Jefferson Public Radio (JPR) is a regional public radio network based in Ashland, Oregon, serving Southern Oregon and Northern California with NPR news, regional journalism and music on three program services.
Jefferson Public Radio (JPR) is a regional public radio network headquartered at the JPR Broadcast Center on the Southern Oregon University campus in Ashland, Oregon, with a studio in Redding, California. Named for the proposed State of Jefferson, it reaches more than a million potential listeners across a 60,000-square-mile area of Southern Oregon and Northern California through one of the largest networks of transmitters and translators in public radio.
JPR began in 1969 as KSOR, a 10-watt student station at what was then Southern Oregon College. It became a full NPR member by the end of the 1970s, built out its translator network in the 1980s and took the Jefferson Public Radio name in 1989. Southern Oregon University holds the network's FCC licenses. The JPR Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit formed in 1997, raises funds for the service, and under the university's 2026 plan for a self-supporting JPR, new staff are hired by the JPR Foundation.
Programming runs on three services. Classics & News pairs NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered with classical music. Rhythm & News carries the same NPR newsmagazines plus Open Air, a locally hosted music program, and evening adult album alternative programming. News & Information is home to The Jefferson Exchange, JPR's regional talk show, along with NPR talk programs and the BBC World Service overnight. JPR also publishes the Jefferson Journal, and it is a member of NPR, Western States Public Radio and the Northwest News Network.
JPR's newsroom covers Southern Oregon and Northern California for broadcast and digital audiences, from breaking news and wildfire coverage to explanatory and accountability reporting. The network hires reporters, editors and newsroom leaders, along with hosts, producers, music, development, membership and engineering staff.
