About NHPR
NHPR is New Hampshire’s only statewide radio news service, broadcasting from 14 sites across the Granite State. Our award-winning journalism is available to read and listen to 24/7 at NHPR.org and by asking your smart speaker to “Play NHPR.” NHPR journalists deliver local news, programs, newsletters, and podcasts, including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Civics 101, Outside/In, Document, The Weekender, The Rundown, Primarily Politics, The Folk Show, and the N.H. News Recap. NHPR is the exclusive outlet for NPR News in the Granite State and broadcasts national weekly programs such as The Moth Radio Hour, Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, and This American Life. At NHPR, our vision is that through trustworthy journalism, we enrich lives and build stronger communities, in New Hampshire and beyond. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are core to our mission. We strive to build an inclusive culture that links us to the communities we serve and to produce journalism and programming that reflect those communities’ diverse cultures, backgrounds, and viewpoints.
Our Vision
Through trustworthy journalism, NHPR enriches lives and helps build stronger communities, in New Hampshire and beyond.
Our Strategy, 2022-2025
For 40 years, New Hampshire Public Radio has produced timely, accurate, and independent journalism in the public interest. With our media landscape fractured and our democratic governance under stress, we now renew our commitment to producing trustworthy journalism that builds stronger communities, in New Hampshire and beyond - and to providing the resources and supporting the people who make our journalism possible.
PRODUCE HIGH-IMPACT JOURNALISM
NHPR is New Hampshire’s primary source for accountability reporting on government and private institutions and a forum for the public to question and challenge elected officials, candidates, and other leaders. Our national programs, rooted in New Hampshire interests and values, interrogate the most pressing concerns of our time: the state of our democracy and the fate of our planet. By producing distinctive, enterprising journalism that our audiences cannot find elsewhere and leveraging NPR’s excellence in national and international reporting, NHPR makes itself indispensable.
BOLDLY GROW AND DIVERSIFY OUR AUDIENCE
Fulfilling NHPR’s public service mission and sustaining our financial health requires us to substantially expand our reach – in New Hampshire and other communities we serve, on broadcast and digital platforms, live and on-demand. By dramatically growing our audience across platforms with our mission top of mind, we will substantially increase the impact of our journalism and our capacity to gather financial support. In New Hampshire, we will reach out to new audiences, including younger people; people of color; Spanish speakers; conservatives; newcomers to New Hampshire; residents of the Seacoast, where our signal is weak; and residents of the populous Southern Tier, where our presence is underdeveloped. Nationally, we will expand podcast audiences through partnerships, adept marketing and outreach to groups aligned with our programs’ concerns.
BUILD TRUST AND LOYALTY THROUGH ENGAGEMENT
Our journalism becomes richer, our credibility is enhanced, and our support grows stronger when we regard the public not just as audience members but as partners in our work. Events, surveys, call outs, call-in programs, the Community Advisory Board, contests, social media, strategic partnerships, greater transparency in our reporting process and in our business – and, simply, showing up to fly the NHPR flag – all knit NHPR more deeply into the fabric of daily life in New Hampshire and other communities we serve. By centering those communities in our work, we will convert people with whom we engage into our advocates and supporters.
EXCEL AS A DIGITAL PUBLISHER
A quarter-century into the digital revolution, Americans strongly favor text and visual media for consuming news and information, and they want all media to be available on demand. As we work to expand our radio audience, we also will sharpen our focus on serving digital users and podcast listeners by enriching our digital news report, investing in multimedia capabilities, and producing habit-forming podcasts and digital products. Likewise, because our sustainability depends on it, we will use the practices of audience development to convert our growing digital and podcast audiences into financial supporters, and creatively deploy digital media to meet corporate sponsors’ needs.
