In the St. Louis area, KDHX plays the part; WEFT does the same in Champaign- Urbana. Both are not-for-profit, independently owned stations established for decades.

WESN, operated by Illinois Wesleyan University for 37 years, does the trick in Bloomington-Normal. Springfield came a little late to the game with WQNA using volunteers to man the microphones in the evening hours only by the late ’90s.

Creative beginnings The station began as an offshoot of the Capital Area Vocational Center, a public school offering area high school students an opportunity to attend half-day classes oriented toward vocations or, as they are more commonly known, jobs. The Capital Area Career Center (CACC) as it’s now titled, is alive and well, located near Lincoln Land Community College on Toronto Road, focusing on various alternatives for students interested in pursuing other careers than those offered in a regular high school curriculum. The center offers courses in photography, auto mechanics, computer graphics, human services, business technology and, of course, radio.

“In 1977 I was working at then WSSR at Sangamon State when they called me about starting this program at the CAVC,” says Jim Grimes, founding WQNA station manager and retired CACC communications instructor. “We had a tremendous amount of help from local people, including technical advice and used gear from other stations. We built it from scratch and went on air in August of ’79.”

In the late ’90s, after some FCC rule changes, the advent of computers and the arrival of automation, Grimes was ready to expand the station from daytime student programs to evening and weekend shows hosted by volunteer DJs.

“In ’98 we were able to go on air 24 hours a day using recorded student programs and automation, but it became real obvious, as our goal was to be live as much as possible, that we should reach out to community members,” says Grimes. “Our first contacts were Dennis Clark, Jim Dunn, Jim Pemberton and Kerri Donovan, and it quickly grew to about 50 volunteers. The goal was to do stuff the commercial stations can’t afford to do and give an alternative to the community. Students also got the chance to record programs during the day and listen to themselves on air at night.”

The original WQNA purpose of training high school students attending the CACC is still the primary use of the station, and its main source of funding is the public school system.

Students learn how to create a radio program by having one. First-year students use prerecorded methods and the second year ones go live on the air.

Mike Ware, a senior at Springfield Southeast High School who hosts a show on Thursday morning, came to the CACC for the television classes and stayed for the music.

“It’s a great experience having a radio show in high school, playing songs I like for other people,” he says. “My favorite part is actually getting requests, knowing that someone is out there listening. Sometimes I get a call from family in California and once someone working

at the state fairgrounds called to request a song and thank me for doing a good job.”

Current CACC instructor and WQNA director Deb Antoine works with the students, using an easygoing style that fits into the laid back atmosphere of the media classroom and the individual freedom offered to students working fairly independently. As the overall person behind both areas of WQNA, she guides the student DJs in classroom work and helps the volunteer DJs. She takes care of budget issues and oversees program scheduling while admiring and appreciating the amount of effort delivered by all involved in keeping the station on the air.

“The community volunteers are so committed, with more than 7,000 hours a year donated to just being on the air, not counting time invested in preparing and promoting and getting here,” she says. “There’s Kerri Donovan, our engineer, who donates so much time — from webmaster work to climbing the antenna towers if needed. And Jim Pemberton gives all his time as DJ and community program director. Bill Hickerson always seems to have a check from someone underwriting a program when he shows up. Now I feel like I am at the Oscars running out of time and trying to thank of all the people that need to be thanked. There are so many when it comes to WQNA.”

Beyond the radio signal If one thing seems as special as the devotion of the volunteers, it would be WQNA’s commitment to giving back to the community. Every year they sponsor a day’s worth of airtime to Homeless Marathon, a national broadcast asking for homeless or nearly homeless callers to relate their plights on air (coming up on Feb. 23 and 24). In conjunction with the downtown family-owned store, Recycled Records, WQNA participates in National Record Store Day, showing support for independent record stores by broadcasting live and drawing attention to these important sources of retail music with a remote broadcast, scheduled for April 16. For a special Valentine’s Day celebration and fundraiser, the station will do a Request-a-Thon remote broadcast from Recycled Records on Feb. 12, asking for $1 donation per song in exchange for Valentine requests on the radio. An annual trivia night (not yet scheduled for 2011) is a major benefit function for WQNA.

continued on page 14