For 13 years, the Daily Illini (DI) and WPGU-FM 107.1 have helped bring holiday smiles to children through Operation Santa. The DI seeks out organizations, businesses, and individuals to donate gifts matching the wishes of children from partnering charities, and WPGU-FM hosts an on-air monetary pledge drive. Last year the duo raised over $8,000 to fulfill holiday wishes for children serviced by Crisis Nursery and Parent Wonders.
The goal is to provide gifts to a total of 80 families from the Center for Women in Transition, Cunningham Children’s Home, First Call for Help, Crisis Nursery, and Parent Wonders. To achieve this goal the DI and WPGU need help from the community.

Be a part of Operation Santa 2007!

There are three options for getting involved:

1. Cash donations can be made towards the purchase of gifts. Call WPGU at (217)337-1071 to make your donation. Every donation made will also grant the giver one song request on-air.
2. If you want the warm fuzzies that come from purchasing a gift yorself, or if your organization wants to organize a gift drive, gifts can be purchased directly from a child’s wish list. Please email dipromo@illinimedia.com by November 29 if interested in participating through this route. After expressing intent to participate, a children’s wish list will be supplied.
3. Looking for a fun night out for a good cause? Check out the “12 Beers of Christmas” event at the Esquire, Dec. 13 @ 6:00. (Thanks to a commenter we’ve corrected this time!) For $20 you can sample 12 different seasonal microbrew beers. 50% of all proceeds benefit Operation Santa.

Lets make sure that everyone has a happy holiday! Donate now!

This Friday night, the217.com will be sponsoring its first-ever show, headlined by the ridiculously awesome …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. It’s going to be a kick-ass show and a over-the-top launch party all rolled in to one, going down at the Canopy Club. Doors open at 8pm. Of course, you could buy tickets directly, but why buy them when you can win them?

WPGU, your True Alternative, is going to be giving away tickets all week. Make sure you listen in at 2:17pm (get it? get it?) every day, because that’s when we’ll tell you where to go in C-U to try to win free tickets. There are also a limited number of free tickets available at the Illini Apple Center (512 E. Green Street). Don’t miss the opportunity to hang out with the staffs of the217.com, Buzz, and WPGU, and see a truly awesome show.

More information about the event can be found here. If you’re not already familiar with them, get a taste of Trail of Dead at their MySpace or with one of their music videos (and be sure to search YouTube for more great clips).

…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead is sponsored by WPGU 107.1 FM, the Illini Apple Center, and the Buzz.

Hello and welcome to the217.com!

Many people from WPGU, Buzz, and the Illini Media Company as a whole have put in many, many long hours, sleepless nights, and blood, sweat, and tears into the site. I’m proud to welcome you as our first guests to check out what we’ve been up to.

First and foremost, this site is your home for everything that’s entertaining and enlightening in Champaign-Urbana. Hence, our slogan: I invite you to get out and explore everything that Champaign-Urbana has to offer, and come back to visit us and sound off about what you loved and hated (Though, if you’re following our recommendations, hopefully there won’t be too many things you hate).

There are more features built-in to this site than we could possibly list, but a short overview would have to include:

• Live playlists, DJ profiles, our live netstream, and a comprehensive artist index with biographies and album reviews from WPGU-FM.
• All the articles from every week’s Buzz magazine, plus tons of online exclusive articles and coverage, including full photo galleries and next-day concert reviews from the Buzz staff.
• A fully searchable, in-depth calendar covering pretty much anything that’s going on in Chambana (Like CuCalendar, but on steroids… minus the tiny balls).
• A directory of nearly every restaurant and bar in Champaign-Urbana, searchable by a variety of features and cuisines. This feature is truly kick-ass (I’ve been using it A LOT since we went into beta mode).
• Over a dozen blogs spanning the complete breadth of the topics we cover, written by people who actually know what the hell they’re talking about.
• Last, but most certainly not least, the ability to comment on every article, blog, restaurant listing, and album that we have in our database

Also, don’t forget to register for your own shiny, new the217.com account. You’ll need one to comment and submit calendar events anyway, but if you register in the month of November, you’ll also be eligible to win some sweet prizes (including a MacBook!)

Now, as with any new site, I’m sure there’ll be a few kinks to work out as you all start messing around with the site. If you see any problems or errors, just click the “Find an Error?” link at the bottom of any page and tell us about it. Or, you can just e-mail me at producer@the217.com with any questions, comments, or concerns. If we missed your event in the calendar or business in the directory, click on the link to send us updated infomation for the relevant section. Bottom line: we want this site to be a great experience for you, which means being complete and bug-free (as soon as possible).

So that’s the end of my welcome spiel. Thanks for stopping by the check us out. I hope you like what you see, and that you come back to us again really soon. (How does tomorrow work for you?)

Over and out.