Jefferson Public Radio is a regional public radio broadcasting network serving over a million potential listeners in Southern Oregon and the Shasta Cascade region of northern California. The network is headquartered on the Southern Oregon University campus in Ashland (near Medford) and named after the once-proposed State of Jefferson, an area which roughly corresponds to its 60,000 square miles (160,000 km2) coverage area.
KSOR signed on in April 1969 as a 10-watt student-run radio station. Starting in the mid-1970s, it took on a more professional sound, becoming a member of NPR by the end of the decade. In the early 1980s, it began building what would become the largest translator network in public radio. At first, it was not familiar with the history of Jefferson. However, by the time KSOR began to build full-power stations later in the decade, it realized that its service area was virtually coextensive with the State of Jefferson. It began calling itself "Jefferson Public Radio" in 1989.
JPR currently has an operating budget of $2 million.
Read more about Jefferson Public Radio: Programming, Expansion, Fund Drives
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