WVPE FM 88.1

A non-commercial, listener-supported public radio station broadcasting at 88.1 FM, WVPE serves as the National Public Radio member station for the Michiana region of northern Indiana and southwest Michigan. The station is owned by Elkhart Community Schools and operates studios at the Elkhart Area Career Center on California Road. Its transmitter is located off Johnson Road in South Bend, with an effective radiated power of 11,500 watts using a directional antenna. Weekday programming is structured around NPR news and information, featuring Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Fresh Air, Marketplace, On Point, Here and Now, Think, and Q from the CBC, supplemented by local news updates. Overnight hours carry the BBC World Service. Weekend schedules include The TED Radio Hour, The Moth Radio Hour, Big Picture Science, A Way with Words, The Splendid Table, Hidden Brain, On The Media, and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. Music programming encompasses Mountain Stage, Blues Revue, Jazz in the New Millennium, and Acoustic Accents. WVPE signed on in May 1972 as a student-operated station within Elkhart Community Schools, initially broadcasting only a few hours a day during the school year as a training ground for broadcasting careers. The station added its first full-time staff member in 1982, beginning a transition toward full community public radio service. Jazz, blues, and folk music programming were introduced in 1983. The station joined American Public Radio — predecessor to the Public Radio Exchange — in 1984, adding A Prairie Home Companion and The Thistle and Shamrock. NPR news programming was added in 1987, qualifying the station for federal funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.