May 3 Illinois History Minute

It’s May 3rd, and NPR premiered its flagship program, All Things Considered on this day in 1971, airing on WILL-FM at 6 PM. 

The program’s first broadcast opened with a 37-minute report on an antiwar demonstration in Washington D.C. Other segments included a profile of a young mother and former nurse addicted to heroin and an interview with an Iowa barber offering to shave women’s legs as a way to expand his business.

The WILL Radio program guide told listeners that the goal of All Things Considered was to quote “transmit the experience of people and institutions of widely varying backgrounds”, covering everything from hard news to the arts.