For immediate release
April 1, 1998


National Public Radio Launches NPR Worldwide European Channel


Washington, D.C. - National Public Radio* (NPR*) today launches a 24-hour direct broadcast satellite channel for European listeners as part of NPR Worldwidesm. Carried on the ASTRA satellite, the service brings award-winning programs such as NPR's Morning Edition®, All Things Considered®, Talk of the Nation® and Car Talk®, and Minnesota Public Radio's A Prairie Home Companion® to more than 30 million satellite and cable homes throughout Europe. In addition, select NPR Worldwide programming will be rebroadcast by radio stations in Dublin, Geneva, Helsinki and Stockholm. (An NPR Worldwide reception guide and specific listings are available on the Internet at http://www.npr.org/members/overseas.)

"We're delighted to be able to provide European listeners, including expatriate Americans, with the NPR programs they want to hear," says NPR president and chief executive officer Del Lewis. "With NPR Worldwide, a listener in Munich can hear a live NPR newscast at the same time that a listener in Manhattan hears it."

NPR Worldwide also provides NPR programming to military installations overseas via Armed Forces Radio Network, throughout Japan via the USEN 440 cable service, and to satellite listeners in Europe, Asia and Africa via World Radio Network (WRN). (Complete listings of NPR program broadcasts on WRN are available at http://www.wrn.org/schedu.html.)

Since 1995, public radio programming has been available to European satellite and cable listeners through America One, an experimental, cooperative project jointly operated by NPR, Public Radio International and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Though America One announced its March 31st closure last week, NPR Worldwide will be able to maintain service to the European community in its stead.

Renowned for its journalistic excellence and providing standard-setting news, information and cultural programming, NPR serves a growing audience of 13 million Americans each week on nearly 600 member stations.