Beginning Friday, March 10, listeners to WPR's The Ideas Network stations in northwest Wisconsin and Duluth will enjoy “1A Plus” each Friday at 6 p.m. Hosted by Jenn White, “1A Plus” brings context and insight to stories unfolding across the country and the world. The program is currently heard Monday through Thursday at this time, the expansion to include Friday evening broadcasts was made possible by the end of “Radio Superior,” a weekly program that had been running repeats for many years.
“It’s never easy to make a program change,” Lisa Nalbandian, WPR regional director, noted. “In this case, there had not been any new episodes of ‘Radio Superior’ for many years and we agreed with the producer, retired WPR Regional Manager John Munson, that it was time to sunset the program. Adding the Friday broadcast of ‘1A Plus’ will help ensure that people in the Twin Ports area have the same access to national news and conversations that other parts of the state have enjoyed on The Ideas Network.”
First broadcast in the fall of 1999, “Radio Superior” was created by award-winning WPR journalist Mike Simonson and UW-Superior student Breanna Pearson. Over 400 episodes, the program featured readings of historic news reports from 1927 through 1959. Twin Ports broadcasting legends Jack McKenna and Lou Martin were the original hosts and "newscasters" for the show. After Simonson passed away in 2014, production of the show was overseen by Regional Manager John Munson who retired in 2016. Munson had been producing the show as a volunteer in recent years.
“We’re grateful to everyone who worked on ‘Radio Superior’ over the years,” Nalbandian added. “We hope they’ll tune in to ‘1A Plus’ on Friday evenings and let us know what they think.” Listeners can hear the final broadcast of “Radio Superior” on Friday, March 3 at 6 p.m.
If you have questions or comments about this change or anything else at WPR, contact our audience services team at listener@wpr.org or call 1-800-747-7444.