WRFI Community Radio for Ithaca and Watkins Glen started in 2002 as Ithaca Community Radio (then-referred to as ICR), when a founding board member re-mortgaged her home to obtain the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) license for 88.1 FM in Ithaca.
The frequency was for a translator (a re-broadcasting station) -- not a primary license, so we were not yet able to broadcast our own signal.
The next five years were spent re-broadcasting WEOS from Geneva, while volunteers worked with engineers and legal counsel to prepare an application to the FCC for a primary station license.
In 2007, the FCC opened an application window for broadcast licenses and we were finally able to submit our application. There were over 3,600 other applications from around the country, and we were fortunate to be granted two of the few hundred licenses for primary stations, for WRFI in Watkins Glen and WINO in Odessa.
We had a three-year time limit to construct, test and bring these primary stations to operation, so our volunteers began work on conducting field engineering studies, building broadcast and transmission facilities, and establishing a broadcast studio.
During this period, we also established a partnership with Binghamton's WSKG, to bring programs like Capital Pressroom and Free Speech Radio News to Ithaca, re-broadcasting their HD station, WSQX.
In June of 2012, we had finished construction of our broadcast studio in the historic Clinton House in downtown Ithaca and finally went on the air as a community owned and operated station whose programming serves our community in Tompkins and Schuyler counties.
Once we had our own primary license, we rebranded as WRFI Community Radio for Ithaca and Watkins Glen, and held our first-ever community radio fundraising marathon in December 2012, raising almost $10,000 in one week and introducing many community members and organizations to both our broadcast studio and our listening audience, by bringing them on the air as guests and hosts.
Since 2012, we've been busy expanding our local programming, training dozens of volunteers, developing effective and sustainable operations for the station, improving our signal quality and stability.
In 2014 the station hired a part-time station manager, and, in 2017 a part-time news director. The addition of a modest staff enabled the station to leverage the amazing energy of our dozens of long-time volunteers to steadily improve the quality of our broadcasts. In 2017, rebuilt our website to reach new audiences through online listening and launched multiple podcast platforms.
The station’s dedication to training community members in the craft of radio has not only continued to improve the quality of our own broadcasts, but has also sent several volunteers on to professional careers in radio.
From its humble beginnings, WRFI Community Radio has become a pillar of our local communities and looks ahead to a bright future. In late 2019 the station received a New York State Community Capital Assistance Program grant to update and our aging studio equipment and outfit Studio B, the Nicholas Hill Space for Creative Radio at our Clinton House location, as a second, fully functional broadcast studio.
In 2019 the WRFI news team was honored by the New York State Broadcasters Association with a Excellence in Broadcasting Award for "The Loneliness Radio Project." We are thrilled to say we won a first place statewide award in the category of 'Outstanding Public Affairs Program or Series'.
In November of 2022 the station added the broadcast frequency at 89.7 FM to expand our reach throughout the Southern Finger Lakes.
In 2025 longtime director Felix Teitelbaum shifted to the role of Program Director, and Ben Coakley was hired as the new Executive Director for WRFI Community Radio.
