First air date 1952 HAAT 224 meters Frequency 94.9 MHz FM Format Public broadcasting Area Seattle metropolitan area Call sign meaning University Of Washington | ERP 100,000 watts Class C1 City of license Seattle Owner University of Washington Branding KUOW 94.9 | |
 | ||
Broadcast area Seattle metropolitan area Translator(s) KQOW 90.3 FM Bellingham
KUOW 1340 AM Tumwater | ||
KUOW-FM 94.9 is a National Public Radio member station in Seattle, Washington. It is one of 2 stations in the Seattle/Tacoma media market, and one of the highest-rated NPR stations in the country. It is a service of the University of Washington, but is operated by KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio, a nonprofit community organization. Studios are located on University Way in Seattle's University District, while the transmitter is on Capitol Hill.
Contents
Translators
KUOW is also carried on the following satellite and broadcast translator stations to improve reception of the station:
About KUOW
KUOW's site states its mission as, "to create and serve an informed public, one challenged and invigorated by an understanding and appreciation of events, ideas, and cultures."
KUOW went on the air in 1952 on 90.5 FM. Its transmitter was on the University of Washington campus atop the Administration Building, now Gerberding Hall. In 1958, Dorothy Stimson Bullitt moved KING-FM to 98.1 and gifted KING's 94.9 FM transmitter and antenna to the Edison Vocational School. That same year, KUOW started using the 94.9 FM transmitter operated by Edison. KUOW is one of the few public radio (or any non-commercial educational) stations on a frequency outside of the reserved band. For years, it served as a training ground for UW students to learn about broadcasting. Programming consisted of classical music, classroom lectures, local news, and Washington Huskies sports.
In the 1960s, however, KUOW began branching out, adding more news programming. It was a charter member of NPR in 1970. In 1992, it changed format from music to news and information, and in 1999 it moved off campus to its current location on University Way. Also in 1999, UW outsourced the station's operation to Puget Sound Public Radio.
The station operates two repeaters in the Puget Sound region in Bellingham on KQOW FM 90.3, in Olympia on KUOW AM 1340 (Tumwater being its actual city of license), and on the Internet.
HD Programming
KUOW-FM broadcasts in HD.
Audience
KUOW's 2008 annual report states that the station served an average of 375,800 listeners each week in fiscal year 2008. These listeners averaged eight and a quarter hours of listening per week to total more than 3 million weekly listener hours. In the same year, KUOW ranked second among all radio stations in the Seattle Metro market, with a 4.8% share of the market's radio audience.
Finances
KUOW's 2010 (fiscal year) direct support (money received) totaled $10,134,882. Its sources were:
Programs
KUOW produces several programs, most of which are concerned with local news and events:
KUOW also broadcast the Washington Talking Book and Braille Library's Evergreen Radio Reading Service to blind and handicapped listeners on its 67kHz subcarrier, until the service's closure on 2014 August 15. KUOW was one of three major FM stations in Washington to do so; KPBX-FM in Spokane and KFAE-FM in Yakima were the others. However, this required a special FM radio capable of receiving such broadcasts; it could not be received on a standard FM radio.