WNPR

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Connecticut Public Radio, known as WNPR, is a public radio network in Connecticut, western Massachusetts, and eastern Long Island. Its flagship station is 90.5 FM in Meriden, CT, and it’s part of the Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network, which also runs Connecticut Public Television. The network mainly airs NPR news and talk, along with locally produced programs, from studios in Hartford and New Haven.

A brief history in plain terms: The service began in 1978 as WPBH in Meriden to serve Hartford and New Haven. It later changed to WPKT in 1984. In 2011, the WPKT and WNPR call signs swapped, though 90.5 FM has long been the flagship and the WNPR on-air name has been used since the 1990s. For the first two decades, the station mixed classical music, jazz, and NPR talk. In the late 1990s it moved toward more news programming, eventually dropping classical music altogether in 2006 to focus on news and information. In 2013, WNPR launched an online service called WNPR News. From 2011 to 2016, Connecticut Public Radio also operated WAIC in Springfield, MA, as a relay station, before turning it over to WFCR in 2016.

Today’s programming includes local shows such as Where We Live, The Colin McEnroe Show, Audacious with Chion Wolf, Seasoned, and Disrupted with Khaliah Brown-Dean, along with syndicated NPR content. The network also produces the regional news program Next with the New England News Collaborative. Faith Middleton hosted popular shows from New Haven from 1982 until her retirement in 2019, and in 2020 The Wheelhouse was absorbed into Where We Live’s schedule to focus on politics and public affairs. After Hurricane Maria in 2017, WNPR produced The Island Next Door, a documentary on the storm’s impact and connections between New England and Puerto Rico.

WNPR has won numerous awards, including Peabody Awards, Ohio State Awards, Gracie Allen Awards, and more than 60 AP Awards. Faith Middleton was repeatedly named Best Radio Talk-Show Host by Connecticut Magazine readers.