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Rich Bradley, news director of WUIS (91.9 FM),
fulfilled a lifelong dream when he built Springfield’s only public
radio station from the ground up in 1975. Not only was he given free rein to develop a
broadcast model focused primarily on news and cultural programming, but he
was also relieved to leave his hectic commercial radio days far behind. “We used to have five-minute newscasts; 90
seconds was commercial, the rest of it was news and weather,” Bradley
says. “A news consultant told us we had to fit 11, 12 stories, plus
the weather, into three-and-a-half minutes. It was a zoo.”
Although the length of news stories is not an object
of concern for WUIS, thanks to the availability of airtime and
reporters’ ability to post extended interviews on the Internet,
Bradley says that public radio usually finds its own struggle in the form
of funding. Commercial radio stations sell advertising, but
public radio stations must rely on their host institutions (in WUIS’
case, the University of Illinois at Springfield), a mix of federal and
state funds, underwriting, and listener contributions. As the number of public radio stations has increased,
federal and state sources of money have decreased, forcing stations to rely
more heavily on fundraising. WUIS was affected this year when Gov. Rod
Blagojevich cut nearly $1.5 million from the Illinois Arts Council grant
for public radio and television, equaling a $15,000 loss for the station,
Bradley says. But what could have spelled disaster for WUIS turned
out to be a blessing — “dumb luck,” Bradley jokingly
says. Last month the station completed its annual fall fund drive,
employing a “go green” message and a promise to plant trees
around the community. Bradley says the station far surpassed the goal of
$126,000 when listeners pledged $142,000. Now, not only can WUIS plant
nearly 900 trees in Springfield, he says, but the station has more than
recovered its lost dollars as well. Bradley says that credit for WUIS’ popularity
with listeners lies with its special features, such as “Skirting
Convention,” a series that profiles a dozen distinguished Springfield
women, and investigative news stories, including a recent five-part series
on school-district discipline and a two-part piece on gangs. “In terms of news, it’s the quality of
the product and also a product of the time that we make available to
develop story ideas,” Bradley says. “Commercial radio,
commercial television — I can’t imagine going back to
that.”
Contact Amanda Robert at arobert@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Nov 8-14, 2007.
