The following story was published by Illinois Times on July 24, 2025.
"NPR Illinois began broadcasting in 1975 as WSSR Radio and operated on the campus of what was then named Sangamon State University. Its call letters changed to WSSU in 1989, and then to WUIS when Sangamon State merged with the University of Illinois system in 1995. The station was rebranded as NPR Illinois in 2015, and it remains on the University of Illinois Springfield campus."
"A 50th anniversary exhibit and programming will commemorate NPR Illinois’ milestone year. But with the imminent withdrawal of government support for public media around the country, will NPR Illinois still be broadcasting for the next 50 weeks, let alone the next 50 years?"
“It will make things tighter, but we’ll be OK as a radio station,” said NPR Illinois general manager Randy Eccles. “We’ve been pretty clear that our mission is to keep people informed, and it seems there is a real desire for that in this current atmosphere. Cuts will hurt, but the funding we get comes primarily from listeners.”