Tomczyk Joins Illinois Public Media as General Manager

The College of Media at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and WTVP, Public Media for Central Illinois, have announced that Chet Tomczyk will join the team at Illinois Public Media. He will serve as interim general manager starting September 3, 2013. He brings with him over 40 years of media experience, the last 19 at WTVP in Peoria.

Tomczyk will not be leaving his current position of president and CEO at WTVP, but will instead be splitting his time between the two properties as a shared administrator. “This collaboration offers an unprecedented opportunity for two neighboring public broadcasting entities to jointly increase their relevance and value to the many communities they serve. I am excited by the possibilities and honored to be associated with the WILL stations,” Tomczyk said.

“WILL and WTVP have strong programming and community support and will retain their independence," said Jan Slater, dean of the College of Media. "This unique cooperative administrative arrangement increases the opportunities to broaden the collaborative efforts that are already underway between the two stations, benefiting the viewing audiences and communities across the coverage area. Chet is a veteran in the public broadcasting arena. Illinois Public Media is a strong, vibrant set of stations and with Chet serving in this interim role, I have every confidence that we can maintain and hopefully enhance its level of excellence in service to the communities in our viewing area.”

Joseph Strupek, chair of the Board of Trustees of the Illinois Valley Public Telecommunications Corporation, the governing body of WTVP, said, “This partnership offers a tremendous opportunity for WTVP and WILL to explore new ways to connect with central Illinois communities to meet their news, education and entertainment needs. The board of trustees is looking forward to working with WILL and Chet on behalf of our collective viewing areas.”

The previous general manager of Illinois Public Media, Mark Leonard, accepted a new position this summer as general manager and CEO of Nebraska Educational Telecommunications in Lincoln. Upon his departure, Leonard said, “I believe there are exciting possibilities for building deeper partnerships with WILL's peer public radio and television stations throughout Illinois." This leadership arrangement between WILL and WTVP is one such partnership.