| Type: | non-profit |
| Leader Title: | CEO |
| Leader Name: | Matt Moog |
| Subsidiaries: | WBEZ WBEW WRTE Chicago Sun-Times This American Life Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! |
| Formerly: | The WBEZ Alliance |
| Abbreviation: | CPM |
| Tax Id: | 36-3687394 |
Chicago Public Media (CPM) is a not-for-profit radio and print media company. CPM operates as the primary National Public Radio member organization for Chicago. It owns three non-commercial educational FM broadcast stations and one FM translator. In addition to local news and information productions, it produces the programs Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! for NPR stations, and This American Life which is distributed by PRX to other radio stations. On January 30, 2022, Chicago Public Media acquired the Chicago Sun-Times daily newspaper.
The organization was started to take over the operation of 91.5 WBEZ from the Chicago Board of Education in 1990. Until April 2010, the company's legal name was The WBEZ Alliance, Inc. and it used the name Chicago Public Radio (CPR) for its primary radio station and corporate identity.[2] On June 22, 2012, it was announced that CPM had purchased troubled WRTE from the National Museum of Mexican Art.
Chicago Public Radio/Chicago Public Media also previously managed Loyola University of Chicago's WLUW (88.7 FM), heard on the North Side of Chicago and adjacent suburbs, for several years in the early 21st century, until 2007.[3]
On January 30, 2022, Chicago Public Media formally took over the financially-troubled Chicago Sun-Times daily newspaper, which thereby became not-for-profit. A nonbinding agreement for the deal had been announced in September 2021, and the board of Chicago Public Media had signalled its approval on January 18, 2022. The final arrangement was backed with $61 million from several philanthropic organizations.[4] [5] [6] [7] [8]