Angie Leventis Lourgos (BS ’03, journalism), Dan Petrella (BS ’06, journalism; BA ’06, LAS; MS ’10, journalism), Marianne Mather (BS ’96, media studies), Bob McCoppin (BS ’85, journalism), and John J. Kim (BS ’97, advertising) were part of a team that produced the winning work, cited as “powerful coverage of the Trump administration’s militarized immigration sweep of the city that described in vivid, muscular prose how the siege-like incursion of ICE agents unified Chicagoans in resistance.”
Kim previously won a Pulitzer Prize in 2011 for Local Reporting for his photography in multiple Chicago Sun-Times’ articles that documented violence in Chicago neighborhoods.
Chicago Tribune newsroom staff; not pictured is John J. Kim, who was out on assignment. (Photo courtesy of the Chicago Tribune.)
Veteran producer and executive Stephen Feder’s (BS ’02, media studies) career ranges from working alongside both independent and major studios spanning television, film, and global franchises, with a recent move up to senior vice president of production at Disney Live Action.
Feder’s impressive career achievements, along with his continued engagement with the college, have earned him the 2026 College of Media Distinguished Alumni Award.
“Stephen Feder has had an illustrative career and has been closely connected to the College of Media, from sharing advice with students at Media Career Night panels to inspiring graduates at our Media Convocation ceremony to participating as a film guest at Roger Ebert’s Film Festival,” said Dean Tracy Sulkin. “He is most deserving of this year’s Distinguished Alumni Award.”
In his new role, Feder will bring his breadth of experience to Disney’s live action film slate.
“I really feel very lucky and very happy to be here. The mentality of Disney is to create experiences for audiences and ultimately to make them feel good when they go into a theater. Just knowing that I get to be a part of that culture is such a blessing, especially at this time in my life,” said Feder, who has a young son.
Feder has always appreciated film, theater, and the arts, even participating in the Illini Union Board musicals when he attended Illinois. But he realized early on his greatest contribution to the field was in supporting and understanding how the creative process works.
“I really have dedicated much of my life, whether it’s being a producer on a particular project or an executive who oversees a slate of projects, to really championing and creating an environment for the artist to succeed in,” he said.
Feder began his career in Chicago, after earning his master’s degree at the London School of Economics. His first job was working as a producer on the Jerry Springer Show, a popular 1990s tabloid-style, daytime talk show known for its altercations between guests. Despite the raucous environment, Feder said he learned about the power of telling a story.
I really have dedicated much of my life, whether it’s being a producer on a particular project or an executive who oversees a slate of projects, to really championing and creating an environment for the artist to succeed in.
Stephen Feder
Senior Vice President of Production at Disney Live Action
After a year, he moved on to Towers Productions in Chicago as a series producer on the NBC docu-comedy series Sports Action Team, which was a comedy show shot like a documentary, before he decided to try his luck in Los Angeles.
He got his break after connecting with actor and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen on the making of Brüno, which became a pivotal moment in Feder’s career trajectory. The experience introduced him to people who became his network as he built his career.
“A lot of other opportunities led from that particular one, which is kind of how it works. Once you get going you start to build this network of people and advocates,” Feder said.
Feder has managed to excel on a variety of film projects with success across independent and large-scale motion picture companies.
Feder was a founding member of Annapurna Pictures, overseeing development and production on acclaimed projects like Richard Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some!!, Wong Kar-Wai’s The Grandmaster, and Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers.
From 2016 to 2019, he served as vice president of film development at Lucasfilm, managing production for films like Solo: A Star Wars Story. Following his post at Lucasfilm, Feder joined Rian Johnson’s T-Street Productions team, along with producer Kiri Hart, known for her work on the Star Wars franchise. Feder and Hart also launched a new production label Counterculture, producing projects like Rock Springs, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2026.
Feder was executive producer on Kumaré, which received the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature at the South by Southwest Film Festival in 2011. Two years later, the film was shown at Ebertfest, which was a great honor for Feder who always admired Roger Ebert and recognized the impact Ebert had on his career.
“His love of movies permeated society, and his spirited way that he would talk about [movies], and the conviction of his opinions around movies is really what drove me to [realize] that a single story could spark such a debate. That alone opened my mind to how important that medium is,” he said.
