2009 Annual Report - Celebrating 30 Years

It is always touching when a member takes a moment to offer an anecdote reflecting on what NPR means to them. Now, after 30 years we're seeing notes that say ''NPR has always been a part of my life beginning in the backseat of the car driving to school with my parents'' or ''NPR keeps me connected with old friends scattered across the country. We share the stories that air on each of our local stations.'' You'll find more sentiments shared by our members through the Annual Report contained in this issue of Earborne. Incidentally, we have rolled spring and summer Earborne together as a cost-saving measure.

That next generation of listeners reminds us how far we've come since signing on as Nevada's first NPR affiliate in 1980! It was five years before we broadcast 24 hours a day and ten years before our audience topped 40,000. In 1995 we were among the first wave of public broadcasters using the internet to make archived programming available. 2003 was the milestone year to divide into two distinct FM stations. Our media activities now span metropolitan and rural broadcast services, online, and an award-winning magazine Desert Companion (see pages 3).

For much of that first thirty years our main focus was to bring you noncommercial radio content that was unavailable elsewhere, through a regional network of transmitters. As the media landscape evolves, so too must our role. These days, we also play a central part in community life in Southern Nevada by serving as a convener for so many vital interests including the arts, all kinds of civic engagement, and fostering an informed democracy.

Nevada Public Radio has been posting record audience levels for the last three months, for both our news and classical services. The audience is approximately 225,000 weekly: urban, rural, news and classical combined. The dynamic driver for that audience remains News 88.9 KNPR - now #1 in news/talk radio in Las Vegas - an achievement perhaps beyond imagination when founder Lamar Marchese brought five years of fundraising to fruition with KNPR's signon March 24, 1980.

So Happy Birthday to us! Your support made this birthday possible and each one that came before. Our spring membership campaign wrapped up on May 4 raising $468,058. That total came from 2,914 pledges from new and renewing members, additional contributions, and challenge grants. Your support is especially meaningful given the current state of our economy. We pledge to use those dollars as wisely in the upcoming year as we did in the past. NPR is a part of who you are. You are at the heart of who we are.

Thank you


Complete Annual Report
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