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WBNI-FM (94.1 FM) is a Fort Wayne, Indiana-area public radio station owned and operated by Northeast Indiana Public Radio. The station is a member station of National Public Radio. Local programming originates from the Northeast Indiana Public Radio broadcasting facility in Centennial Park.〔NIPR brochure〕 The station currently transmits from a tower in Roanoke. All programming is also carried on a digital channel transmitted by WBOI in Fort Wayne and via live streaming on the Internet at http://www.nipr.fm. ==History== WBNI began broadcasting in 1978 as WIPU-FM at 89.1 MHz on the campus of Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne (IPFW) with a very limited schedule using university staff and students. The station acquired enough of a following that by 1981, The Friends of WIPU was incorporated as a support organization. Later that year, budget cuts threatened to force WIPU to shut down. The Friends of WIPU incorporated as Public Broadcasting of Northeast Indiana (now known as Northeast Indiana Public Radio), and bought the station in an effort to save public radio in the area. PBNI officially took control on March 16, 1982; changing the call letters to WBNI. With new owners came new studios in the historic YWCA facility on North Wells Street. The schedule was gradually expanded and effective radiated power was also increased. Programming was mostly classical music, jazz, and folk music with some news and information programs from National Public Radio, including "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered." The station began airing occasional tapes of local concerts, including the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1993, Northeast Indiana Public Radio's transmitter tower was erected in Centennial Park and effective radiated power was raised from 31,000 watts to 50,000 watts, greatly expanding the coverage area in northeast Indiana, southern Michigan, and northwest Ohio. A new broadcasting facility was dedicated in the spring of 1994. Programming remained much the same until early 2002, when a sister station, WBOI, began broadcasting from the same building using WBNI's old tower in Orland.〔Interview with Bruce Haines, NIPR general manager〕 At the same time, a 10-watt translator was set up in Fort Wayne to repeat WBOI's programming at 88.7 FM. With WBOI's sign-on, it took all NPR news, jazz and folk music programming from WBNI, which became a 24-hour classical music station. By 2003, the two stations swapped frequencies, with WBOI moving to the stronger 89.1 and WBNI moving to 91.3.〔Eyewitness account by Robert E. Nylund, NIPR program host since July 1992〕 In February 2007, Northeast Indiana Public Radio management announced plans to acquire the transmitter of WCKZ, a rock music station operating at 94.1 mHz and licensed to Roanoke. NIPR took over the frequency and power of WCKZ and began field tests in April. General manager Bruce Haines announced that WCKZ began broadcasting classical music on May 1, providing the Fort Wayne metropolitan area with a stronger signal for the classical music programming currently carried on WBNI. The transmitter covers most of Allen County and all or portions of Noble, DeKalb, Whitley, Miami, Wabash, Huntington, Wells, Adams, Grant, Blackford, and Jay counties in Indiana. The station continued to use the Orland transmitter, now known as WCKZ, and the Fort Wayne translator. WBNI is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to "Roanoke-Fort Wayne" on 94.1.〔Interview with NIPR staff, NIPR flyer〕 In November 2007, WBNI replaced the directional antenna on the tower in Roanoke with an omnidirectional antenna, resulting in a better signal in the coverage area. There was no change in effective radiated power, which remains at 6,000 watts.〔Doug Gruber, WBOI program director〕 In 2008, Joan Baumgartner Brown was selected as president and general manager of Northeast Indiana Public Radio (NIPR). The veteran local nonprofit leader oversaw operations at both WBNI and WBOI. Brown replaced Bruce Haines beginning August 4.〔(NIPR Names New President and General Manager - Newsroom - Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick )〕 Haines became president and general manager of WFWA (Channel 39), Fort Wayne's Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Public television station.〔(WFWA - Public Broadcasting for Northeast Indiana )〕 On January 20, 2009, Brown announced that the NIPR Board of Trustees had decided "to pursue the sale of the analog stations now carrying classical music - WBNI 94.1, WCKZ 91.3, and W204BF 88.7. The signals are available for sale immediately. We expect that a finalized sale may take some time, and until the time of a sale, our plan is to continue broadcasting on these three frequencies as usual." However, Brown also said that the station would continue offering a high definition signal at WBOI's HD-2 program, transmitted from the Centennial Park tower, and the programs will also continue to be heard via live Internet streaming at www.nipr.fm. Brown said the station found that financial support was not sufficient to continue with the three analog signals, especially since "NIPR has been affected by the weak economy."〔Letter from Joan Baumgartner Brown to NIPR members, January 20, 2009〕 On April 15, 2010, Northeast Indiana Public Radio (NIPR) announced the sale of WCKZ and the 10-watt Fort Wayne translator to Star Educational Media Network, pending approval from the FCC. WBNI's transmitter tower in Roanoke was also offered for sale, then taken off the market in early 2011. Once the sales of the analog stations was completed, classical music programming continued at 94.1, on WBOI's HD-2 program, and via live streaming on the Internet.〔http://www.indianaeconomicdigest.net/main.asp?SectionID=31&SubSectionID=155&ArticleID=53800〕 The sale of the two transmitters was completed in June 2010; the official station ID now only includes WBNI.〔http://www.nipr.fm/〕 In November 2010, Brown resigned as president and general manager of NIPR.〔http://www.fwbusiness.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8970&Itemid=265; Doug Gruber, WBOI jazz coordinator〕 On December 10, 2010, NIPR announced that its new president and general manager would be Will Murphy, who had been the general manager of WFHB in Bloomington, Indiana; he took over at NIPR in January 2011.〔NIPR news release, December 10, 2010〕 It was announced on December 4, 2012, that Murphy would be leaving NIPR to run another Indiana public radio station, WFIU in Bloomington, Indiana. David Hunter, the membership manager, became the interim general manager.〔http://nipr.fm/staff〕 On January 29, 2013, NIPR's board announced that Peter Dominowski is the new president and general manager of NIPR. He has four decades of experience in broadcasting, mostly in public radio.〔http://nipr.fm/〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「WBNI-FM」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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