About Us

Smile Healthy! is a partnership between public radio station, WILL-AM 580, commercial radio station, WBCP-AM 1580, Champaign County Health Care Consumers (CCHCC) and members of the community. The partnership began in the fall of 2002.

In May 2000, the U.S. Surgeon General issued its first report on oral health and found that there are profound and rarely-noticed disparities in care that amount to “a silent epidemic of oral diseases” among the nation’s poor, members of minority groups, the elderly and children. Champaign County Health Care Consumers, a local grassroots citizen action organization, reports that 50 percent of calls to their hotline are about access to affordable dental care. Calls include Medicaid beneficiaries, whose only option for receiving dental care is a single dental clinic with a waiting list 800 patients long.

The partnership between WILL-AM, CCHCC and WBCP-AM will educate the community about this lack of access to affordable dental care, enhance efforts to create systemic change and stimulate community-wide discussion. We hope to involve those most affected by the problem and mobilize people to participate in an already-established community organizing effort.

WILL-AM, founded in 1922, is an NPR affiliate licensed by the University of Illinois. Each week, more than 48,000 tune to WILL-AM for its daily news and weather reports, feature stories, local talk programs and nationally syndicated news and public affairs programs. WILL’s local programming is produced by an award-winning staff of journalists.

WBCP-AM, founded in 1990, is the only minority-owned-and-operated adult urban contemporary radio station in east central Illinois. WBCP features classic and contemporary urban contemporary music as well as jazz, blues, and 25 hours of live local talk and gospel programs hosted by African American community leaders and ministers from east central Illinois.

CCHCC is a 25-year-old non-profit grassroots citizen action organization founded on the premise of participatory democracy and the belief that meaningful reforms in the health care system will come only with the active involvement of consumers. All people should have access to health care at an affordable price.

Organization Contact Information:

Champaign County Health Care Consumers
44 East Main Street, Suite 208
Champaign, IL 61820
217-352-6533 (phone)
217- 352-9745 (fax)
Website
Email

WILL-AM 580
300 North Goodwin Avenue
Urbana, IL 61801
217-333-0850 (phone)
217-333-7151 (fax)
Website
Email

WBCP-AM 1580
904 N. 4th Street, Unit D
Champaign, IL 61820
217-359-1580 (phone)
217-359-1583 (fax)
Email

Smile Healthy is a collaboration between WILL-AM 580, WBCP-AM 1580 and Champaign County Health Care Consumers. Smile Healthy is underwritten by Sound Partners for Community Health - a program of the Benton Foundation, funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which is dedicated to improving health and health care for all Americans.

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