On April 6, 1922, four members of the University of Illinois’s electrical engineering laboratory put WILL-AM on the air. What would follow is a century of service to bring news, music, sports, education, and entertainment to Illinois via AM radio, then FM radio, then television, and later the internet. On April 6, 2022, the staff…
April 6, 1922, marked the first broadcast of the University of Illinois’ radio station WILL-AM, then operating as WRM. At the time, both listeners and the university were still figuring out the role of radio broadcasting in American life. In the century that followed, WILL built a program schedule dedicated to both learning and culture, expanding to FM, television and online.
URBANA — Lyric Theatre @ Illinois brings Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” to the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in Urbana for three shows, starting Tuesday at 7:30pm. Lyric Theatre co-director Nathan Gunn is the stage director for this production, with Andrew Megill as conductor. Illinois Newsroom’s Brian Moline spoke with three actors performing…
For more than 30 years, the radio talk show Focus 580 was a mainstay of the WILL-AM program schedule, during a time when national daytime programming for public radio was scarce. The weekday program featuring host David Inge kept its listeners in touch with their local community and with the world.
URBANA – The 39th Insect Fear Film Festival at the University of Illinois continues to try to change people’s perspectives on insects. The online festival will include insect films, a virtual petting zoo, and much more. One graduate student has volunteered to be stung live while explaining his reaction in real-time. Entomology Graduate Student Association…
URBANA — Illinois Theatre’s production of “The Whistleblower” opens Friday night at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in Urbana. It’s an adaptation of the Henrik Ibsen play “Enemy of the People,” originally written in the 1880s. Illinois Newsroom’s Brian Moline spoke with the show’s director, Genesee Spridco. Listen to this interview here. She says…
The WILL Radio archives include hundreds of hours of recorded programs captured on acetate discs from the 1940s and 50s, including a 1957 reading at the University of Illinois by 20th century African-American poet Langston Hughes. Jameatris Rimkus, an archivist the University of Illinois Library, tracked down the mislabeled discs, rescuing them from obscurity.
2022 marked the 100-year anniversary of WILL-AM, the oldest component of Illinois Public Media. The University of Illinois launched the station at a time when the idea of using radio to reach a mass audience was new and cutting edge. Over the century to come, WILL became a national leader in educational broadcasting, and more recently, public broadcasting.
Editor’s note: At the request of Nikki Usher, we changed the pronouns in this article that pertain to Usher from ‘she’ to ‘they.’ – Reginald Hardwick, News Director, March 26, 2024 CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The Krannert Art Museum in Champaign has two entrances. One entrance is at the top of a flight of concrete stairs,…
URBANA – A traditional celebration over the weekend gave the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign community an opportunity to join together for the holiday season. The Latino Student Association hosted its annual Las Posadas at the U of I. Many Latin American countries and people in the United States celebrate Las Posadas, which commemorates Mary and…
CHAMPAIGN – From a parade returning to the streets to more than a dozen menorahs, Champaign-Urbana is catching the holiday spirit. Hanukkah Holiday Begins On Sunday night, Champaign mayor Deb Feinen lit a menorah in front of the city’s public library as dozens looked on. The 8-day holiday known as Hanukkah is being recognized in…
URBANA – Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois in Urbana will soon start requiring audience members to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination, or of a negative test result. Beginning Tuesday, November 16, when the University of Illinois Wind Orchestra will be performing, the Krannert Center will require everyone attending performances…
URBANA — Lyric Theatre @ Illinois returns to the Krannert Center stage Thursday evening with a production of the Tony Award-winning musical, “Fun Home.” The show is an adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name, written by Alison Bechdel, which looks at the relationship between Alison and her father, who are both gay,…
URBANA – A theater production with Latinx representative characters premiered last weekend at the University of Illinois’ Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. It is part of a co-director’s effort to see more people of color on stage. Native Gardens, a play written by Karen Zacarias, is a comedy that discusses race, class and privilege, between…
CHAMPAIGN – One of two local newspapers in central Illinois’ Ford County will close down this fall. The publisher of the Ford County Record says the weekly paper will cease publication “within the next month or so.” The Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette bought the century-and-a-half-old Paxton Record in 2007, eventually renaming it the Ford County Record. When…