Illinois Public Media

Illinois Public Media (IPM) is a not-for-profit public media service of the College of Media at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, whose Board of Trustees holds its broadcast licenses. From Campbell Hall for Public Telecommunication in Urbana, it provides PBS and NPR programming and creates local journalism, music, educational and cultural content for central Illinois.

IPM operates NPR member station WILL-AM 580, a news and talk service carrying local and regional reporting from the IPM Newsroom along with weather and agricultural updates, and Illinois Classical FM 90.9 (WILL-FM), which pairs classical music with NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered. It also runs Illinois Soul FM 101.1, which airs R&B, neo-soul and smooth jazz alongside news and talk programs, and a 24-hour classical stream. PBS member station WILL-TV (channel 12) blends PBS programming with locally produced shows such as Mid-American Gardener and Prairie Fire, with PBS Kids 24/7 and Create on its subchannels. The Illinois Radio Reader reads newspapers and magazines aloud for people who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise unable to read print, and the Illinois Student Newsroom gives university students reporting experience.

The AM station signed on in 1922 as WRM, broadcasting from the university's Electrical Engineering Laboratory, and took the WILL call letters in 1928. WILL-FM followed in 1941 with the first FM license issued to a university, and WILL-TV signed on in 1955.

IPM's staff includes reporters, editors, hosts and producers for radio, television and digital platforms, a meteorologist and an agriculture information producer, producer-directors and video production staff, broadcast engineers and traffic specialists, web developers, and development, membership, major gifts and corporate support staff. As a unit of the university, it hires through the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign job system and is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer.