WPGU is named for the "Parade Ground Units", where the station was originally located. When the Parade Ground Units were demolished in the early 1960s to make room for the "six pack" dorms, WPGU moved into the basement of Weston Hall. It remained there until 1995, when the station moved off-campus to 52 E. Green Street. In 2006, WPGU along with the other Illini Media outlets moved to a new building at 512 E. Green Street, Champaign. In 2018 the WPGU station moved to the basement of the campus YMCA building located at 1001 S. Wright St, Champaign IL and is currently there. WPGU began as an experimental radio station by engineering students at the University of Illinois. It was not broadcast, but aired via carrier AM into the dorms. If a radio was plugged into an electrical outlet, WPGU showed up on 640 AM. After an initial technical problem, WPGU went "on the air" on December 7, 1953, for three hours. It played an hour of jazz, an hour of classical music and an hour of news. WPGU joined the then Illini Publishing Company in 1964 and procured an FCC license for FM broadcasting. FM broadcasting began on April 17, 1967. WPGU began broadcasting in stereo in 1972, and the first song broadcast in stereo was "We Can Be Together " by Jefferson Airplane from their Volunteers album. In 1973 the station began broadcasting 24 hours a day. In 1978, WPGU carried The Roy Bad Show, a showcase for punk and new wave on Saturday nights. Carrier AM broadcasts were continued by WDBS, a training station for budding WPGU on air personalities. When cable came to Champaign–Urbana, the company agreed to broadcast WDBS on FM 101 for dorm radios that had a special cable hookup. FM cablecasts began on October 8, 1982, and continued until 1992. WPGU has had many slogans through the years. It was "Full Service Radio" in the early 1960s, "Progressive Rock" and "The Sound of the Seventies" in the 1970s, "Rockin' for you!", "Champaign-Urbana's home of Rock 'N' Roll!", and "The Rock of the '80's" in the 1980s. The on-air personalities prided themselves in playing progressive rock, often left to their own devices to play anything from heavy metal to punk rock in the same day. WPGU-FM was once known, during the heyday of the alternative/grunge music genre in the 1990s, as "Champaign-Urbana's Modern Rock, 107.1, The Planet". It has since reverted to "WPGU". It has had various yearly slogans including: "Whether You Insist on the Twist or Strings are Your Things, WPGU for You", "The Radio Station", "No Pinhead Radio", "Twenty Five Years and Still Rockin", "Either You're Rock or You're Pop!", "No Rules Radio", "Your True Alternative", and "Champaign's Alternative".
In late 2007, WPGU joined with weekly entertainment magazine, the buzz, to create the217.com, a fusion of local and national music and entertainment news targeted at the Champaign-Urbana area. Both entities' websites were merged into one larger site containing articles, a searchable index containing every artist WPGU plays, a local events calendar, and a business directory. In 2011, WPGU split with the217.com and moved its online presence to WPGU.com, where DJ blogs, music news, podcasts, and other content is created. WPGU's hourly playlists are archived and available in real time, and the radio station is also streamed live online.
Notable alumni
Tom Merritt - went on to become a TV and podcast personality, working at CNET, TechTV, and TWiT.tv.
Allan Loudell - 40 decades of Radio, Memphis, Tn to Wilmington, De
WDEL.com last radio station, Most amazing broadcaster in the world