Feder, who served as the alumni speaker at the college’s 2022 convocation, believes his education at the College of Media laid a foundation for him to understand the power of a story, whether that’s in the form of an ad, an article, or a film.
“I think there’s elements of ethics that you learn, like how you need to understand that the words that you’re putting out into the world matter, how they’re going to be interpreted. It’s not only understanding your audience but understanding the power behind the story that you’re telling,” he said.
“Film is a very powerful medium because it can reach so many people, if you’re so lucky.”
Karina Anglada (BS ’10, journalism; MS ’12, iSchool) has leveraged her broadcast journalism degree to tell compelling stories about iconic professional sports teams, earning nine Regional EMMY® Awards over a five-year period as a media producer and editor for the Golden State Warriors.
After transitioning from sports to the tech industry, Anglada now helps others shape their narratives as a senior strategic development manager for video at Adobe.
“I made the jump to the tech world and that’s been an incredible career opportunity for me,” she said. “Now I get to meet with customers across the globe who are using Adobe software to help tell their company’s and their brand’s stories.” Her portfolio includes customers across media and entertainment brands, news and sports broadcasting, and marketing, advertising, and content teams for corporate and enterprise organizations.
Anglada’s career trajectory, along with her dedication to the College of Media, led to her being named the 2026 College of Media Emerging Leader Award recipient.
“The College of Media is pleased to honor Karina Anglada as this year’s Emerging Leader Alumni Award winner,” said Dean Tracy Sulkin. “Her eagerness to share her technical and creative knowledge, her award-winning career in sports media and digital media, and her engagement with Illinois overall make her an exemplary recipient.”
Anglada, who grew up in Chicago and now lives in Georgia, never expected to build a career in the tech industry. In hindsight, she recognizes how well her journalism education prepared her for the transition.
Working on a global team with colleagues across Australia, Europe, and Latin America, Anglada supports customers using Adobe Video, while also gathering feedback that helps shape new implementations and inform product strategy. She frequently presents at large events, showcasing the software’s capabilities.
Anglada likens her presentations to being “on-air” talent—requiring her to be engaging, understand audience needs, and translate complex ideas into clear, accessible language.
“I feel like I did that in my journalism classes. You take these stories that have a lot of information, and you condense them down into bite-sized pieces so that people can understand them,” she said. “Looking back, it’s like I was built for this [job] because I had so much of the foundation [already]. A lot of things apply from my degree that I still take with me every day.”
A lot of things apply from my degree that I still take with me every day.
Karina Anglada
Senior Strategic Development Manager for Video at Adobe
Anglada said her journalism classes, as well as her internship at Fighting Illini Productions, were a catalyst for her future in sports media. The hands-on experience allowed her to put into practice what she learned in the classroom, whether it was shooting, editing, directing, live video production, or post-production work, for a variety of Illinois sports including football, women’s basketball, wrestling, and volleyball.
“I didn’t realize it at the time, but that was the beginning of my career kind of taking off,” she said.
Following graduation, Anglada worked as a producer and editor for the Detroit Pistons, and then at Auburn University where she worked as assistant director of video services.
In 2017, she moved to California to take a job as a producer and editor for the Golden State Warriors. Most of her job focused on post-production editing for video boards, social media, and documentary-style television shows that aired on the regional sports network.
One of her favorite projects—and one that garnered her a Regional EMMY® Award—was a video she helped produce featuring Vice President Kamala Harris, who is from the Warriors’ former home city of Oakland, California, and a young African American girl who shares the same hometown. The video’s underlying theme centers around the widespread impact Harris had on Black female youth while making history as the 49th vice president of the U.S.
“To have that honor bestowed on our team, and to have my skill set and my craft of editing be recognized by my peers was an incredible, incredible thing,” she said.
As an alum, Anglada has stayed engaged with the College of Media, participating in alumni panels, serving as a keynote speaker at University of Illinois Web Conference in 2023, and mentoring Media students.
In addition to offering advice about the current industry, Anglada emphasizes the opportunities a journalism education can offer.
“There are the standard jobs, like on-air talent, producer, director, newsroom-type-focused careers. But there are so many other fields that you can go into with a journalism degree, and I’m a testament to that. I worked for three different sports organizations, and now I’m in tech,” she said.
