WYPR is Baltimore's flagship National Public Radio member station, carrying content from NPR, American Public Media (the distribution arm of Minnesota Public Radio), Public Radio Exchange and the BBC World Service (on HD2). WYPR also provides Classical 24 on its HD3 subchannel. In addition, WYPR produces several of its own shows, including the public affairs-focused programs Midday and On The Record, the award-winning, sonic-storytelling series Out of the Blocks as well as local news coverage and special newsroom series.
Starting in 2015, the Baltimore Magazine Reader's Poll has named WYPR the Best Radio Station in Baltimore three years in a row. The station also won Best Radio Show Host, and Best News Website in 2017.
The station signed on in 1979, as WJHU, a 10-watt student-run station owned by Johns Hopkins University. It took over from a carrier current station that had operated under the same calls on AM 830 since 1945. Originally a typical freeform college radio station, it boosted its power to 25,000 watts in 1985, allowing it at least secondary coverage of the entire Baltimore/Washington corridor. Soon after the power increase, Johns Hopkins converted the station into a full-time professional operation, allowing it to become Baltimore's NPR member station.[1] It originally aired a mix of classical music and NPR programming, but on June 23, 1995, switched to a primarily news/talk format.
Johns Hopkins put the station up for sale in 2000, due to the expense of maintaining it, as well as a change in focus that no longer included radio.[1][2] In 2002, Your Public Radio Corp., a community group, bought the station and changed its calls to WYPR. In 2004, Your Public Radio Corp. bought religious broadcaster WJTM in Frederick, which became a relay of WYPR with the call letters of WYPF. WYPF's signal also covers Hagerstown. On July 30, 2007, Your Public Radio Corp. bought Ocean City, Maryland alternative rock station 106.9 WRXS, which began simulcasting WYPR starting September 10, 2007. That station was renamed WYPO on October 3, 2007. The three stations provide at least distant-grade coverage to almost two-thirds of Maryland.
For much of the time from the late 1990s to 2008, it operated at only 10,000 watts. While this provided a decent signal to Baltimore itself and most of its close-in suburbs, many of Baltimore's outer suburbs, including Annapolis, only got a grade B signal. In 2008, it increased its power to 15,500 watts, giving it a coverage area roughly comparable to the other major Baltimore stations. Two years earlier, University of Maryland student station WMUC in College Park, which at the time also broadcast at 88.1MHz, raised concerns about co-channel interference due to its class D license that does not protect it from interference, in contrast to WYPR's class A license.[3][4]
In 2014, WYPR's production The Lines Between Us earned a DuPont-Columbia Award for outstanding journalism, one of the highest awards in American journalism.
WYPR was honored by the Chesapeake Associated Press in 2016 for a series on pedestrian safety in Ocean City, as well as reporting on the April 2015 rioting in Baltimore, and a commentary entitled “A Shattered City and a Search for Justice.”
Also in 2016, the Chesapeake Associated Press and the Public Radio News Directors, Inc. selected On the Watch, a year-long series by reporter Mary Rose Madden on police reform in Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray, for an award of excellence.[12]
WYPR's series Out of the Blocks was honored with a 2016 regional Edward R. Murrow Award for outstanding documentary. Out of the Blocks brings real stories of struggle, survival, and celebration in Baltimore City to listeners in a format that includes an original musical score for each episode by Baker-award-winning composer Wendel Patrick. Out of the Blocks was also named “Best Radio Series” by Baltimore's City Paper in 2016.[13]
Best of Baltimore Readers' Poll named WYPR "Best Radio Station" in 2017, in addition to naming WYPR's Tom Hall "Best Radio Show Host" (runners up being Nathan Sterner and Sheilah Kast, also of WYPR) and naming wypr.org "Best Website (News)." The radio station was also runner-up for both "Best Instagram Account" and "Best Twitter Account."[14]
