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Minnesota Public Radio

1967 establishments in MinnesotaAmerican Public MediaAmerican Public Media GroupAmerican radio networksClassical music radio stations in the United States
Minnesota Public RadioNPR member networksNon-profit organizations based in MinnesotaPeabody Award winnersRadio broadcasting companies of the United StatesRadio in MinnesotaRadio stations in MinnesotaUse mdy dates from May 2019

Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), is a public radio network for the state of Minnesota. With its three services, News & Information, YourClassical MPR and The Current, MPR operates a 46-station regional radio network in the upper Midwest. MPR has won more than 875 journalism awards, including the Peabody Award, both the RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting award of the same name, and the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Gold Baton Award. As of September 2011, MPR was equal with WNYC for most listener support for a public radio network, and had the highest level of recurring monthly donors of any public radio network in the United States.MPR also produces and distributes national public radio programming via its subsidiary American Public Media, which is the second-largest producer of public radio programming in the United States, and largest producer and distributor of classical music programming.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Minnesota Public Radio (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Minnesota Public Radio
9th Street East, Saint Paul Downtown

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N 44.948888888889 ° E -93.095277777778 °
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Minnesota Public Radio

9th Street East
55101 Saint Paul, Downtown
Minnesota, United States
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mpr.org

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Nearby Places

Wells Fargo Place
Wells Fargo Place

Wells Fargo Place (30 East 7th Street) is an office tower in St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It stands at 471 feet (144 m) tall, and is currently the tallest building in St. Paul. It was designed by Winsor/Faricy Architects, Inc. and WZMH Architects, and is 37 stories tall. The building opened in September 1987, a month ahead of schedule and under budget. It is a concrete and steel structure, with a facade of brown-colored granite and glass. The granite came from Finland. The building contains 156 underground parking spaces. It was formerly known as The Minnesota World Trade Center. Anthrosphere, a large sculpture by Paul Granlund, is in the lobby.The tower houses offices used by Wells Fargo, who renamed the building Wells Fargo Place on May 15, 2003. It also houses the headquarters of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System. The building was designed for the 36th and 37th floors to be used as a restaurant with a dedicated elevator between the floors. While built to design, including the dedicated elevator, this was never implemented and the space was divided up into storage lockers that are listed for lease on their website.The building was developed by Oxford Properties Inc, the design architect was WZMH, the general contractor was PCL, and the permanent lender was Principal of Des Moines, Iowa. Windsor Faricy was the local production architect. Radio station WDGY has an FM translator located atop the building on 92.1 MHz.

McNally Smith College of Music
McNally Smith College of Music

McNally Smith College of Music was a private for-profit music school in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Initially founded in 1984 as the Guitar Center of Minneapolis, it was renamed Musictech College and moved to St. Paul in 2001. The school was renamed again as McNally Smith College of Music by the school's two founders, Jack McNally and Doug Smith, to memorialize themselves on the school's 2005 20th anniversary. Initially, the school's concept was vocational, with a mission of providing students with real world skills in which to earn a living in the music industry. The vocational school began with six instructors and 200 private lesson students in a 3,000 square foot space within the Minneapolis warehouse district on Washington Avenue. In the fall of 1986, the Guitar Center began offering a state-approved full-time program. By 2000, the guitar school had become a music college, with over 250 students pursuing associate degrees and diploma certificates. With financial assistance from the state of Minnesota and the city of St Paul, the college purchased and renovated the former St Paul Arts & Science Center building into a 60,000 square foot campus with a 12-studio audio production complex, customized classrooms, library, bookstore, café, and a 300-seat auditorium with a 20k-watt Midas/EV sound system. The school offered degree programs in Music Production, Music Business, Composition and Songwriting, Guitar, Bass, Keyboards, Brass and Woodwinds, Strings, and Liberal Arts. In the fall of 2009 the school opened the much-ridiculed "first nationally accredited diploma program for hip-hop". Over the next several years, BA and MA degree programs were added to the school's academic offerings. The school's graduation and employment record was fairly unimpressive, but there are several ex-MSCM students who have carved out successful and creative lives in the music and audio world. In 2005, the reorganized McNally Smith College of Music, moved away from vocational training to more become a traditional liberal arts school with higher tuition and dramatically more administrative overhead. According to CollegeCalc.org, “Tuition for McNally Smith College of Music is $27,040 for the 2015/2016 academic year. This is 89% more expensive than the national average private for-profit four year college tuition of $14,323. The cost is 31% more expensive than the average Minnesota tuition of $20,702 for 4 year colleges. Tuition ranks 43rd in Minnesota amongst 4 year colleges for affordability and is the 17th most expensive 4 year college in the state. Price does not vary by residence. The school charges additional fees of $900 in addition to tuition bringing the total effective in-state tuition to $27,940.” The college attempted to operate a European campus at the Media Docks in Lübeck, Germany, opening in 2004. The German campus was officially closed in 2009. School enrollment peaked in 2007 and began a downhill slide to the eventual bankruptcy declaration on December 17, 2017; a week before the end of the 2017 fall semester. “On Tuesday, December 14, 2017, it was announced without forewarning that the college would close the next Wednesday, December 20 for financial reasons.” “In an email, McNally Smith board Chairman Jack McNally asked staff to continue working without pay until then so students could get credit for the term. ‘We fully understand the awkwardness and unfairness of this request,’ he wrote in the email to employees.” Faculty and staff were not given a hint of notice before the sudden announcement and were not offered any opportunity to assist in preventing the school's closing. The financial decision to close the school was solely made by McNally and Smith, as the school's CFO had abruptly resigned a few weeks before the bankruptcy announcement. Bankruptcy proceedings were completed in late 2018 and the bankruptcy process complicated the lawsuits that were still in process (as of 2019). However, the bankruptcy court auctioned off the school's assets by mid-June, 2018.The loss of the school, its facilities, and the contribution the students and faculty made to downtown St. Paul would be felt by the downtown community for many years as the school and students provided a significant source of income, employment, and entertainment resources for an otherwise dormant urban downtown.

