WHYS Mission

WHYS-FM is an independent, progressive, community radio station broadcasting music, culture, news, and information programming for the Eau Claire, Wisconsin area. WHYS is a volunteer-operated, non-commercial radio station financed by listener, donor, and non-profit grant support.

WHYS provides space for the representation of progressive voices, issues, and perspectives largely ignored, misrepresented, marginalized, and denigrated by mainstream commercial and non-commercial media, while seeking to foster values of human emancipation, substantive democracy, social and economic justice, global peace, ecological sustainability, and respect as well as appreciation for human and natural diversity.

WHYS seeks to help contribute toward overcoming inequalities along lines of class, race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexuality, age, and mental and physical (dis)ability, as well as between human culture and the natural world. WHYS will promote local and regional music, cultural events, and issues affecting residents to help reclaim a sense of community. WHYS further strives to help empower Eau Claire area citizens in seeking media reform by challenging, critiquing, and demanding accountability from media controlled by corporate interests as well as by enabling these same people to become active participants rather than passive spectators in shaping the content, form, and purpose of media.

WHYS News and Public Affairs Department Mission

The mission of the WHYS-LP FM News and Public Affairs Department is to enhance Eau Claire residents' awareness of current public and government affairs by providing news about the Chippewa Valley community, the state of Wisconsin, and the world. Members of the News and Public Affairs Department believe in First Amendment rights and understand the responsibilities entailed. For this reason, we provide an outlet for local voices, speaking about significant issues and events while refraining from slander. The News and Public Affairs Department holds itself to the highest level of integrity through journalistic standards, including objectivity, honesty, accuracy and fairness. WHYS Radio Community News is locally written and produced by Eau Claire residents. The News and Public Affairs Department is free from influence of our underwriters and sponsors. Members are expected to act ethically and accept no remuneration for their work.

The News and Public Affairs Director can be reached by email at news@whysradio.org .