WRFU (Radio Free Urbana) is an Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center (IMC)-affiliated and fiscally sponsored working group that is building a low-power community radio station. It meets at the UC IMC, 218 West Main St., Urbana, IL on the first and third Tuesdays of the month at 8 pm. Our meetings are open to the public and we welcome your participation. We have 168 hours a week to fill with programming that is chosen by our members.

Based in the Urbana-Champaign community, the IMC is a federal tax-exempt 501c3 that has been empowering the people to "Become the Media" for more than four years by providing public, democratic access to information, making available technologies and equipment, training, production services, and media distribution. Leveraging its present resources by increasing public access to them, the IMC's most recent project, WRFU (Radio Free Urbana), holds a construction permit issued by the Federal Communications Commission to build a low-power FM station on 104.5 MHz. It requires that the station be on the air by June 2005.

The audience of approximately 100,000 listeners in Champaign County is served by dozens of commercial radio stations, but (other than National Public Radio) they have only one community radio station, WEFT 90.1 FM, that makes airtime available to ordinary people and community organizations. WRFU will double the amount of airtime available to the public by providing 24 hours of daily (168 hours a week) of community-oriented programming.

WRFU is governed on a consensus-based, decentralized model that encourages a wide variety of local public affairs and arts programming. This open structure facilitates community engagement, providing an accessible venue to self-organized programming groups, including those serving populations in languages other than English, who have only limited local media serving their needs at present. WRFU will also provide a venue for national and international programming not easily available in the community. The exact mix of programming to be aired is dependent on the interests and participation of community members and organizations.

A major goal in organizing WRFU has been to minimize its impact on existing community media resources, while expanding the local trained volunteer base. Thus, WRFU is limiting its public fundraising efforts to those needed to build and equip the station. We anticipate that ongoing operating expenses will be largely covered through membership fees and limited underwriting opportunities. We intend to automate station operations when volunteers are not available, while also providing expanded opportunities for training new people to participate in our community.s vibrant participatory media scene.

WRFU Mission Statement

WRFU is a progressive radio station collective committed to social justice, focusing on public affairs issues and the arts. WRFU airs opinions and debates in an open and diverse forum that focuses on educating and empowering the public. WRFU provides an accessible venue for an eclectic mixture of arts programming.

How you can help put WRFU on the air

In the next three months, WRFU needs to raise $10,000 to purchase the equipment we need to get on the air. This will allow the station to buy a transmitter, antenna, and Emergency Alert System equipment, as well as some minimal studio equipment, and begin serving the community.

While we have so far been unsuccessful in attracting funding through grants, we have an anonymous major donor who is willing to match, dollar for dollar, any amount up to $5,000 that we raise. This means that to meet the March 31 total goal of $10,000 for our fund drive, we only need to raise $5,000 in contributions from other community members.

Even before the announcement of this fund drive, WRFU has received several contributions, as well as conducting a benefit concert last fall and selling T-shirts. At this point, we have raised about $1,500. Thus, we need to raise just $3,500 more to gain the full $5,000 in matching funds to meet our overall goal of $10,000.

WRFU members are organizing a series of benefit concerts over the next three months. More information will follow soon and we encourage everyone to turn out for what will be some great entertainment.

WRFU T-shirts are available for sale. They are available in M, L, and XL for $15 each (XXL are $17 each) plus $3.50 for Priority Mail postage. Colors currently available are red and black. Orders for T-shirts can be sent to:

(Or you can buy T-shirts at any of our meetings and save on shipping.)

Most importantly, you can make a direct, tax-deductible contribution to WRFU. Checks should be made out to "Urbana-Champaign IMC" with "WRFU" clearly marked in the memo section so that it is routed to the proper account. Checks can be sent to:

Or you can make a safe, convenient donation through Paypal by clicking the button below.