History of WCBU

Peoria Public Radio History

WCBU signed-on officially on January 20th, 1970, thanks in part to Phil Weinberg, former dean of the Bradley University College of Engineering, who was the driving force behind the establishment of WCBU as a full power public radio station. WCBU is the direct descendant of WRBU, a student radio service that operated out of the Bradley Student Center.

By 1969 the transition was underway: WRBU became WCBU, and by 1974, the station had hired a full-time professional staff to meet requirements for Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding. On December 1 of that year, WCBU became a member of National Public Radio (NPR), airing All Things Considered for the first time.

In the 1980s, WCBU received a grant allowing it to increase its power and begin broadcasting in stereo; the signal could now reach Galesburg and LaSalle-Peru. The station moved to Jobst Hall in the early 1990s and installed a new HD transmitter in 2007, allowing WCBU’s main programming service to air on WCBU HD-1 and its classical music service on WCBU HD-2. Both can be heard at 89.9 FM on an equipped radio, at WCBU.org, and on the NPR App.

By 2019, several years of financial losses coupled with the impending decommissioning of Jobst Hall led WCBU to a crossroads. The future of the station was very much in doubt, but in April of that year, Bradley University reached an agreement with Illinois State University to allow WGLT (ISU's public radio station in Bloomington-Normal) to manage WCBU on Bradley's behalf effective June 1, 2019.

The agreement allows for WCBU to share business and management operations with WGLT, with each station maintaining separate on-air staff in their respective communities. Since then, WCBU has increased the size of its local news staff with plans to further add as fundraising allows.

Now branded as a "joint service of Bradley University and Illinois State University," WCBU moved to its current home on the fourth floor of Morgan Hall on the Bradley campus in November 2019. The agreement also allowed for WCBU’s classical music service to be broadcast on WGLT’s Peoria translator signal at 103.5 FM.

WCBU continues its nearly 60-year tradition of providing Greater Peoria with exemplary local news and arts and culture coverage. The station’s comeback from near extinction was punctuated by winning the Crystal Microphone Award for best radio station from the Illinois News Broadcasters Association in 2021. WCBU won the award again in 2022 and was runner up in 2023 and 2024. And in 2022 and 2023, WCBU was honored with the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award for Overall Excellence for the four-state regional that includes Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan.