This summer, the Association of Minnesota Public Educational Radio Stations (Ampers),
the nation’s largest association of its kind, is going to be at the Minnesota State Fair!
This is Ampers’ inaugural appearance at the popular summer gathering place that typically
attracts nearly 1.8 million visitors each year. Nine of Ampers’18 community radio stations
will broadcast live this year.
“It’s really exciting to help the smaller community radio stations have a presence at the Fair,”
Ampers Chief Executive Officer Joel Glaser said. “It’s a lot of work for any station to broadcast
from the Fair daily. Our stations don’t have the staffing or resources to do so. But, Ampers has
grown to the point that we can pool our resources and make it happen. And, I’m pretty sure it will
be the first time community stations from greater Minnesota will be broadcasting from the Fair.”
“The Minnesota State Fair is a patchwork quilt of everything and everyone that makes our state great.
Hosting Ampers for the first time at the 2015 State Fair will broaden the reach of this end of summer
tradition to more corners and communities in Minnesota, furthering our goal of being ‘The Great Minnesota
Get-Together,’” says Brienna Schuette, Marketing and Communications Manager of the Minnesota State Fair.
The Minnesota State Fair is the largest fair 12-day event in North America covering 320 acres. The Ampers
stations join about 30 other local radio and TV stations that broadcast from the Fair.
The Ampers booth will be located in the Education Building right along Snelling Avenue and
Cosgrove Street. KBEM, KFAI, KKWE, KMSU, KQAL, KUMD, and WTIP will take turns broadcasting live
from the Ampers booth. (Please see page two for a broadcast schedule.) KMOJ will be broadcasting
live from the northwest corner of Judson Avenue and Clough Street.
Ampers, Diverse Radio for Minnesota’s Communities, is an association of 18 independent community
radio stations in Minnesota. Each station is locally managed and programmed by and for the local
communities they serve. The stations are all licensed to a college, school, university, Native American
tribe, or directly to the community.
The stations include: WTIP (Grand Marais/Grand Portage/Gunflint Trail), KAXE and KBXE (Grand Rapids,
Bemidji, Brainerd), KSRQ (Thief River Falls), KUMD (Duluth/Superior), KVSC (St. Cloud), KUMM (Morris),
KFAI (Minneapolis/St. Paul), KMOJ (Minneapolis/St. Paul), KUOM “Radio K” (Minneapolis/St. Paul),
KBEM “Jazz88” (Minneapolis/St. Paul), KMSU (Mankato/Austin), KQAL (Winona), KOJB (Cass Lake/Bena),
KBFT (Nett Lake), and KKWE (White Earth/Callaway), WGZS (Cloquet), and now KRPR (Rochester).
Ampers has no affiliation with Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) and receives no financial support from MPR.