MAKE FOUNDATIONAL INVESTMENTS. ALWAYS INNOVATE. AND DON’T HESITATE TO MOVE ON
The elements of great journalism – truth-seeking, accuracy, empathy, authoritative reporting, well-crafted storytelling – don’t change. But media platforms, consumer behavior, sales tools, and management practices are in constant flux. Innovation inspires users, sponsors, funders, and staff, so we will build experimentation and nimbleness into our budgets and processes. We will invest in staff and systems that generate resources. And when projects have exhausted their usefulness, we will end them.
EXCEL AS A PLACE TO WORK AND SERVE
To draw and retain talented, creative, ambitious people – both staff and trustees – NHPR must be an organization whose culture, compensation, management, and governance achieve the same level of excellence as our journalism. The effort we demand must be sustainable. And our commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion - and to a culture built on earned trust and mutual respect - must be tangible in the daily experience of our staff, our board, and the people who do business with us.
Updated March 27, 2024 by the NHPR Board of Trustees.
Our Broadcast Facility
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In October 2006, NHPR publicly launched The Campaign for New Hampshire Public Radio. Thanks to the generosity of listeners, foundations and corporations from across the state, NHPR successfully raised $6.5 million to build a new broadcast facility, upgrade to digital technology and expand and enhance our signal throughout the state. This capital expansion allowed NHPR to increase the breadth and depth of its coverage, strengthen and expand its broadcast signal, and offer programs online and on-demand to better meet the needs of our present and future listeners. The Campaign reached its goal in March 2009 and the new broadcast center opened to the public in May 2009.
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A challenge grant from the Kresge Foundation in the final phase of the campaign required a 4:1 match or $1 million - a challenge that was awarded and successfully met in the final six months of the campaign. Part of the campaign included an on-air drive inviting all listeners to become a part of establishing NHPR’s future. For every $50 contribution, donors could have a name listed on our Every Listener Donor Wall, now on display at our broadcast facility.
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The new production and broadcast center at 2 Pillsbury Street in Concord's South End was built using the highest technical standards. Purchased in 2006, and construction began on the 6th floor in June of 2008. The first broadcast from our new studios was on December 15, 2008 with the rest of the staff moving into the space on December 21st. The new broadcast center includes six state-of-the-art recording studios, space for 50 full and part time staff, and unfinished space for room to grow. See photos of NHPR's broadcast facility
Our Service Area
NHPR broadcasts across New Hampshire on eight transmitters and four translator stations. View NHPR's frequencies
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Our History
In August, 1981, WEVO began broadcasting in the Concord-Manchester area. Originally known as Granite State Public Radio, the reach and level of service of the station has grown over the past 30 years. In 1981, the station had 500 members; today it has nearly 18,000. In 1981, there was a single station; today, NHPR operates eight transmitters and four translators. Its signal can be heard in almost every corner of the state. Since 1991, NHPR has been broadcasting 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
NHPR is committed to bringing the different regions of this state together. We strive to include everyone in the conversation, and continue to bring in new listeners both on-air through new signals in the North Country and online by expanding content for on-demand access. We believe that the more each of us knows about the daily realities of our fellow residents, the more able we will be to pull in unison to solve our common problems and improve our communities.
40 Years of Great Radio, a Historical Timeline
1977:
- The New Hampshire Radio Research Project is started by groups at Keene State College and the University of New Hampshire to study the feasibility of building a listener-supported, independent, public radio station serving the state.
1979:
- Fifty New Hampshire citizens form a steering committee to create New Hampshire’s own public radio station. Granite State Public Radio (GSPR) is incorporated.
1981:
- August 4th – WEVO (Granite State Public Radio) signs on the air with its inaugural broadcast. The first year’s budget was $182,601, and our membership base stands at 500 members. GSPR is the only source for NPR programming and news in New Hampshire.
1983:
- The Nashua translator is launched to improve reception in the area.
1984:
- 28 February – GSPR airs its first live Presidential Election Night coverage.
1985:
- New Hampshire Daily broadcasts its first program, with host Bill Boynton. The half-hour program is WEVO’s first attempt at a daily news program.