First Minnesota State Capitol
First Minnesota State Capitol

The first state capitol building was completed in 1853 and served as the seat of Minnesota's territorial and early state government until it burned in 1881. Minnesota Territory was created when Congress passed the Organic Act of 1849 which gave the president of the United States power to appoint a territorial governor, secretary, chief justice, and other officials; called for the election of a nine-member council and an eighteen-member House of Representatives; and provided for a temporary seat of government in St. Paul until a capital city could be determined. Congress approved $20,000 to erect government buildings in the new capital.The territorial legislature set up a temporary headquarters in the Central House Hotel in September 1849 and continued to meet in nonpermanent locations during the next three sessions. It wasn't until the second session that lawmakers turned their attention to the question of a permanent seat of government. The territorial government accepted an offer from Charles and Annie J. Bazille of a building site bounded by Tenth, Wabasha, Exchange, and Cedar Streets for the token price of one dollar.In 1851, work began to oversee finances and the hiring of contractors to build the Capitol.Its architect, N. C. Prentiss drew up specifications for the new Capitol that included digging a foundation measuring 125 feet by 65 feet and a stone foundation 4 feet high by 3 feet thick. Exterior details included brick work, cut stone floors and steps for the porches, a wood pediment, wood Ionic-style columns, and a well-framed roof covered with fireproof material. Interior work called for Norway pine flooring and staircases of oak and ash with oak handrails and turned balusters. The plan for the House of Representatives featured a viewing gallery on three sides of the chamber supported by columns. The specifications required the contractors to complete the work in a "good, substantial, workmanlike manner."The legislature moved into the new Capitol in time for the 5th territorial legislative session on January 4, 1854. As more people moved to the territory, the number of lawmakers needed to represent them grew. On May 11, 1858, Minnesota becomes the thirty-second state to enter the union. The population boomed when Minnesota became a state, and the small Capitol building needed improvements. Gas lighting replaced candles in 1867. Four years later, steam heat replaced wood-burning stoves and new plumbing brought city water into the building. Architect Abraham Radcliffe was hired to expand the Capitol with a new wing on the Exchange Street side of the building in 1873 and a second wing facing Wabasha Street in 1878. It was redesigned in the Italianate style popular at the time.Despite efforts to make the Capitol fire-resistant, the threat of fire remained a concern. During repairs conducted a few days before the Minnesota Constitutional Convention in July 1857, a fire started on the west side of the cupola. There was little damage to the building, but the fire consumed some of the Minnesota Historical Society's collections stored there. While legislators met on the evening of March 1, 1881, another fire broke out in the dome of the capitol and quickly spread. Legislators and nearby residents rescued furniture, many important documents, and historical collections. No lives were lost, but efforts to save the building failed. Newspapers estimated the total loss at $180,000.The newly completed Market House at Seventh and Wabasha Streets became the temporary home of state government the following day. The building housed government offices until the opening of a new state capitol in 1883.