Plans to demolish the headquarters of Springfield’s public radio station and move the station elsewhere on the University of Illinois Springfield campus will create additional expenses for the financially challenged station but also opportunities.
NPR Illinois General Manager Randy Eccles told Illinois Times the move will be a “pretty good result” after UIS officials said in a campuswide email Oct. 13 that the university plans to permanently close the WUIS building on July 30.
The email said the demolition is needed because of “failing infrastructure” in the 53-year-old building that includes problems related to plumbing, air conditioning and heating.
The email said NPR – which began broadcasting from the 22,600-square-foot building in 1975 as WSSR, then as WSSU and finally WUIS – will relocate by May 2027 to vacant space in the lower level of the Public Affairs Center near the Sangamon Experience, a local history exhibit.
Eccles said the move to a more prominent location on campus will amount to a “big upgrade” for the station and the potential for advantages in fundraising.
Fundraising has become even more important for NPR Illinois with the federal cutoff of funding for public radio and public TV stations nationwide because of $1.1 billion in allocations for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that President Donald Trump stopped and Congress later clawed back in the Recissions Act of 2025. The CBP dissolved in January 2026.
NPR Illinois received about $250,000 per year in federal funding through CBP, representing between 12% to 15% of the station’s annual budget. With a current annual budget of about $1.6 million and radio transmitters in Mechanicsburg and Griggsville, the station broadcasts to a potential audience of 600,000 people in central and west-central Illinois.
UIS spokesperson Blake Wood said the university “remains committed to supporting NPR Illinois and its important role in serving Springfield and the region.”
The University of Illinois Board of Trustees holds the broadcasting license for NPR Illinois, and the station’s staff members are university employees. The station has seen funding from the university drop in recent years.
Direct funding from UIS peaked at $500,000 in 2015. The amount dropped to about $351,000 in fiscal 2023, $220,000 in fiscal 2024 and about $150,000 in fiscal 2025.
After fiscal 2026 – the last year of a planned five-year funding rampdown, the station was to receive zero direct funding from UIS going forward.
Then, in fiscal 2027, which began July 1, Eccles said the station was surprised and grateful to receive $174,089 from the UIS Center for State Policy and Leadership. But that’s not a long-term commitment.
“The continued funding will be determined on a year-to-year basis,” Wood said.
A record level of contributions from the general public almost offset the $250,000 cut in federal funds last year, but Eccles said financial challenges remain. “We hope that they continue to give,” he said.
The station has 10 full-time staff members, down from 15 before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The relocation to a “higher-traffic area of campus” will increase the station’s visibility and create “new opportunities for engagement with students, faculty and the broader community,” Wood said. “The move also will bring NPR Illinois closer to other UIS programs, including the Center for Lincoln Studies and Sangamon Experience, creating new opportunities for collaboration.”
Eccles added, “The real challenge is going to be building this out in the right way.”
The Oct. 13 announcement from the university on a closing date for the WUIS building was new information for station staff members but not a total surprise in light of the university’s long-term plans, Eccles said.
“This was going to happen at some point,” he said. “This building wasn’t going to last.”
Wood said the WUIS building was among several original campus structures designed as temporary facilities, with an expected service life of 20 years.
The university doesn’t yet have a final cost estimate for demolition, he said. Repairs to the building wouldn’t be considered “financially sustainable compared with alternative uses of university resources,” he said.
Wood noted that UIS is projecting a $14 million deficit for the fiscal year that began July 1. The campus hopes to reduce its annual deficit to $5 million by fiscal 2030 and balance its operating budget by fiscal 2031.
Since 2024, he said, UIS has been putting in place what it calls “NorthStar initiatives” that focus on increasing enrollment, improving retention of students and managing expenses.
The cost of the station’s relocation, and how it will be funded, haven’t been determined, Wood said. Eccles said it’s unknown whether the cost might be covered by the station’s regular fundraising efforts or whether additional money will need to be found to cover the move.
The WUIS building also houses the Cox Children’s Center, which provides childcare and early childhood education services to UIS students, faculty, staff and the public.
Wood said the center will move those operations to its main building just south of the WUIS building. The center’s main location will continue to operate, he said.
NPR Illinois’ planned relocation “is an investment in NPR Illinois’ future success,” Wood said. “The new location will increase the station’s visibility on campus, strengthen opportunities for collaboration and community engagement and help position NPR Illinois for long-term viability.”