1986:
- Challenger space shuttle disaster; New Hampshire mourns the death of Concord school teacher Christa McAuliffe.
1989:
- July - WEVO begins broadcasting Car Talk on Saturdays at 10 a.m.
1990:
- The station launches a capital campaign to build a new broadcast center and office space. Mark Handley is hired as the station’s third president and general manager.
- August – NHPR starts covering events relating to the Gulf War.
1991:
- April—GSPR moves into its new headquarters at 207 North Main Street in Concord and changes its name to New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR). The staff is comprised of 15 employees, including five news reporters and editors.
- Fresh Air's Terry Gross hosts NHPR's 4th Annual Thank You event at the Dana Center at St. Anselm College in Manchester.
1992:
- NHPR further expands its statewide network by launching the Dover translator and the WEVH Hanover transmitter, expanding NHPR’s reach throughout the state.
1993:
- NHPR begins broadcasting to Keene and the Monadnock region of southwest New Hampshire on WEVN.
- Summer - NHPR holds its first Summer Car Raffle, which will become an annual fund raiser for the station.
1994:
- NHPR’s Board of Trustees undertakes a year-long effort to shape the future of this state network. It calls for increased local news and information programming serving the people of New Hampshire, expanded signal coverage to all regions of the state, and utilization of new technologies that can facilitate additional service for listeners.
1995:
- NHPR hires former NPR reporter Laura Knoy and launches The Exchange, a weekday talk show focusing on issues most relevant to New Hampshire listeners.
1996:
- NHPR goes online at www.NHPR.org, utilizing the web to deliver news content.
1997:
- NHPR’s audience hits 100,800 weekly listeners.
2000:
- WEVC Berlin and a Littleton translator deliver NHPR to the North County.
2001:
- September 11 – NHPR airs continual coverage regarding the events of 9/11.The Exchange hosts a special call-in program in the afternoon, hosted by Laura Knoy.
2002:
- NHPR begins broadcasting to the Mount Washington Valley from WEVJ in Jackson.
2004:
- NHPR’s staff totals 41 full time employees, including a news staff of 22 professionals.
- 29 February – Highland Broadcasting launches WCNH, Classical New Hampshire, in Bow, NH; a classical music service for the Capital region.
2005:
- Betsy Gardella, formerly of WNYC and American Public Media, is hired as President and CEO.
- The Music Hall, Portsmouth’s historic theater, and NHPR partner together to bring prominent writers to New Hampshire. In a form of intimate literary conversations, Writers on a New England Stage brings to listeners some well-known writers, including Susan Eisenhower, Jared Diamond, Jennifer Egan, Dan Brown, and many others.
2006:
- April – NHPR’s longtime announcer Dan Colgan lends his voice to he HBO phenomenon, The Sopranos. Colgan’s voice appears in episode 73 “Johnny Cakes”, which features a NH-focused plot line.
- August – 25th Anniversary of NHPR’s first on-air broadcast.
- October - Announcement of the Campaign for New Hampshire Public Radio, 21st Century Radio for the Granite State. Space for a new broadcast center is purchased.
2007:
- Colebrook translator goes on the air.
- July - NHPR hosts the StoryCorps Mobile Booth outside the Capital building on Main Street, Concord. From this visit, NHPR aired 15 short form pieces featuring the voices of New Hampshire residents.
2008:
- WEVO upgrades to a new transmitter.
- February - NHPR launches Word of Mouth with host Virginia Prescott; the program will ultimately enjoy a nine-year run, concluding in 2017.
- December 15 – first broadcast from new broadcast center, as the station moves from 207 North Main Street to 2 Pillsbury.
2009:
- March – the Campaign for New Hampshire Public Radio, 21st Century Radio for the Granite State successfully meets a Kresge Challenge Grant for a new broadcast center
- June - NHPR hosts the StoryCorps Mobile Booth on Main Street, Berlin. From this visit, NHPR airs 19 short form pieces, and produces one hour-long documentary featuring the voices of New Hampshire residents.
