Transmitter Maintenance - Update
4/11/25 - You Did It!
Through your generous donations WEFT was able to raise the $10,000 we needed to get the additional $10,000 Match!
BUT THE WORKS NOT DONE
The cost of repairs has now surpassed $30,000 and if you're listening to our FM signal at 90.1 you know that there is still static on our broadcast. The diagnosis and fix for that static problem, unfortunately still needs to be done.
So in short the WEFT "Tower Power 2025" fundraiser WILL CONTINUE
Donate to WEFT 90.1 FM Online Spring 2025 Capital Campaign!!
You can use our Online Donation form to make a one-time or recurring donation to WEFT. Click on the Blue Donate Now button.
Help us now with our Spring 2025 Capital Campaign to raise money for our transmitter/antenna repairs. We spent a bunch of money to get our feedline problem diagnosed and repaired, we can really use your help to pay some of these bills.
Thanks again for donating, it's never too late to donate!
Tower Power 2025
$12,000 That spool of cable (along with fasteners, supports, nuts & bolts, etc.) cost $12,000 The cost of the broadcast field engineering team from Chicago? $2,000 X 3 trips Tower climbing crew and installation experts? $6,000 X 2 trips Fiberglass antenna rods, mounts, gas line replacement parts, nitrogen tank + nitrogen, and service visit - another $1,000 Air conditioner repair at transmitter site was $850 Oh and hiring a Washington DC attorney to assist with the FCC paperwork filing (apparently they frown upon a radio station operating the FM broadcast signal at 1% power) $500 Filing #1 and $500 Filing #2 Over $30,000 and counting Whew! That's a lot. More than WEFT is used to taking on. But it was crucial to maintain and sustain the valuable community resource, emergency alert notifications, and accessible media platform that is WEFT
Thanks to our generous listeners and a generous donor we have met our $10,000 Match. However we still have transmitting issues. Your generous donations are still appreciated to resolve our issues.
If you've already helped - THANK YOU! If you haven't yet, learn more and find the online form at weft.org/support Not just live and local, ALIVE and LOCAL! WEFT is YOUR community radio station - struggling since 1975 and on the air since 1981
Listen Live!
WEFT's new streaming partner, Broadcast Tool & Die. Click here if you want to listen through our new https://weft.broadcasttool.stream/stream. We've found our new streaming partner is far more reliable.
Download the new WEFT App
It's a whole new way to WEFT! The free app can be downloaded from the Apple iOS App Store and Google's Play Store for Android devices.
You can downloaded the new, free WEFT App for iPhone https://apps.apple.com/us/app/weft-fm/id6723680095
Recently played on WEFT
Donate to WEFT 90.1 FM Online
Help us now with our Spring 2025 Capital Campaign to raise money for our transmitter/antenna repairs
You can use our Online Donation form to make a one-time or recurring donation to WEFT. Click on the Blue Donate Now button.
Donate by Mail
Print & fill out our printable donation form and include it with your check. Make checks payable to WEFT, and mail them to:
WEFT
P.O. Box 1223
Champaign, IL 61824
Vehicle Donation
Donating your car, truck, van, SUV, boat, motorcycle, ATV, RV, trailer or airplane has never been easier! Visit the Vehicle Donation portion of our Support page for more info.
You can give CARS (Charitable Adult Rides & Services) a call at 1-855-500-RIDE or go through their online donation process and designate WEFT as the non-profit beneficiary.
Please support YOUR Community Radio Station! Click on the blue Donate Now button above.
1981 - 2024 celebrating over 40 years of Community Radio
WEFT's Rotational Underwriters
- Bash Pepper Roofing
- Champaign Park District
- Common Ground Food Co-op
- Elliott Counseling Group
- Experience C-U
- Habitat for Humanity
- Krannert Center
- Live Action Games
- Martinelli's Market
- Minuteman Press
- Plant Mode
- Sun Power by Legacy Solar
- That's The Cut Barbershop
- Tanner Friedman Strategic Communications
- The Canopy Club
- Toast to Taylor Street
- Urbana Acupuncture
Visit our Community Partners page for the complete list. Thanks to all of them for their support over the years. Please support WEFT and our Community Partners.
We recently revised our Community Partners Underwriting Package you can download both the Inside and Outside of the brochure.
Welcome to our newest Underwriters; Plant Mode, Toast to Taylor Street and Tanner Friedman Strategic Communications
Contact our Community Partners Coordinator, at communitypartners@weft.org, or call WEFT at 217-359-9338 to get your business or non-profit started today.
Hometown Media Award 2024!!
WEFT 90.1 FM Community Radio has been awarded a 2024 Hometown Media Award in the Community Radio category!
The Hometown Media Awards are presented by the Alliance for Community Media Foundation (Established in 1979). The awards program was developed to honor and promote community media, community radio, and local cable programs.
WEFT's on-air programming was selected "Best Of" for 2024 in Community Radio!
Congratulations to all the incredible WEFTIES!
Public Affairs Archives!
Most of your favorite Public Affairs shows have been archived on a weekly basis by WEFT's own volunteers. We have archives of some shows going back to 2015.
Go to our Public Affairs page to listen to shows such as Disability Beat, Higher Ground, News From Neptune and Radio Free Labor. WEFT also has archives of shows not currently being broadcast such as The Prairie Monk.
Media - Pics, Videos, Newsletters etc.
To see more, visit WEFT's Media Page
To view some videos, visit WEFT's Youtube Page
WEFT History and Info
You can read a short version of WEFT's history here
Interestingly back in 1937 the upstairs of WEFT's building 113 1/2 and Dave Monk's building 115 1/2 were a gambling establishment, the Turf Club aka Klemick's. Thanks to the Urbana Free Library Archives, here's a story about Champaign's Gambling Hotspots, the Turf Club was part of North Market Street's Gamblers Row
Joe Lex, was one of WEFT's Founders (and partly repsonsible for some of those vinyl records we have stored up in our attic). He recently dug up this little bit of WEFT History. Here's an early vision of what our Programming would be, Joe Lex - WEFT's 1981 Programming Vision
WEFT Video from the 90's Clips of many WEFTies who helped make WEFT what it is today. How many do you recognize?
WEFT welcomed new Station Manager, Eric Bohlen on June 1, 2023
From Smile Politely in June 2023. Derrick Philips' article about WEFT's new Station Manager, Eric Bohlen New WEFT Station Manager has local ties and an inclusive vision
New Station Manager, Eric Bohlen, was interviewed by Mark & Vicki Niswander on their WEFT Weekender show on June 9, 2023. You can listen to the audio from their interview.
Listen Live!
Listen to WEFT's live broadcast in your browser, choose TuneIn to take WEFT anywhere on your smartphone or use your preferred streaming player on your computer.
Listen On Demand!
Two Week Music Archives are Back!
Thanks to our partners at Spinitron many of our music shows will once again be archived
Go to our Spinitron Calendar page and click on any of the green colored shows. You'll be able to start an in-browser player.
Copyright restrictions require us to start all playbacks at the beginning of each show, and you can't jump forward or back. If you want to listen to part of the 2nd hour of the show, you have to wait till the player gets there.
Look for the in-browser player - click on the triangle to start playback.
Because of copyright restrictions music shows can only remain online for two weeks. They also can't be downloaded or podcast.
Antenna Video
In the spring of 2020 WEFT completed a project our volunteers had worked on for a couple years. Order a new antenna and get it installed on a new, taller tower. This video documents some of the project
thanks to Mark Niswander for the video
You can view this and other WEFT related videos on our Youtube Page