Gain real-world television experience in state-of-the-art facilities
In the Richard and Leslie Frank Newsroom and Richmond Studio facilities, students produce, direct, and write several weekly, live, 30-minute television programs for the University of Illinois public access cable TV channel UI7. These include:
- UI7 Live
- Illini Sports Night
- Good Morning Illini
- En Vivo Contigo
- U Know Illinois
- Power Play
- and Illinois Hockey games
UI7 is broadcast on Xfinity cable TV in Champaign-Urbana, Danville, and several other communities in central Illinois.
Richmond Studio is located at 1110 W. Main, Urbana, the northeast corner of Main and Goodwin.
Support for UI7 is provided by the University of Illinois College of Media, the Department of Journalism, and WILL-TV.
Watch UI7 Programs
- Learn more at ui7newsroom.com
- Watch recorded broadcasts on UI7 Newsroom’s Roku channel
Questions? Email ui7-news@illinois.edu.
Watch a tour of the Frank Newsroom at Richmond Studio
History
University of Illinois journalism students have been producing and airing weekly or biweekly television newscasts since the 1950s. Until the mid-1970s, student news programming aired on WILL-TV (PBS). With the arrival of cable television in Champaign-Urbana, student broadcasts started airing on various cable access and government channels in CU. Student newscasts have aired on UI7, the University’s cable TV channel, since 1997.
Since 1999, Richmond Studio—connected to Campbell Hall, the home of Illinois Public Media—has served as the site for the college’s broadcast journalism courses. Richmond Studio was funded by Jack C. and Marjorie Laird Richmond of Champaign, in honor of his parents, Arthur Dean and Mildred Hummel Richmond.
In 2023, thanks to a gift from Richard and Leslie Frank, the Richard and Leslie Frank Newsroom was established and renovations created a state-of-the-art broadcast facility within Richmond Studio.
In 2014 and 2016, the UI7 newscast won a Crystal Pillar Award for the best collegiate newscast in the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) Mid-America region. In 2023, several journalism students in the UI7 Newsroom team were recognized again as winners of the NATAS Mid-America Student Production Awards.