CHIRP RadioCHIRP Radio

CHIRP began in 2007 as a campaign rather than a station. The Chicago Independent Radio Project wanted a community signal for its own city, and to get one it first had to help change federal law: alongside national partners it pushed the Local Community Radio Act through Congress, opening low-power FM up to urban areas and letting more than a thousand new stations across the country go on air. Its own signal came last of all, arriving online in 2010 and at 107.1 FM in late 2017.

One paid member of staff and more than 250 volunteers keep it live and local every day of the year, six in the morning until midnight, from studios in the North Center neighbourhood. There are no commercials at all. A single hour might run Home Front into a Texas glitch record, then Kaytranada, the Kinks, and a Chicago band tagged LOCAL on the playlist.