WGLT 89.1 FM

A public radio station owned by Illinois State University and broadcasting on 89.1 MHz at Normal, Illinois. Programming centers on local news and NPR content during the day, supplemented by music in evenings and on weekends. The station's studio is in the WGLT-Vidette Building on the Illinois State University campus on West Locust Street; the transmitter is on Washington Road in Bloomington. The call sign derives from the ISU motto "Gladly We Learn and Teach," itself drawn from line 309 of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. WGLT signed on February 6, 1966, with 10 watts of power and a studio in Cook Hall, initially student-run and audible only in campus dormitories. The station increased to 2,300 watts and became a full-powered NPR affiliate in July 1976. In August 1992, power increased again to 25,000 watts effective radiated power and a jazz daytime format was adopted. On August 5, 2013, the station dropped jazz programming to concentrate on news and talk full-time. Its flagship daily newsmagazine, "Sound Ideas," airs each weekday. In April 2019, Illinois State University and Bradley University entered an agreement through which WGLT assumed operations of WCBU in Peoria beginning June 1, 2019. A translator signal at 103.5 FM in Peoria, previously simulcasting WGLT, began simulcasting WCBU-HD2's classical format at that time. WGLT News has received regional and national recognition from the Associated Press, Public Radio News Directors Inc., Kaleidoscope, and the Edward R. Murrow awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association.