Effective radiated power is 34,000 watts, covering northeast Indiana, northwest Ohio and extreme southern Michigan.

WBOI began broadcasting on June 5, 1978, as WIPU on the campus of Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne (IPFW) with a very limited schedule using university staff and students.

[4] The station began airing occasional tapes of local concerts, including the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra.

[5] In 2007, NIPR acquired WCKZ (94.1 FM) in Roanoke, then a commercial rock music station, and added it to the classical service.

The station carries Morning Edition, All Things Considered and other nationally broadcast public radio programs.

In July 2016, Peter Dominowski announced that Northeast Indiana Public Radio had purchased a two-story building on Jefferson Boulevard in downtown Fort Wayne to serve as the future headquarters for WBOI.

In 2008, Joan Baumgartner Brown was selected as president and general manager of Northeast Indiana Public Radio (NIPR).

[13] On January 20, 2009, in a letter to NIPR members, Brown announced that the board had decided to sell WBNI's three analog signals as soon as possible.

Financial concerns, caused by the "weak economy" and insufficient contributions from underwriters and members failed to cover the substantial costs of acquiring and upgrading the transmitter towers in Orland and Roanoke.

[17] In December 2021, NIPR announced that its new president and general manager would be Terra Brantley, a former news anchor for WANE-TV.

[18] Terra Brantley resigned in November 2022 to return to television as a news anchor on WFFT, beginning December 12, 2022.