WILL Press Room

Illinois Public Media welcomed two new staffers in January: Chris Berube, on-air host for Morning Edition and The Afternoon Magazine, and Lindsey Moon, producer for the morning talk show, Focus.

Danda Beard, who has worked in development at WILL for the past 23 years, has been named as the new director of development at Illinois Public Media. Beard joined the staff as corporate support director, became director of the major gifts program in 2000 and has been interim development director since June 2012.

John Steinbacher has joined the staff of Illinois Public Media as membership director. Steinbacher came to Illinois Public Media from the Champaign-based International Society of Arboriculture, a professional organization with 21,000 members worldwide where he was the membership and component relations manager.

Republican Rodney Davis of Taylorville, Democrat David Gill of Bloomington, and Independent John Hartman of Edwardsville, candidates for Congress in the new 13th District, will meet in the WILL-TV studio for a debate hosted by Illinois Public Media in collaboration with the League of Women Voters of Illinois and WCIA-TV 3/WCIX-TV 49.

WILL-TV, WILL-AM 580 and WCIX-TV will broadcast the hour-long debate live, with live video streaming on will.illinois.edu.

Illinois Public Media’s programming about community hunger has won two Silver Awards of Distinction in the international 2012 Communicator Awards. It also was named a Bronze Winner in the 2012 Telly Awards.

WILL's reporters and contributors won six awards in the downstate radio division of the 2011 Illinois Associated Press Broadcasters Association Journalism Excellence Contest, including best investigative series, best documentary series and best sports story.

David Inge, longtime host of WILL-AM’s morning talk show Focus, has announced his plans to retire from the University of Illinois and WILL Radio before July 1, as have the station’s Afternoon Magazine host Celeste Quinn and Focus producer Harriet Williamson.

Public television and public radio stations in Illinois have entered into an unprecedented partnership to create and launch Illinois PBS LearningMedia, a free, on-demand media resource designed to help PreK-12 educators integrate technology to teach core subjects in the classroom.