Central Illinois’ public radio aims for everyday people

On the west side of Bradley University’s campus, the elevator is broken in Morgan Hall, where WCBU-FM 89.9 was moved five years ago. Navigating the four floors to the public radio station’s newsroom and offices is nowhere near the climb the operation faced in 2018. Then, there was a real possibility that the station would go silent as the university was planning to raze its former site in Jobst Hall after former BU President Gary Roberts announced that it was seeking a new partnership for WCBU, citing financial concerns.

On the air since 1970, WCBU faced uncertain financial support from Bradley and a home. Seeing the uncertainty and appreciating public radio, Illinois State University asked if they could help. An agreement was reached – five years ago this month, when Bradley and ISU arranged for WCBU to continue as a joint service between WCBU and ISU’s WGLT-FM 89.1

R.C. McBride helped craft the agreement.

Executive director/general manager at WCBU and also WGLT-FM 89.1 in Bloomington-Normal, McBride, 50, brought experience to the table.

He started in radio at Danville’s WDAN/WDNL in 1990 as a high school student. In 1997 he started at Bloomington’s WJBC-AM 1230 as reporter/anchor, play-by-play broadcaster, and talk-show host. McBride won a national Edward R. Murrow Award for best radio newscast in 2002, the year he became WJBC Program Director, where he stayed until 2012, when he went to WGLT

“The adjustment wasn’t that hard. I went from commercial radio that demanded 40 or 50% profit to public radio, which still has to be smart and cautious in spending, but doesn’t require that kind of return. In some ways, it was a leap of faith,” McBride says. But “we believe in the mission.”

Indeed, he’s on National Public Radio’s Board of Directors

The arrangement had WGLT’s leadership manage and operate WCBU, but under the ultimate control of Bradley as licensee. The priority in 2019 was to boost local content and cut expenses. WGLT relinquished its Peoria broadcast translator 103.5 to let WCBU-HD2 continue its classical-music programming there; the station moved and hired staff; community support was sustained.

Also, WCBU has had to continually prove itself as a professional, independent news source. Underwriters and listeners wondered change. Also, though WCBU has always been separate from WTVP-TV 47 (which went on the air a year after WCBU), Channel 47’s previous leadership openly coveted taking over the radio station.

The radio station remains a strong, standalone operation, McBride says.

And independent, adds News Director Tim Shelley, who says neither WGLT nor NPR dictates story assignments, content emphasis or perspectives.

Shelley, 33, is from East Peoria, where he attended Illinois Central College before going to Bradley. After editing weekly newspapers in Tazewell and Woodford counties, he moved to broadcast, becoming assignment editor and later social-media and digital-content manager at WEEK-TV 25 from 2015-2019.

Now, Shelley says he notices a connection with the audience: the public.

“We feel a real engagement with the community,” he says. “People do care.”

The station has an active community advisory board that advocates for listeners and offers ideas and suggestions, Shelley says.

Like most public broadcasting operations, WCBU is non-profit balancing public service and staying in business, so a key is listener membership and underwriting. Fundraising is handled with WGLT, but accounts are separate. And the station tries to focus on its everyday listeners.

“I’d say our [fundraising] philosophy is more grassroots than targeting big spenders,” McBride says. “We hope listeners start out by giving $5 and grow. It’s not fast; it takes time, but they tend to feel some ‘ownership’ in the station.”

Besides Shelley, WCBU’s newsroom staff includes three full-time journalists (employed by ISU), five part-time correspondents such as ex-Journal Star reporter Steve Tarter and Peoria Chronicle ag writer Tim Alexander, and four student interns, all working on material about Peoria, Tazewell and Woodford counties, which Illinois Public Radio and National Public Radio can use.

The news staff shouldn’t be dismissed as “scrappy” as much as punching above its weight. Arguably, its newsroom is the most reliable news source for central Illinois. Other broadcast newsrooms have cut staff, as has the Journal Star, and the Community Word covers overlooked subjects but comes out monthly. [Full disclosure: the Community Word and WCBU partner on some contents.]

“Some days are super-heavy, requiring an immediacy,” Shelley says. “Other days we may do something else, something lighter but still substantive. We’re not going to do a story on a minor fender-bender.”

Recognizing that stories about public affairs – government, courts, safety, business, etc. – are covered so much less than recent years that the area is becoming a “news desert,” WCBU is increasing coverage outside Peoria, first concentrating on Pekin and Washington but looking at doing more from counties it reaches: Bureau, Knox, Marshall, Mason and Stark.

As with all media, delivery changed, too. Radio isn’t just available from a living-room cabinet, backyard transistor, kitchen counter unit or a car dashboard, with reports limited to the top of the hour. So WCBU has adopted a “digital-first” approach, giving listeners more ways to access content: on phones or computers via Alexa, Spotify, etc.

“We have a good team; we hope everybody stays. But there aren’t as many ‘lifers’ – in all media,” Shelley says. “People go to bigger cities, get different pay, look for bigger opportunities.”