Anglada speaks often at professional events about the use of AI in today’s media landscape and can appreciate both the power and challenges it presents.
See a selection of College of Media student-produced work created this spring, including broadcasts, documentaries, short films, advertising brand systems, and more.
Advertising
In ADV 498: The Sandage Project, students integrate the concepts, experiences, and skills that have been learned throughout the advertising curriculum with a service-learning project. See a project students created for Lincoln250, for the clients Lincoln Group of DC and the Abraham Lincoln Association, to expand the reach of Lincoln250.org.
In ADV 290: Advertising Design and Direction, students created a brand system for a fictional business and designed a 12-page annual report. See an example for White Lotus by Bella Chasen, junior in advertising.
UI7 Newsroom went live from the Orange Carpet for the 2026 Oskees on April 27 as Fighting Illini Athletics celebrated more than just performance on the field, but also highlighted the student-athletes behind the success. The team of UI7 reporters spoke with players and coaches to capture what this event truly means to the Illini community.
Watch a broadcast by UI7 Newsroom journalism students Nathan Gonzalez and Mary Piacente, featuring interviews with Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Republican nominee Darren Bailey. This is the first time UI7 students have conducted an interview with a sitting governor, said Kenneth Erdey, journalism instructor and technical coordinator for Richmond Studio. They also spoke with the two nominees for Illinois comptroller.
Students in JOUR 440: Advanced Documentary Storytelling and Production produced segments to air on Illinois Public Media’s magazine show, Prairie Fire, premiering on May 21:
“The Space” – produced by Amelia Benson, Jonathan Mathew, and Tristan Starzec
“Live at the Mirror” – produced by Wilson Tripp Nichols, Adam Edwards, and Jude Panlilio
“Skeuwep” – produced by Ethan Ashley-Ferguson, Elissa Eaton, and Mike Rock
“Central Illinois Aikikai” – produced by Florence Lin, Paige Whiteside, and Sophia Alvarez
“Orange Krush Senior Night” – produced by Sam Yohnka, Brandon Hood, and Isaiah Adeleke
Watch the Illinois Student Film Festival, produced by students in MACS 366: Film Festivals, featuring work by students across the University of Illinois campus.
Watch the MACS Student Showcase, a faculty-curated selection of student work from media and cinema studies courses throughout the academic year. See program credits with timestamps.
Los Angeles-based film and television producer Alex Hedlund (BS ’05, media studies; MS ’06, journalism) knew he wanted to make movies at a young age. When he was just 10 years old, he wrote a letter to Stephen King’s publisher seeking the famed author’s autograph. Hedlund still has his signed copy of Needful Things to this day.
Learn more about this College of Media alum who has empowered writers and directors for the last two decades, and find out which film or TV show he will champion next.
1. What first drew you to filmmaking and production, and how did that evolve into your current role today?
Ever since I was a kid, I told people, “I want to make movies,” before I even knew what that meant or how that would even be possible. All I knew is that I craved escapism through movies, TV, novels, and video games, and for my 10th birthday, I only wanted one thing—Stephen King’s autograph. I wrote a letter to his publisher with this request and received a hard copy of Needful Things signed by the man himself! (I still have and cherish it.) That moment subconsciously unlocked something for me that became a big part of my career, which is identifying uncompromising stories and reaching out to connect with world-class storytellers. As a career producer, I’m constantly looking to empower writers and directors who have a story to tell.
2. What do you consider your biggest career accomplishment? Is there one project that has felt especially meaningful to you?
I’m celebrating 20 years in Los Angeles this year, so I consider my survival in this industry a tremendous accomplishment as a baseline. Project-wise, 2026 is a very meaningful year for me with the premiere of three projects I produced (all of which are seven long years in the making!). The first is a 10-episode series reimagining of Cape Fear for Apple TV in June that stars Javier Bardem and Amy Adams. As a fan of the novel and having seen the Martin Scorsese film as a child (long before I should have!), being a producer on this one was a full-circle moment for me. I also have a feature adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s best-selling erotic thriller Verity that drops in theaters October 2. The film stars Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, and Josh Hartnett, all of whom are fantastic in the film and incredible to work with personally. That’s a big-budget studio film, whereas my next film River is a low-budget indie debut from a writer-director that I discovered and championed. The horror film will premiere this fall, and I couldn’t be prouder.
