WILL Press Room
WILL Digital Radio on the Air!
Monday, August 25, 2008
WILL has officially launched its digital radio service.
The new FM 90.9 digital service provides three streams of content: FM 90.9 HD1—a simulcast of the FM music service; FM 90.9 HD2 and HD3—the news and information service, also available on AM 580.
To tune to the new service on your digital radio, tune to FM 90.9. After a brief delay, the radio will pull in the WILL FM 90.9 HD1 signal. If you want to listen to the AM service, dial the radio up to HD2.
* Hear a clearer, more reliable sound of music from 90.9;
* Get AM 580’s news and information 24 hours a day in Mahomet, Monticello, Decatur and even further west.
Digital radio dramatically improves reception and sound quality. Within WILL-FM’s primary service area the digital signal will not be subject to interference or fading caused by buildings and other radio signals. And the background hiss heard in communities farther away from our Monticello-based transmitter (including Champaign and Urbana) is gone.
The digital radio installation was funded with a $75,000 federal grant, a major gift from Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) and generous gifts from a number of Friends of WILL.
Leonard Named General Manager at WILL AM-FM-TV
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Mark Leonard, general manager for Central Washington of KCTS-TV in Seattle, has been named the new general manager of WILL AM-FM-TV-Online and director of broadcasting for the College of Communications at the University of Illinois, pending approval of the U of I Board of Trustees. He succeeds Donald Mullally, who retired in 2005.
Announcing the appointment, effective June 15, Ron Yates, dean of the College of Communications, said Leonard’s career spans more than 27 years in public broadcasting, including senior management positions in Seattle and Yakima, Wash., and at WXXI in Rochester, N.Y., where he was vice president for television.
“He brings vision, energy and creativity to WILL and the Division of Broadcasting at a time when public broadcasting needs such qualities,” Yates said.
As general manager for Central Washington at KCTS-TV, Leonard manages all station operations of KYVE, KCTS’ Yakima station. He was chief administrative officer at KCTS-TV from 2000-2003.
Leonard said he is looking forward to heading up WILL’s operation, in part because it’s a combined public media service with radio, television and new media. “It’s an opportunity to innovate with new models of service for public media,” he said.
WILL is a station with a long history and great tradition that has already built a solid history of service to its local communities, Leonard said. His experience at other stations has reinforced his understanding that localism is an essential value of public broadcasting, he said. “With the overall consolidation of commercial media, localism is an increasingly rare but important asset. As a result, public broadcasting has a unique opportunity to build and expand upon local strengths,” said Leonard, who worked briefly in television production for WILL-TV in 1982.
Leonard is a past president of the Washington State Public Broadcasters Association, where he successfully reversed declining state support for public television. He is a graduate of the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, and participated in the Executive Development Program at the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Rochester.
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Contact:
Mary Barrineau
Public Information Coordinator
WILL AM-FM-TV
217-333-1070