For now, WCBU’s newsroom talents contributed to honors from the Associated Press and the Illinois News Broadcasters Association, the Public Media Journalists Association and the Radio Television Digital News Association, plus back-to-back recognition from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which in 2022 and 2023 awarded WCBU the Edward R. Murrow Award for overall excellence in small market radio in Region 7, which includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. 

“What we have is special,” Shelley says.

And a new joint-service agreement lasting through June of 2029 reportedly has been finalized, with Bradley’s formal announcement imminent.

In his office on Morgan Hall’s 4^th floor, McBride adds, “We hope the partnership has been a net positive for everybody. I think the public service has improved [and] both stations are able to offer more than they were.”

$ox bid is corporate welfare

This month, days after Major League Baseball’s Opening Day, taxpayers face the deadline to file their tax returns, and I don’t think even White Sox great and Peoria-area Hall of Famer Jim Thome could persuade Illinoisans to embrace Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf’s request for $1 billion to build another ballpark.

And Thome’s one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet.

I’m not sure about Reinsdorf.

Reinsdorf’s idea is to partner with developer Related Midwest to build a new stadium on a 62-acre vacant space called The 78 with a hotel, office complex, restaurants, 5,000 residential units, and a 4,000-space parking garage. He’d also abandon Guaranteed Rate Field (GRF), owned by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority (ISFA), which still owes a reported $50 million on the stadium. The Sox’ lease for GRF is through 2029.

Awkwardly, Reinsdorf went to Springfield to plead his case the day before Gov. JB Pritzker’s budget address, and says he needs more revenue than gate receipts and overpriced concessions – like fees to park in his proposed garage.

In 1981, Reinsdorf and the late Eddie Einhorn bought the Sox and the original Comiskey Park that opened in 1910 and renovated it in the’80s. But “Reinsdorf began lobbying for a new ballpark just eight years after his new Comiskey Park uprooted a neighborhood at $150 million in public expense,” wrote Joana Cagan and Neil deMause in their 1998 book “Field of Schemes.”

In 1988, the General Assembly “stopped the clock” to prevent the Sox from moving to Tampa/St. Petersburg by giving Reinsdorf some $200 million to replace the “new” Comiskey. GRF’s construction and renovations in 2001-2007 cost $485 million, adjusted for inflation.

Recent rumors had the ChiSox moving to Nashville.

Most studies say subsidies aren’t supported by claims of economic development, job creation or promised growth. Using public funds to enrich private ventures by wealthy owners takes money from infrastructure, public services and other needs.

“Research indicates that state and local subsidies for professional sports franchises generally are not economically justified,” wrote Daniel J. Lathrope in South Texas Law Review in 1997. “There are several reasons. First, despite public perceptions, a professional sports franchise has only a small total economic effect, about the same as that of a new department store. Second, the impact studies typically used to support public expenditures on sports facilities are flawed. The increased spending and economic development produced by a new facility is exaggerated. The impact studies generally assume that increased stadium revenue represents a corresponding expansion in the local economy; however, it is more logical to assume that a large portion of such spending is being shifted from other activities in the city or surrounding area."

In The Atlantic, Rick Paulus agreed.

“Pro sports teams are bad business deals for cities, and yet, cities continue to fall for them,” he wrote. “Construction on the stadium might be performed by local workers, but it might not. Even if the construction workers are local, their gigs last only a few years. Afterward, all that remains are the jobs inside the stadium –ticket sellers, vendors, janitorial staff – which are low-paid, seasonal and few.”

Nationally, the median, or midpoint, for stadium subsidies is $500 million, up from $350 million in 2010.

“This is without exception,” said J.C. Bradbury, a Kennesaw State University economics professor who’s researched the issue. “It’s really across the board that these are really poor public investments.”

Taxpayers must be skeptical and surely resent paying for a billionaire’s investing in real-estate instead of his team.

Reinsdorf, 88, has a net worth of $2.4 billion, Forbes magazine said in January.

That’s a lot of money.

Take a second.

If you count 1 million seconds, it will take 11.5 days. Counting to billion would take 31.7 YEARS.

Government responsibilities should be about roads, schools, libraries, public safety, etc.

“I think I’ve been really clear about the fact that the taxpayers’ dollars are precious and the idea of taking taxpayer dollars and subsidizing the building of a stadium as opposed to, for example, subsidizing the building of a birthing center, does not seem like the stadium ought to have higher priority,” Pritzker’s said.

Maybe Reinsdorf ask wouldn’t come directly from state coffers. The ISFA would sell bonds, and Reinsdorf could repackage bonds and use a sales taxing district and sleight-of-hand Tax Increment Financing, iintended for “blighted” areas.

Meanwhile, the Red Stars women’s soccer team and the Bears also hope for new stadiums, and the Cubs say they need government help to qualify for hosting an All-Star Game.

Aren’t we at a tipping point?