3. In addition to two degrees at Illinois, you then earned your MFA in the producers program at UCLA. What advice would you give to students who want to break into directing or production but don’t know where to start?
I used to say you absolutely need to move to Los Angeles, though I don’t believe that’s essential anymore. YouTube, MasterClass, Zoom, and social media has democratized everything so you can make a lot of connections and gain knowledge that way. If you want to be a director, you can now shoot a film on your iPhone and upload it online for the world to see. Just create something and get it out there! Or try to get an entry-level job on set or intern at a production company. No matter what, check your ego at the door and be unabashed about your desire for mentorship.
4. The media landscape is constantly changing—how do you keep your work both current and true to your vision?
I always internalize that the only certainty in entertainment is uncertainty, and not to stress about external factors that I cannot control. What I can control though is my taste and what I want to see. If I’m not first in line for a film on its opening night, I know that I’m not the right producer to advocate for it. I think it’s a huge mistake to try and “chase the market” or pursue something for cynical, surface-level reasons—for me, it has to be love at first sight. I need to lose sleep thinking about a project. I’m constantly gut-checking myself to see if this is something my 10-year-old self would have wanted to see—and most likely have to beg my parents to let me see it!
5. What’s one dream project you’d love to direct or produce in the future?
Too many to name, though one of my “white whales” I actually just set up as a feature at Netflix! It’s an adaptation of an award-winning graphic novel called Torso by the brilliant artists Brian Michael Bendis and Marc Andreyko. It’s a true story about Elliott Ness hunting America’s first serial killer in the 1930s. You might say it’s The Untouchables meets Zodiac. [It’s an] incredible, stranger-than-fiction story that was first published decades ago and I’ve been tracking it ever since. I always thought it would make an amazing film, so I’m pinching myself that I was finally able to get my arms around it and hopefully champion it into finally getting made!
CU-CitizenAccess, a community online news and information project overseen by Professor Brant Houston, the Knight Chair in Investigative and Enterprise Reporting in the Department of Journalism, was part of a team that won two Lisagor Awards for exemplary journalism from the Chicago Headline Club on May 8.
The team received both “Best Reporting on Race and Diversity” and “Best Reporting on Crime and Justice” in the student category for their submission titled “At Illinois public universities, campus cops pull over Black drivers at higher rates.”
The student team included Maia McDonald, Nicole Jeanine Johnson, Khadija Ahmed, Isabelle Senechal, Amilia Estrada; Investigative Project on Race and Equity, Chicago Public Media, WBEZ, Chicago Sun-Times, CU-CitizenAccess, Saluki Local Reporting Lab, and The Daily Egyptian.
University of Illinois students who contributed to the project through CU-CitizenAccess included Molly Hughes (MS ’25, journalism), Jordan Butler (BS ’25, journalism), and Courtney Dillon (BS ’25, journalism; BA ’25, LAS).
“Managing editor Dylan Tiger (BS ’19, journalism; MS ’20, iSchool) did an excellent job wrangling difficult data and interviews with local officials and helping to coordinate our part,” said Houston. “It was a great experience for students to be involved in the collaboration.”
CU-CitizenAccess is devoted to investigative and enterprise coverage of social, justice, and economic issues in east central Illinois.
The Lisagor Award entries were judged by an impartial Society of Professional Journalists chapter outside Illinois.
Jordyn Poulter (BS ’18, media and cinema studies) is among eight legendary athletes named to the University of Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2026 by the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics.
Poulter, a two-time Olympian, along with seven other elite Illini athletes, will be honored at the Hall of Fame Gala and Induction Ceremony on Friday, Sept. 11, at State Farm Center.
Poulter helped lead the United States to Olympic Gold at the 2020 Tokyo Games and Silver at the 2024 Paris Games, while being named “Best Setter” at the 2020 Games.
She earned All-America honors three times at Illinois, including First-Team honors as a senior in 2018 when Poulter led the Illini to the NCAA National Semifinals. She ranked second nationally with 1,521 assists in 2018, when she was named the AVCA Northeast Region Player of the Year.
The Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame began in 2017 and now has 162 total members, with representatives from each current varsity sport. University of Illinois varsity athletics started with baseball in 1879 and now has 21 teams competing at the NCAA Division I level.
April 29, 2026 | Giuliana Means, Communications Intern
Through the course “Globally Focused Advanced Documentary Filmmaking,” five journalism students and three advertising students explored the lives of female head porters, called kayayei, in a faculty-led trip to Accra, Ghana, over spring break.
“I know from my experience that traveling and working abroad, especially in Africa, can be an inflection point in one’s life and globally contextualize values,” said Charles “Stretch” Ledford, associate professor of journalism, who has visited more than 55 countries throughout his career. “It was incredibly gratifying to be in a position to provide students this kind of opportunity.”
The course focuses on the labor of the kayayei, young women and girls—some barely in their teens—who migrate from Ghana’s rural north to the country’s urban centers, primarily Accra and Kumasi, in search of work. That work consists of carrying loads that can exceed their own body weight through the city’s sprawling markets, earning the equivalent of less than a dollar per load while exposing themselves to exploitation, musculoskeletal injury, chronic anxiety and depression, and other health and wellness risks.
Focusing on Accra’s Kantamanto used clothing market, the class is producing a documentary focusing on three narratives about kayayei who work there: a day in the life of Sahada Shehabu, a 22-year-old kayayoo; the risks of the work, described by Muhammad Salifu, founder and director of the Kayayei Youth Association; and the role the kayayei play within the market’s economy, explained by Edward Atobrah, deputy general secretary of the Ghana Used Clothing Dealers Association.
You’re dealing with something that has a real impact, and you’re seeing change happen and immersing yourself in a community that you may not have had an opportunity to [otherwise visit].
Tomi Dugbo
Senior in Advertising
The journalism students will also create a 360º-immersive video, photo essays, an audio segment, and social-media friendly short vertical videos. They are sharing their initial work at the campus Undergraduate Research Symposium on Thursday, April 30, in a poster presentation titled “They Want to Go Home: Ghana’s Kayayei.”
Kaitlyn Devitt, a senior in journalism who worked primarily on the documentary film and 360º-immersive video, says the team worked an average of six hours a day over seven shooting days in three locations.
Devitt wants to pursue international journalism after she graduates, especially after this project, because of how rewarding it was.
“This project was perfect to get my feet wet,” Devitt said. “The topic itself was interesting because these women are my age, and who’s to say this couldn’t be me if I hadn’t had the privilege of growing up in America?”
During the trip, the advertising students worked with the Kayayei Youth Association to amplify their mission. They also communicated the journalism students’ reporting processes on social media and documented their experience through a blog site.
“This experience taught me the importance of collaboration where you’re not only working with advertising students, but journalism students,” said Tomi Dugbo, a senior in advertising. “You’re dealing with something that has a real impact, and you’re seeing change happen and immersing yourself in a community that you may not have had an opportunity to [otherwise visit].”
Advertising students also spent time visiting global ad agencies, such as Innova DDB and Ogilvy Africa Ghana, to analyze cross-cultural campaign approaches. They also plan to develop strategic communications campaigns for partner NGOs.
For all the students, it was their first time producing journalism and strategic communications in a foreign country.
“Don’t let perfection be the enemy of good,” advised Marisa Peacock, senior lecturer of advertising. “There’s always time to refine, edit, and evolve it, but you can’t let the perfect shot stand in the way of getting the work done.”
With only a week to conduct interviews, collect footage, and produce the strategic communications deliverables, the team persevered in an environment that demanded that they adapt quickly.
Adelyn Mui, a senior in journalism, dove headfirst into the project to capture an authentic representation of the women’s stories and overcome the challenges of not having the connections she does when reporting on campus.
“Doing global journalism taught me a lot about journalism in general because those same skills I learned in Ghana, I can apply here locally on campus; they were just amplified since I was in a different country,” Mui said.
