News release from Northeast Indiana Public Radio:
PRX Remix begins HD broadcast effective July 1st
Fort Wayne public radio station WBOI (89.1 FM) will expand its news coverage by carrying the BBC World Service overnight beginning July 1st. During the weekdays WBOI will feature the World Service from midnight to 5 a.m. WBOI will carry the BBC from midnight to 7 a.m. Saturday, and midnight to 4 a.m. Sunday. The station will discontinue its overnight syndicated music service, Jazzworks.
“In part, the move is prompted by recent significant news events, such as the uprisings in the Middle East, that required us to interrupt music service overnight,” said Northeast Indiana Public Radio (NIPR)General Manager Will Murphy. “We had two stations broadcasting music (WBOI and its sister station, WBNI, 94.1 FM), and we found that other public radio stations that broadcast one news channel and one music channel were better positioned to offer their listeners options,” Murphy said.
Murphy noted that the switch from Jazzworks was also prompted by recent technical problems with the syndicated service. He underscored that the change in programming won’t affect local music programming in the evening hours on WBOI.
The end of Jazzworks syndicated programming on WBOI will also mean a new format for NIPR’s third HD channel (89.1-HD3), which has been running Jazzworks 24/7. In its place NIPR will be featuring PRX Remix, an experimental “talk” radio stream featuring compelling radio stories, conversations, found sound, audio essays, lectures, and more. Public radio listeners who like This American Life, RadioLab, or The Moth will likely enjoy PRX Remix.
“If people wonder ‘What’s next?’ in public radio, given the recently announced retirement of Click and Clack from Car Talk, PRX Remix will provide a likely roadmap to the future,” Murphy said.
“Our mission is to engage the community with content that enriches the human experience. I think the addition of BBC World Service and PRX Remix is absolutely in keeping with that mission,” Murphy added.
Northeast Indiana Public Radio (NIPR) is a non-profit organization that operates WBOI (89.1 FM) and WBNI (94.1). NIPR provides news and classical, jazz and other musical genres to a 16-county service area across northeast Indiana, northwestern Ohio, and southern Michigan. More information is available at www.nipr.fm.