Are there options? In Washington a bipartisan bill, the No Tax Subsidies for Stadiums Act, cosponsored by Sens. Jim Lankford (R-Okla.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) is stalled in the Senate. How about a statewide referendum? Or a box on state tax returns where taxpayers could check if they’re OK with X-percent of their taxes going to Reinsdorf?

“Let me see if I have this straight,” commented State Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago). “Billionaire businessman doesn’t like the last stadium we built for him and wants us to pay for a new one.

“I don’t think we should be subsidizing successful billionaire businessmen. Period.”

Construction booming, but workers needed

U.S. construction nationally is experiencing somewhat of a boom, shown in several months of growth. However, more workers are needed to meet the demand, according to new research.

The three most recent surveys by the Census Bureau show not only about $2 trillion of total monthly activity, but month-to-month growth each month, from 0.2% to 0.9%. Even with residential housing starts dropping 14% from December to January – mostly due to inclement weather and contractor reluctance to build on speculation with the Federal Reserve not lowering interest rates affecting mortgages – the construction industry is robust from coast to coast.

And in west-central Illinois.

“I know home builders have commented that builders haven't been building due to material costs and uncertainty in building spec houses,” comments Jimmy Dillon, Associate Director of the West Central Building & Construction Trades Council. But “the numbers provided by the U.S. Census Bureau are probably very similar around here.”

Overall nationwide residential construction showed improvements from last year in November (+3.7%), December (+6.8%) and January (+5.2%). See chart below.

Nevertheless, growth could be even better since activity is slowed by a lagging labor force.

“If there are fewer workers available, construction takes longer,” said Lily Roberts, managing director for inclusive growth at the Center for American Progress, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

The country needs about 7 million more homes to house everyone who needs shelter. But to build all those homes, experts say, America would need many more construction workers.

However, construction’s work force has been adversely affected by a series of factors: Some 30% of construction’s labor force was lost in the Great Recession of 2008, report economists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Utah; other losses came during the COVID pandemic (generally from late 2019 through early 2022), and a slew of retirements, recorded by the National Center for Construction Education and Research, which noticed that about one-fifth of construction workers are 55 years old or older.

Also, a crackdown on immigration dating to the Obama administration has contributed to the shortfall of workers, the university economists say, and about two-thirds of construction companies report many job applicants just don’t have the necessary skills.

Some states, including Illinois, are responding by funding apprenticeships, investing in community college programs and offering grants to help certain industries, all hoping to build a stream of skilled construction workers, according to Robbie Sequeira of Stateline news.

In metro Peoria, “local schools have put a new effort towards Career technical Education programs instead of just trying to send kids to college,” Dillon says. “Dr. Sheila Quirk Bailey at Illinois Central College has spoken a lot about the need for credentials, [and] the trades have been spending a lot of time and effort recruiting at schools.

“Some training schools have had less people applying than they have had in years past,” he continues. “There are also a lot of employers offering good middle-class jobs out there – all competing for the same workers.”

Quirk Bailey, ICC’s President, this winter introduced an Advanced Placement: AP Workforce initiative in cooperation with Illini Bluffs High School, Pekin Community High School, Peoria Public Schools, the Peoria Regional Office of Education, SkillsUSA Illinois, the West Central Illinois Building and Construction Trades Council and Illinois Central College, all to centralize work-based learning experiences for high school students to address workforce shortages and provide students with pathways to good jobs post-graduation.

“The consortium’s AP Workforce initiative will result in a regional work-based system designed to improve college and industry credential attainment, employment rates, and earnings through a centralized hub that will scale equity-driven work-based learning and apprenticeships throughout the Central Illinois region,” said Quick Bailey. “Industries of focus include health care, construction, HVAC, industrial maintenance/manufacturing, and information technology. 

“The Advanced Placement: AP Workforce initiative will be a game changer for this region,” she continued. “Instead of an increasing number of our high school graduates pursuing no options post high school to secure their future, the AP Workforce initiative will ensure these students gain work-based experiences and college credit, graduate and transition to apprenticeships that ensure their futures.”

 

Construction grew over last few months

Growth from previous month

                                     November                  December                   January

Total                             $2 trillion (+0.4%)       $2 trillion (+0.9%)        $2.1 trillion (+0.2%)

Private                         $1.5 trillion (+0.7%)     $1.6 trillion (+0.7%)     $1.6 trillion (+0.1%)

Public                           $455 billion (+0.7%)    $476 billion (+1.3%)    $479 billion (+0.9%)

 

Percentage growth from last year by project type

                                       November                  December                   January

Residential                     +3.7%                         +6.8%                        +5.2%

Religious                        +31.1%                       +31.3%                      +23.5%

Highway/street                +15.3%                     +25.9%                       +22.2%

Manufacturing                +59.1%                      +0.5%                         +36.6%

 Source: U.S. Census’ “Value of Construction Put in Place Survey,” seasonally adjusted annual rates