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Chicago Independent Radio Project

US non-profit organization

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 28, 2026
Entity authorityQ5095652
Source-derived summary

The Chicago Independent Radio Project (CHIRP) is a non-profit organization that operates a community radio station, CHIRP Radio. CHIRP is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization funded primarily through individual donations, special event revenues, and grant support.

History

From 2007 to 2010, CHIRP partnered with organizations across the country to get licenses from Federal Communications Commission for a low power FM radio in urban areas. In 2009, CHIRP's president and vice president, Shawn Campbell and Jenny Lizak, were invited to the White House to discuss the issue of expanding low power FM radio with President Obama's technology team. The bill CHIRP worked on was the Local Community Radio Act, which was signed into law in early 2011.

On January 17, 2010, CHIRP started an online radio station. The first song played was "Thank You Friends" by the band Big Star.

In June 2011, CHIRP Radio was named "Best Overall Radio Station" by the Chicago Reader in its annual Best of Chicago issue.

In November 2013, CHIRP submitted its broadcast license application for low-power FM.

In late 2014, CHIRP constructed a low power FM broadcast outlet in Chicago's north side. In October 2017, the organization launched its broadcast at 107.1 MHz with the call letters "WCXP-LP".

Editorial summary

“Chicago Independent Radio Project” enters the record as uS non-profit organization. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Chicago, Independent and Radio can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful synthesis for locating the documentary relationships between formal authority, participants and affected communities. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2007, 2010, 2009, 2011—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Chicago, Independent and Radio.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Chicago Independent Radio Project” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Chicago, Independent and Radio provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5095652. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2007, 2010, 2009 and 2011.

Critical limits

Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Chicago Independent Radio Project”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Chicago Independent Radio Project primary sources, Chicago Independent Radio Project archive and Chicago research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Chicago Independent Radio Project”?
  2. Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
  3. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Chicago Independent Radio Project” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.