2010:
- NHPR launches an iPhone and iPad app, allowing listeners to continue to take NHPR with them wherever they go.
2011:
- Expansion continues in the North Country with the launch of the full power transmitter WEVF 90.3 Colebrook and 91.1 Littleton.
2012:
- February – NHPR's coverage of the New Hampshire Presidential Primary is carried by many stations across the country.
- NHPR and Stay Work Play, a NH-based nonprofit that helps the state to attract and retain young workers, begin an ongoing relationship and work together to promote the Granite State to the younger population.
2013:
- NHPR establishes an ongoing partnership with the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law in Concord, bringing nationally renowned journalists to New Hampshire as part of the Justice and Journalism series. Future guests include Tamara Keith, Mary Louise Kelly, David Folkenflik, and more.
2014:
- August – NHPR assumes daily operations of WCNH, a classical music service primarily servicing the Concord area.
2015:
- October - State of Democracy, NHPR's second standalone app launches. The app focuses on political news from New Hampshire.
- November 13 – 10-Minute Writers Workshop drops its first podcast episode. The podcast offers a peek into how great writers conjure and craft their work, and get their thoughts to paper. Ultimately, the podcast ran for more than two years and dropped 60 episodes.
- NHPR launched The Campaign for Innovation. The initiative accelerated NHPR’s investment in news, information, arts and culture, and environmental reporting and programming. Donors invested more than $5 million in these initiatives, making possible expanded coverage of issues important to our state, as well as the creation of innovative content such as podcasts, digital and multi-platform resources.
- December 1 – Outside/In drops its first podcast episode, building on the promise of the Innovation Campaign’s commitment to environmental programming. The program, hosted by Sam Evans-Brown, focuses on the natural world and how we use it.
2016:
- January 28 – NHPR commemorates 30 years since the break-up of the space shuttle Challenger. Jim Van Dongen was news director for NHPR at the time, and he joined Morning Edition to talk about what it like was to cover the disaster. Hosts commemorated a local school teacher Christa McAuliffe, her life, achievements and the tragedy.
- July – For the first time, NHPR reporters are sent to the Republican and Democratic National Conventions to cover the NH delegations. Josh Rogers and Casey McDermott (respectively) file stories and facilitate live two-ways during the conventions.
October:
- NHPR wins five Granite Mic awards from the New Hampshire Association of Broadcasters, including the Above and Beyond Merit Award for the station’s long time Operations Manager, Dan Colgan.
- NHPR becomes one of eight public media stations as part of the New England News Collaborative (NENC), a project established with a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. A new New England-based weekly show NEXT comes on air, powered by the NENC.
2017:
- January 22 – Civics 101 drops its first weekly podcast episode. The podcast about the basics of our democracy will become an NHPR staple.
- NHPR Reporter Todd Bookman travels to Mexico City for a specialized radio workshop pertaining to trade, business, and the issues impacting immigrant communities.
- NHPR’s reach soared to an all-time high of more than 190K weekly listeners. In addition, on NHPR.org, monthly page views averaged nearly 450,000, and monthly unique users averaged 200,000.
2018:
March:
- Longtime NHPR Series Something Wild celebrates 20 years of exploring New Hampshire’s wild places.
- NHPR wins a National Murrow award for Overall Excellence (Small Market station). The Overall Excellence Award look s at the full breadth and depth of what news organization is producing on a daily basis: newscasts, breaking news, continuing coverage, features reporting, and digital and online presence. NHPR was also named the Small Market Radio National Overall Excellence winner in 2017, and 2015.
April:
- NHPR Reporters Sam Evans-Brown and Hannah McCarthy accepted an Overseas Press Club Award for International Environmental Journalism in New York City, for Powerline, a four-part series billed as “who has power, who wields it, and when you’ve got none…how do you take it?”
