Live, Local, and Commercial-Free

Listen now at 89.7FM, 88.1FM in Ithaca, or by using our web player.

Local News: April 24, 2024

Pilot Program in Tompkins Adds Emergency Responders Emergency response times in Tompkins County should be getting shorter. State Senator Lea Webb was in Ithaca Tuesday to announce additional state funding for the county’s Rapid Medical Response program. The two-year pilot program operates three emergency response vehicles and employs nine EMTs. According to Webb, emergency response in many rural areas of New York is slow and first responders are stretched thin. According to the Ithaca Voice, the program started earlier this month, and has already shown results. On the program’s first day, County Administrator Lisa Holmes told the legislature a woman with a broken hip got medical help from the team in just seven…

Now Playing

Reload page to refresh.

Archive Player

Youth Farm Project Celebrates Earth Week with Greta Garrison of the Youth Radio Project

By Felix Teitelbaum

Youth Farm Project participants Stella Sapp-Dietrich and Etienne Exantus and Ray Hage Assistant Director of Cornell’s Science & Technology Entry Program (STEP) with Greta Garrison of the Youth Radio Project on WRFI.

Read More

CREATIVES: New Voices Literary Festival Preview with Raul Palma [AUDIO]

By Felix Teitelbaum

Listen to author Raul Palma in conversation with student organizers April Morales, Emily Trage, Riley Rhoder and Professor Jacob White. The 2024 New Voices Festival runs from April 24-26 at Ithaca College and in your community.  

Read More

Tune in, Turn on, and Take Part! Join Us for WRFI’s Spring “Fun” Drive and Be Part of this Community-Powered Radio Revolution!

By Felix Teitelbaum

What does community radio mean to you? We think this commercial-free, free-form, independent station helps make our listeners lives-and life in our communities-just a little better. We strive to make programing that opens ears, opens hearts, and leads us to ask important questions about our world. Even if it’s just to ask yourself, “What in…

Read More

LISTEN: Freedom of Expression at Cornell – Academic freedom

By Celia Clarke

This is the last of my three stories about freedom of expression at Cornell University this year. Here are links to the first and second stories. The academic theme at Cornell this year is “Freedom of Expression.”  In earlier stories, we reported about the general mood at Cornell around free speech, and students’ opinions about…

Read More

Latest from the WRFI News Team

Daily features and interviews from our community

Living with Chronic Illnesses in a Pandemic [AUDIO]

By WRFI News Staff | October 23, 2020 | Comments Off on Living with Chronic Illnesses in a Pandemic [AUDIO]

According to the CDC, chronic illnesses are “conditions that last 1 year or more and require ongoing medical attention or limit activities of daily living or both.” It’s the leading cause of death and disability in the United States. It’s expensive too. Chronic and mental health conditions make up 90% of the US’ $3.5 trillion…

Read More

Coronavirus Update, October 21, 2020

By WRFI News Staff | October 21, 2020 | Comments Off on Coronavirus Update, October 21, 2020

Nearly 100 Tompkins residents have been ordered to enter quarantine following possible contact with an individual who traveled to an out-of-state hockey tournament and later tested positive for COVID-19. The Ithaca Voice reports that the Tompkins County Health Department was notified on October 17 of the individual testing positive for COVID-19.  That person is not…

Read More

“Parents2Polls-Tompkins” Helps Busy Families Access Early Voting Options

By Esther Racoosin | October 21, 2020 | Comments Off on “Parents2Polls-Tompkins” Helps Busy Families Access Early Voting Options

Yael Saar and Margaret Royall are the organizers of a local Get Out the Vote initiative called Parents2Polls Tompkins.  The two voting advocates discuss the car-side service, that helps parents and seniors who are planning to vote at one of the early voting locations in Tompkins County.  Saar and Royall describe how the service works…

Read More

Coronavirus Update, October 20, 2020

By WRFI News Staff | October 20, 2020 | Comments Off on Coronavirus Update, October 20, 2020

The Tompkins County Health Department is alerting local community members about several potential public exposures to COVID-19 at 3 Businesses in Ithaca. Shoppers who went to Wegmans on the following dates and times should seek COVID-19 testing: Wednesday October 7th from 5-8:30pm,  Thursday the 8th, from 5-8:45 p.m., Saturday October 10th from 4:45-9:15pm, or Sunday,…

Read More