The mission of Northern Public Radio is to enrich, inspire and inform adults in northern Illinois through programs and services that share ideas, encourage thought, give pleasure and create community. We are a member station for National Public Radio (NPR) and create opportunities throughout the year to work with reporters at all stages of their careers. The challenge and opportunity of our reach is the large geographic area we serve; from the rolling hills of northwestern Illinois as far as the Mississippi River, north to the southern Wisconsin border, south to the beauty of the Illinois Valley and Starved Rock state park near LaSalle, with an urban center of Rockford and the educational hub of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. The urban/rural divide allows us to provide perspectives of scope, scale, and context to how issues affect our listeners in these different landscapes that is not replicated by TV and newspapers given their smaller geographic reach.