- September – NHPR celebrates the conclusion of the successful Innovation Campaign, at the LaBelle Winery. Donors generously invested more than $5.14 million in community journalism initiatives, making possible immediate expanded coverage of issues important to New Hampshire as well as creation of innovative content such as podcasts and other digital resources.
October:
- National NPR program 1A broadcasts live from New Hampshire. Two days of live broadcasts included interviews with local newsmakers and issues of importance to New Hampshire residents, plus a public event at the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord with 1A host Joshua Johnson.
- Bear Brook podcast launches; the podcast will go on to be NHPR’s most popular podcast ever with more than 17.4 million downloads.
- NHPR announces the retirement of President/CEO, Betsy Gardella.
2019:
- May – NHPR launches Supervision – a four-episode podcast about the challenges former inmates face navigating new lives, through the perspective and personal story of one former prisoner.
- June – NHPR is the winner of three first-place awards from the Public Radio News Directors Incorporated (PRNDI).
- August 15 – Patient Zero drops its first podcast episode. The team behind Outside/In explored one of the most enigmatic epidemics of the 21st century, Lyme Disease. A series of additional broadcast episodes will ultimately air in May 2020.
- September 11 - Stranglehold drops its first podcast episode. Investigating New Hampshire’s status as “first in the nation” for the presidential primary, describing the history, the politics, and the advantages and the disadvantages of this status
- October 15 – Jim Schachter named President & CEO of New Hampshire Public Radio. Schachter comes to New Hampshire from the nation’s largest public media station, WNYC.
2020:
- NHPR joins The Granite State News Collaborative, a statewide multimedia news collaborative where newsrooms across the state work on coordinated reporting projects and shared engagement activities.
March:
- In response to the COVID-19 emergency NHPR staff moves to a largely work from home model, with the exception of a select few employees who continue to broadcast from the station and maintain technical capabilities.
- NHPR launches a new statewide call-in program New Hampshire Calling, a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, offering a place for listeners to share stories.
- April – NHPR begins a new Spanish-language audio newscast ¿Qué Hay de Nuevo, New Hampshire?, the first such offering in the state to serve the Spanish-speaking community.
- May – NHPR has its first fully-virtual Community Advisory Board meeting.
July:
- NHPR launches a climate reporting project, By Degrees.
- NHPR’s longtime Summer Raffle fundraiser has its most successful year ever, as thousands make generous donations to support public radio in New Hampshire.
October:
- The Exchange celebrates its 25 Anniversary.
- NHPR’s newsroom launches a new narrative storytelling unit, called Document.
November:
- Beginning immediately after Election Day, and through the 100 days ending in January 2021, NHPR’s award-winning podcast Civics 101 answers questions from listeners, teachers, students, and readers on a near-daily basis. The team produces timely information for educators, students and anyone interested in the foundations of U.S. democracy and our political institutions, by making usable and understandable content that spans broadcast, on-air and digital platforms.
2021:
January:
- NHPR Membership totals 24k+ members
- NHPR becomes a part of Report for America (RFA), with a reporter to cover southern New Hampshire and its Latino communities expected to start in summer 2021.
- The Corporate Support department grows its clientele to more than 400 corporations, small businesses, nonprofits, cultural institutions, and other organizations.
June:
- After 25 memorable years as host of NHPR’s weekday talk show, The Exchange, Laura Knoy retires from NHPR; The Exchange team says their goodbyes on the final show.
- NHPR is honored with the 2021 Greater Public Benchmarks for Public Radio Fundraising Award.
August:
- NHPR celebrates its 40 year anniversary; August 4 marks 40 years since the station’s first broadcast.
- NHPR’s Communications & Marketing team named a finalist for a Grand Prize of Nonprofit Communications Team of the Year in PR Daily’s 2021 Nonprofit Communications Awards.