This article is about the radio and television stations. For other uses, see Will. WILL is the callsign of the three
public broadcasting stations owned by the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and directly operated by its Division of Broadcasting. WILL operates out of Campbell Hall for Public Telecommunications as well as Richmond Studio.
WILL-TV received its largest
bequest, $1 million (
USD), from Lois Dickson, who had been a contributor to the station for the thirty years before her death at the age of 95 in 2004.
Radio
The university operates two radio stations directly:
WILL (AM) at 580
kHz and
WILL-FM at 90.9
MHz. Both are members of
NPR and affiliates of
Public Radio International and
American Public Media.
WILL (AM) signed on in 1922; from 1922 to 1928 it had the callsign WRM.
WILL-FM, first licensed in 1941 as WIUC and changed to WILL-FM in 1954, was the first university FM license in the United States. WILL-FM has translators on 106.5 in
Danville and 101.1 in
Champaign.
WILL-FM began an
HD Radio multicast in July 2008. 90.9 HD 1 is a simulcast of WILL-FM's analog signal. 90.9 HD 2 and HD 3 rebroadcast WILL-AM's programming.
Television
WILL-TV started operation in 1955.
WILL-TV produces a variety of local programing for the central Illinois region. One notable programing is the weekly, Illinois Gardner. The show stars
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign professor Dianne Noland and a panel of gardening experts. Callers can call in on air and receive answers to gardening, landscaping, and horticultural questions. The shows typically airs on Thursdays at 7:00PM and is rebroadcast on Saturdays at 11:30AM.
WILL-TV also produces
Prairie Fire, the A Day in Our Hometown series and
Your Weather.
The WILL-TV station manager is Carl Caldwell. Caldwell is a regular seen on WILL's annual Pledge Drives.
