WILL

WILL (580 AM) airs NPR news and talk, along with agricultural news information for central Illinois farmers. The station is directional mostly to protect WIBW in Topeka, Kansas. WILL (AM) operates at 5,000 watts during the day. Due to its location near the bottom of the AM dial, as well as its transmitter power, directional antenna and central Illinois' flat land (with near-perfect ground conductivity), this is enough to provide grade B coverage as far north as Chicago and as far east as Indianapolis. However, at sunset it must power down to 500 watts and gradually power down to 100 watts, resulting in marginal coverage even in Champaign-Urbana. At 6 a.m., it increases its power to 335 watts and ramps up to full power at sunrise.[7]

The station signed on in April 1922, holding the call sign WRM, which stood for "We Reach Millions".[6] It originally broadcast at 360 meters (833 kHz),[8] but had moved to 1100 kHz by 1925.[14][9] In 1928, its frequency was changed to 890 kHz.[9] Its call sign was changed to WILL in 1928.[4] In 1937, its frequency was changed to 580 kHz.[9] It ran 1,000 watts during daytime hours only, using a directional array.[9] In December 1938, its power was increased to 5,000 watts.[9] Authorization to operate at night, with power reduced to 250 watts, was frequently granted, so that the station could broadcast Illini basketball games and the Illinois High School Boys Basketball Championship.[9]

From 1942 to 1998, WILL's studio's were located at University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign's Gregory Hall.[4] From 1951 to 1961, the National Association of Educational Broadcasters was headquartered in Gregory Hall, alongside WILL.[4][6][15] WILL became an affiliate of NPR upon the network's formation.[6] In 1994, the station began broadcasting 24-hours a day, airing the BBC World Service overnight.[4] Until 2014, it also served as the default NPR member station for Terre Haute, Indiana. That city lacked a full-power NPR member station until WISU began carrying NPR programming in 2014 as a satellite of WFYI-FM in Indianapolis.

WILL-FM (90.9 MHz) airs classical music most of the day, but simulcasts some of NPR's more popular shows with its AM sister. WILL-FM broadcasts with a grandfathered ERP[16] of 105,000 watts at an antenna HAAT of 259 meters (850 ft).

WILL-FM began an HD Radio multicast in July 2008.[4] 90.9 HD1 is a simulcast of WILL-FM's analog signal. 90.9 HD2 is a 24-hour classical music service, and 90.9 HD3 simulcasts WILL-AM's programming to make up for the reduced coverage of the AM station's nighttime signal.[17]

WILL-FM has a translator on 106.5 in Danville.[7] WILL-FM's all-classical HD2 channel is also simulcast on analog translator 101.1 W266AF in Urbana.

The station began broadcasting on September 1, 1941.[3] It broadcast at 42.9 MHz, running 250 watts, and held the call sign WIUC.[5] It was the first FM station in the United States licensed to a university.[6] In 1947, its frequency was changed to 91.7 MHz.[5] Its call sign was changed to WILL-FM in 1954.[4] The same year, it changed its frequency to 90.9 MHz, and its ERP was increased to 301,000 watts at an HAAT of 498 feet.[4][5] It became the most powerful educational FM station in the United States.[4]

For many years, WILL-FM simulcast the programming of its AM sister station.[18][19] In 1974, it began airing a classical music format separate from its AM sister station.[4][20]

WILL-TV's digital signal is multiplexed:

WILL-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 12, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 9.[22] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 12. The "WILL-TV" callsign was transferred over from the former analog channel 12 to digital channel 9 and the pre-transition call sign "WILL-DT" was officially retired.