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KCPW FM-88.3 is sold — to KUER and PBS Utah

The indie public radio station went on the auction block earlier this month.

(Trent Nelson | Salt Lake Tribune file photo) A sign on the offices of KCPW announces a need for donations to keep the radio station on the air, in Salt Lake City, Saturday, June 28, 2014. Public broadcasting entities KUER and NPR Utah, both based at the University of Utah, announced on Oct. 25, 2023, that they are buying the license for 88.3.

  | Oct. 25, 2023, 8:51 p.m.
| Updated: Oct. 26, 2023, 12:54 a.m.

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A new owner is purchasing KCPW-FM 88.3, and it will remain a public radio station.

In fact, it will be operated by Utah’s two biggest names in public broadcasting: NPR Utah/KUER-FM 90.1 and PBS Utah/KUED-Channel 7.

“We are uniquely positioned to keep this spot on the dial locally owned and in public service,” said KUER/KUED executive director Maria O’Mara in a statement. “And our intention is to grow that service for a more diverse and younger audience.”

Nonprofit KCPW has gone through a series of funding crises since it signed on the air in 1992. In 2008, the station was purchased by Wasatch Public Media, which was formed to operate it. In September, Wasatch Public Media announced that it had put the station up for sale.

No purchase price was announced, but the minimum bid was $350,000.

The Federal Communications Commission must approve the transfer of KCPW’s broadcast license before the sale can be completed. That is expected no later than April 30.

Once the sale is complete, there will be changes at KCPW, which will switch to a “bilingual format of music and news,” according to the new owners. Programming will be supplied by Radio Bilingüe, a Fresno, California-based nonprofit and distributor of public radio programming in Spanish. Radio Bilingüe programming has been airing on a KUER subchannel since May.

Locally produced shows like “Behind the Headlines” (which features staffers from The Salt Lake Tribune), “Both Sides of the Aisle” and “Jazz Time with Steve Williams” (which previously aired on KUER for more than 30 years) will air on Logan-based Utah Public Radio.

“As our local population continues to grow and diversify, it is important to us to offer an inclusive, bilingual platform for the voices and stories that make up our rich heritage and that propel Utah forward as a stronger, more connected state,” PBS Utah advisory board member Jennifer Tarazon said in a statement.

Former KUER host Edgar Zúñiga, a member of the PBS Utah advisory board, said he looks forward “to our comunidades, our communities, coming together to inform new programming,” and added that “this is an exciting time for public media in Utah and as a Colombian-American who grew up in this state I could not be more thrilled.”