. The cost could top $30,000 for the cash-strapped, listener-funded station.

“We have to convince people in Coeur d’Alene that this is worth sending us money for,” Kunkel said.