MERRILLVILLE | Lakeshore Public Television will add a public radio station to its holdings and begin 24-hour radio broadcasts within the near future, officials there confirmed Monday

Kathleen Szot, spokeswoman for Lakeshore, said the station will assume operational control of WWLO 89.1 FM from American Family Association Inc. and begin broadcasting as WLPR within "the next couple of weeks." The broadcasts will be a combination of local news, weather and traffic, plus content from National Public Radio and contemporary music, she said.

"We'll have a morning and afternoon local-focus newscast with traffic information and weather," Szot said. "The final line up might not be in place right away. It will be transitional until things are all in place."

WLPR will not carry programming "specifically" from WBEZ, Chicago's public radio station, and the amount of National Public Radio programming hasn't been determined, she said.

"We're planning on a strong, local focus," Szot said.

Lakeshore Public Radio will share production space and resources with Lakeshore Public Television, 8625 Indiana Place, Merrillville. WLPR will send its signal from a radio tower in Lowell, and it will have the capability to reach a million listeners, officials there have said.

Together, the public radio and TV station will have a staff of about 50 employees, Szot said. Although she said "much of the radio station's staff is in place," she declined to identify how many of the current 45-member staff have been hired because of Lakeshore's expansion into public radio.

As with Lakeshore Public Television, funding for the radio station will be partly pledge based, said Szot, who couldn't provide budget figures for the station's acquisition or operations. She said she also couldn't provide the amount of overlap in the TV and radio stations' pledge drives.

'That's yet to be determined," she said.