November 24 Illinois History Minute
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It’s November 25th, and the University of Illinois’ first FM radio station, WIUC, began regular broadcasts this week in 1942. Newspaper articles at the time described FM radio’s superior, static-free sound, although the signals didn’t travel as far as AM radio. In its early years, WIUC broadcast just once a week, to the few dozen Champaign-Urbana households with FM radios. Those radios became obsolete when the federal government moved the FM radio band to a higher spot on the spectrum. WIUC moved from 42-point-9 to 90-point-9 on the dial, and in the 1950s, changed its call letters to WILL-FM. Today, WILL-FM concentrates on classical music, while WILL-AM focuses on news and talk programming.