The Robert P. Crawford Audio Archives contains 58 hours and 47 minutes of tape recorded radio broadcasts, copied onto 63 audio CDs. Robert P. Crawford (b. 1936) was the City Hall Correspondent for WBBM radio in Chicago from the 1960s until his retirement in 2001. The central figures are six Chicago mayors from Richard J. Daley to Richard M. Daley. There are 2148 separate speeches, news conferences, and interviews. There is also an "Archives Preview" disk narrated by Crawford. The collection is divided into seven series:

Series I: The Richard J. Daley Years (1968-76, 7 CDs) features a variety of topics including Daley's secret to winning elections, his handling of the anti-war riots during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and the controversial "shoot to kill order" Daley issues to police to deal with arsonists during the riots that followed the slaying of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Series II: The Michael Bilandic Years (1976-79, 1 CD) focuses on his administration's perceived failure to provide adequate snow removal after a record blizzard in January, 1979.

Series III: The Jane Byrne Years (1979-83, 7 CDs) gives insight to Chicago's first woman Mayor and such issues as the Firefighters Union strike in 1980, public housing reform, and nepotism.

Series IV: The Harold Washington Years (1983-87, 5 CDs) features Washington's political battles with the "Vrdolyak 29" majority in the City Council, his efforts to end Machine-style control of city government and his pursuit of political reform.

Series V: The Eugene Sawyer Years (1987-89, 1 CD) features Sawyer's conflict between the Democratic Machine and members of the Washington Coalition.

Series VI: The Richard M. Daley Years (1989-2001, 12 CDs) features issues including the 1996 Democratic National Convention, school reform, and race relations in Chicago.

Series VII: Politicians and Other Figures series (29 CDs) features speeches, commentaries and news conferences given in Chicago between 1982 and 2003 by 175 figures from government, religion, the law, civil rights, and sports. Included are three debates from the 1983 campaign for Mayor of Chicago, debates from the 1992 and 1998 races for the U.S. Senate in Illinois, and items by President Bill Clinton, Illinois Governors Thompson, Edgar and Ryan, Senator Paul Simon, Congressman Harry Hyde, Nelson Mandela, and many others.

The original tapes of the above items are housed in Special Collections at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The University Archives at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign also holds copies of the tapes and CD copies.