KMSU
KMSU (89.7 FM, "The Maverick") is a public radio station operated by Minnesota State University in Mankato, Minnesota that carries a mixed news, talk, and music format.  A repeater station, KMSK (91.3 FM), serves the city of Austin. A translator station, K220AQ (91.9 FM), serves the city of Fairmont, and another, K220AR (also on 91.9 FM), serves the city of Albert Lea. It is part of Minnesota's AMPERS network.

History

In 1939, KMSU began as an educational broadcasting program called the Radio Workshop for communications students at what was then Mankato State Teachers College. Until 1959 radio shows were broadcast using the KYSM facilities. Subsequently, the college purchased their own broadcasting equipment and began a new independent radio station with programming centered on the Mankato, Minnesota area and the university.

Current Programming

Dwayne Megaw is the station manager, program director, and hosts the midday show on Mondays and Thursdays from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. . Karen Wright is the operations director, advisor for The Southern Minnesota News Project, and the host of Minnesota Morning, which airs from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. KMSU has a variety of shows including a Saturday night show called The Five Count which is the most popular show on the station. The station also features a late-night avant-garde electronic music program titled True Punks Do Electro. The show is hosted by various and anonymous DJs from the Mankato area. News programming airs daily on the station, The Southern Minnesota News Project, is put together by students from the Mass Communications program at the University. KMSU also produces other programs such as Shuffle Function and Blues Before Monday.

Student Program

Since 2009, the station also hosts a daily student-led radio program called Radio a La Carte that broadcasts every weekday. Originally aired as a one-hour program from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m., it expanded to a 90-minute program (from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.) in December 2015 as an experimental version, and went permanent in January 2016.  It features students from the Minnesota State University, Mankato Mass Communications Department hosting the program inside the Centennial Student Union, which is the main campus's student union, and on breaks and the summer session the program is broadcast from its studios in the Alumni and Foundation Center.