WILL-TV (Urbana, IL)

ILLINOIS CLASSICAL: The Evening Concert: JULY 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10, 2026 Sunday, July 5, 6:00 pm: Chamber Mus. Soc. of Lincoln Center (CMS 26-42) New and Old, But Always Timeless Patrick Castillo (b. 1979 USA): Incident for Violin and Piano. Alexander Sitkovetsky, Violin; Wu Qian, Piano Ludwig van Beethoven: Septet in E-flat major for Winds and Strings, Op. 20.

To close out the show ahead of the Fourth of July, we're featuring the first three voices in a new Illinois Public Media series, "America at 250: The Questions Before Us.” It asks Illinoisans what they think are the most important questions facing the country at the United States Semiquincentennial.

Two powerful earthquakes struck Caracas, Venezuela's capital, in quick succession last week — a magnitude 7.1 followed less than a minute later by a magnitude 7.5. As of air time, more than 2,200 deaths have been linked to the quakes, with more than 40,000 people still unaccounted for. Alvaro Bello grew up in Venezuela and still has friends and family there.

Illinois drivers between the ages of 79 and 86 are no longer required to take a driving test every year, under a new law that just took effect. The change, part of what's called the Road Safety & Fairness Act, was pushed by AARP Illinois and the Illinois Secretary of State's office. Illinois had been the only state in the country with a rule requiring road tests for drivers in this range based solely on age.

You may not know his name, but if you've been to a Bulls, Bears, Fire or Fighting Illini game, you know his voice. Champaign's Tim Sinclair has taken his stadium announcing talents to the World Cup, providing English-language PA announcements at games in Mexico. He joins us to talk about learning name pronunciations on the fly, deciding when to announce a goal during lengthy VAR reviews, and what it's like doing this job on the world's biggest stage.

The U.S. men's national team faces a must-win World Cup round-of-32 match against Bosnia and Herzegovina tonight. Alex Calabrese, who covers soccer for Men in Red 97 Media and MLSsoccer.com, joins us to preview the game, catch us up on how Illinois-connected players have fared in the tournament so far, and break down what the Chicago Fire's signing of Robert Lewandowski means for the club.

Skip to content July 01, 2026 Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs a bill into law. Listen Download // This is a machine generated transcript. Please report any transcription errors to will-help@illinois.edu. [00:00:00] Brian Mackey: From Illinois Public Media, this is the 21st show. I'm Brian Mackey. And we begin today talking about the laws of Illinois.

Illinois has strengthened its protections for LGBTQ people in recent years.

As the United States marks its 250th birthday, the celebration has split into two: America250, the bipartisan effort Congress created in 2016, and Freedom 250, established by executive order from President Trump. The overlap has caused confusion — and some musicians backed out of the Great American State Fair in Washington, D.C., saying they weren't told about its ties to the Trump administration. Several states, including Illinois, declined to participate.

Illinois Public Media Meteorologists Ed Kieser and Andrew Pritchard. No, your ears were not deceiving you. Meteorologist Ed Kieser gave the forecast on Friday morning, June 26. After a 16-year break, WILL-AM/FM/TV's former fulltime meteorologist is back to team with Andrew Pritchard. During the summer and fall months, Kieser will fill-in when Andrew is on vacation.