For WILLAg, first ever bus tour, rearranged analyst schedule Farmers and their families took a bus trip to “Follow the Corn” from the fields of the Midwest down the Mississippi River to export markets in New Orleans Aug. 20-24. WILL’s Todd Gleason was the tour host and designer; 54 Friends of WILL traveled with Todd on our first ever WILLAg tour. A highlight of the week-long adventure was a tour of the Zen Noh Grain export elevator in Convent, La., which handles 400 million bushels of corn annually. Among other developments in agricultural programming this past year, the retirement of analyst Paul Cooley in April allowed agricultural programming director Dave Dickey to bring Risk Management Commodities, represented by Bill Gentry, back into a weekly presence in the Pre-Opening Market Report. Jacquie Voeks of
Stewart Peterson Group joined the analysts on the Opening and Closing Market reports. In My Backyard, Lisa Bralts’ commentary segments about the intersection of food and neighborhoods, settled into a permanent slot in the Closing Market Report, offering an alternative to commodity-driven programming. The All Day Ag Outlook Meeting at the Beef House in Covington, Ind., drew a sold-out crowd once again, and our Ag eLetter was emailed weekly to more than 2,900 people.
A new host for Focus Craig Cohen became the interim host of WILL-AM’s Focus in September, following the retirement of longtime Focus host David Inge. Craig, who is also Illinois Public Media director of news and public affairs, retained Focus as a thoughtful, respectful conversation about the issues and ideas affecting our world. Focus became a one-hour program, a change necessitated by staff retirements and a tightened budget.
By moving Fresh Air to 11 am, WILLAM 580 was able to add Talk of the Nation to its schedule at 1 pm, offering listeners the opportunity to join discussions with decision-makers, authors, academicians and artists from around the world.
Illinois Radio Reader: Now mobile! More Illinois Radio Reader users began accessing the service on the Internet during the past year. Illinois Public Media’s service for blind and visually impaired people is available via Web streaming as well as special radio receivers. In addition, IRR’s programming became available on the mobile app iBlinkRadio, which uses smart phone technology to serve the visually impaired community. IRR’s Vintage Vinyl sale in May raised more than $14,000 for the service. And finally, the Illinois Radio Reader was awarded $2,800 from the Community Foundation of East Central Illinois for the purchase of sub-carrier radios provided to new IRR listeners.