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Story category: history
WORLD WAR II: CENTRAL ILLINOIS STORIES Illinois' Tuskegee Airmen
Story air date: Tuesday, February 19, 2008
The story of the Tuskegee Airmen began as an experiment and ended by proving the ability of many African-American servicemen. The military’s first black pilots withstood animosity to fight America’s enemies overseas while continuing to fight racism on the home front. The next in our series looks at the paths taken by two of the first members of the Army Air Corps’ 99th Pursuit Squadron. Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul was the first training ground for these officers. AM 580’s Jeff Bossert spoke with the widows of two men, Bill Thompson and Ellsworth Dansby, who helped pave the way for many others.
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history • peopleA Comedic Look at Urbana History
Story air date: Tuesday, February 19, 2008
A six foot long cake loaded with historical pictures and live music highlighted Urbana's 175th birthday celebration at Lincoln Square Village. History was the theme -- and not just in edible form. Historians tell us that Urbana's founding fathers had a name before they even found a perfect location for the city. The Zoo Theatre Improv Group (R to L: Sean Whitsitt, Aubrey Wachtel and Brian Hagy) has put its spin on the unusual founding of Urbana, and how it might have been when Abraham Lincoln came to Urbana for the very first time.
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arts and culture • community life • historyRose Bowl '47
Story air date: Thursday, December 27, 2007
The upcoming rose Bowl between Illinois and USC will carry on a tradition that's more than six decades old. In 1947, Illinois played in the first Rose Bowl to pit the champion of what was then called the Big Nine against the Pacific Coast Conference champion (now called the Pac 10). Radio was still the nation's dominant broadcast medium, and it covered not only the game itself but the buildup and the aftermath. Recordings of those broadcasts have been stored in the University of Illinois Archives ever since. Matt Ehrlich takes us back 61 years to when the Fighting Illini headed west looking for respect.
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history • sports • University of IllinoisWORLD WAR II: CENTRAL ILLINOIS STORIES - The Battle of the Bulge
Story air date: Monday, December 17, 2007
63 years ago this week, Germany was mounting its last major offensive in World War Two. Months later, the Nazis would fall and the guns of war would finally go silent in Europe. In the following decades, we heard about bits and pieces of the conflagration, hundreds of thousands of individual stories from those on the front lines. Now, one by one, those voices are also falling silent. AM 580’s Tom Rogers let five area residents – four veterans (including Harold Cox, above-right) and a civilian -- tell their stories of the war’s bloodiest battle.
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history • peopleOne American POW's Story
Story air date: Thursday, September 20, 2007
Curt Campbell (left, holding a copy of his memoirs) is a retired farmer -- and an American serviceman who experienced prison life behind enemy lines. AM 580’s Tom Rogers talked with him.
