PIRN Pokemon Radio - Madison, WI

PIRN was created on August 1, 2000, in an attempt to broadcast live TCG games. This never panned out, but the music portion did. In the first few years of operation, PIRN's playlist rotation actually consisted of less than 25% Pokémon content. Towards the end of season one, PIRN featured its first t…rue news segments with coverage of the 2001 Monona, WI ECSTS qualifier. PIRN got its first big break in 2001 with the interview of Wizards of the Coast Employee "Master Trainer" Michael Gills at GenCon 2001 in Milwaukee, WI. The interview helped give the station a great amount of exposure with the interview. Season two introduced a new feature called the Pokéblock, which consisted of nothing but Pokémon content. News coverage continued with the challenge series, including the Central Stadium Challenge in Rosemont, IL. Season 3 got off to a huge start with the 2002 World Championships in Seattle, WA. Steven was not able to go, but Jen Brazas served as field agent for four on-site reports. The rest of the season saw more contributions from Lunamew and GreatFox. It also brought some of the most devastating news to be leveled at the game: Wizards of the Coast's loss of the Pokémon TCG liscense and the transfer of power to Pokémon USA. WotC's last hurrah, so to speak, was a tournament at GenCon 2003 in Indianapolis, IN. Season 4 brought forth the biggest technical change to the station since its inception: mp3PRO. While being compatible with non-PRO players, on proper player it had twice the quality as before. News coverage continued, with coverage of more Pokémon events. At the end of Season 8, PIRN switched Broadcast formats once again, this time to 128k CD quality. It also lauched a new live show on Sunday nights.