This story is part of Illinois Student Newsroom’s series: Champaign’s Honorary Streets: the Stories Behind the Signs.
CHAMPAIGN — When a stretch of Fourth Street from Tremont Street to Grove Street was designated as WBCP Radio Way in 2018, the sign marked more than a former address. It marked the legacy of central Illinois’ first Black-owned radio station — a cultural home for music, community and conversation that lasted nearly three decades.
WBCP-AM 1580’s call letters came from the last names of its founders: Vernon Barkstall, Lonnie Clark and J.W. Pirtle. The group of friends bought the license to the AM frequency in 1989. They changed the call sign to WBCP and shifted the programming to gospel, jazz, R&B and talk, platforming Black voices.
“It was really a former country western station that went off the air and it switched over to an urban contemporary station,” said Pamela Pirtle, J.W.’s oldest daughter. “It absolutely was… a hub of information for the African-American community in Champaign and in central Illinois.”
Eric Pirtle, Pamela’s brother and WBCP’s former assistant manager, said the station flourished under the new format.
“There was no other radio station that was running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week that was catering toward Black people,” he said.
The station’s influence went beyond the music it broadcast.
“We would have people come on to the radio station to come onto the air and address different types of things that go on within the community,” Eric said. “We’ve had the mayor come down. We’ve had different city council members come down.”
The station also offered a platform for local churches and community organizations to share information about their events, “so that people would know what’s happening,” Pamela said. “It was a great way to encourage people to participate in activities… and it was also a great opportunity to share information and resources.”
She recalled how WBCP served as a physical gathering place as much as a broadcast outlet.
“It was a place where people would come and hang out,” she said. “A lot of times people would stop by just to say hello and sit and chat and talk to my dad and the other owners… It was just sort of like the place to go when you wanted to see what’s happening around town.”
In 2018, Pamela submitted the application for the honorary street naming to preserve her father’s legacy.
“I felt like my dad deserved that, because even long after the other two owners had passed away, he continued to stay [at the station] beyond what we wanted,” she said. “It would be a great way to memorialize the work that he did.”
The station went off the air in 2020 after J.W. Pirtle died the year prior.
“The day that it went offline was one of the very sad days of our family’s life and for many in the community… many were upset that we weren’t able to maintain it,” Pamela said.
She said WBCP Way serves as a reminder to people of her father and his colleagues’ contributions to the local community.
“I would want them to, if they don’t know who or why it’s there, to be curious enough to write it down and look it up and be able to see it and be able to know that a great man passed that way,” Pamela said. “And for those who do know to remember the great works that follow him.”
She believes WBCP’s legacy teaches something vital about the importance of bringing people together.
“I believe that the work never ends,” Pamela said. “Any opportunity we have to do that, whether it be through a radio station, a television show, written materials… I hope that this would be a way in which some persons can be inspired to do more and to continue the fight to stay connected with the community.”