Students from Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone and the University of Media, Arts and Communication in Ghana were partners in the project under the umbrella of the Illinois Partnership for African Women’s Health Narratives, spearheaded by Ledford. It is a continuation of his 2023 collaboration with Dr. Francis Sowa, Dean of Faculty of Communication, Media and Information Studies at Fourah Bay College, and new collaborator, Dr. Stephen Tindi, a lecturer at University of Media, Arts and Communication in Accra.
Alison Davis, senior lecturer of journalism, said the Illinois students naturally fell into the role of technological mentors for their West African peers.
“Students from the other countries were able to pick up our equipment and run with it; that’s the collaboration I like to see,” Davis said. “People are not that much different. You get a group of college students together, and they’re all similar. I love that.”
Next year, Ledford hopes to continue the story with reporting in Ghana’s Northern Region, examining how climate change may be accelerating the “push” of young women from Ghana’s rural and relatively poor north to work as kayayei in the country’s more developed south.
Major funding was provided by the University of Illinois through the BRIDGE Program, Vision 2030 Global Strategy Implementation Grant, Campus Research Board, Illinois Global Institute, Department of Journalism, the College of Media, and the Karin and Folke Dovring Endowment Fund, with additional support from Lisle International and Sony Electronics.
Photos by and courtesy of Charles “Stretch” Ledford and Marisa Peacock.
Advertising faculty with appointments in the Institute of Communications Research, doctoral students in ICR, graduate students in advertising, and ICR alumni participated in the 2026 annual conference of the American Academy of Advertising, held March 26-29 in Austin, Texas.
Through presentations and panels, they discussed research and ideas related to teaching AI and advertising, ethics, and more. Advertising Professor Chang-Dae Ham serves as the 2026-27 president-elect of AAA and will become AAA’s president next year.
Below is a list of the Illinois participants and their research.
Special Topic Sessions
“Navigating Advertising Academic Leadership During a Time of Change: An Inside Look at Administration Roles in the Age of A.I., Program Changes, and Industry Upheaval”
Speakers: Huan Chen (University of Florida), Joe Phua (Southern Methodist University), Shu-Chuan (Kelly) Chu (DePaul University), Matthew S Eastin (University of Texas at Austin Professor and Head Michelle Nelson, Soojung Kim (University of North Dakota), Fuyuan Shen (Pennsylvania State University), Tom Reichert (University of South Carolina), Heidi Hennick-Kaminski (Michigan State University), Harsha Gangadharbatia (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
“Teaching Privacy in the Age of AI: Preparing Ethical Advertising Professionals”
Speakers: Kristen Sussman (Texas State University), Faren Karimkhan (Syracuse University), Daniela Molta (Syracuse University), Associate Professor Ewa Maslowska, Carina Alderete (Accenture)
Panels
“Foundational Framework in Virtual Influencer Marketing: Bridging Operational Control and Narrative Archetypes in Virtual Influencer Design”
“Peripheral Cues in a Democracy? Using the Elaboration Likelihood Model to Examine Information Cues and Negativity in Millions of Political TV Advertisements”
“Measuring AI-Advertising Aversion: An Initial Scale Development and Empirical Assessment of Its Relationship with AI Anxiety”
Speakers: Assistant Professor Louvins Pierre, Viviana Carolina Zambrano Rodriguez (University of South Carolina), MS advertising student Jiayi (Joy) Wang
“From Black Box to Glass Box: The Moderating Role of AI Literacy on the Political Matching Effect”
Illinois Public Media won four Crystal Mic Awards from the Illinois News Broadcasters Association.
Photo: Courtesy of Illinois News Broadcast Association
Radio and television stations from across Illinois entered the contest. Winners were tiered by whether the station is in a small or large market. The judges considered material produced between July 1, 2024, and December 31, 2025.
Illinois Public Media is a not-for-profit public media service of the College of Media; IPM is the NPR and PBS member stations licensed to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
The station was honored with the following:
INBA Crystal Mic Award:Best Small Market Radio Station
INBA Crystal Mic Award: Best Small Market Radio – Podcasting
INBA Crystal Mic Award: Best Small Market Radio – Breaking News
INBA Crystal Mic Award: Best Small Market Radio – Political Report
Best Small Market Radio – Podcasting
What We Brought is a limited series exploring the Asian American experience in Central Illinois. Through voices from seven Asian American communities, it shares powerful stories of identity, resilience, and the things carried between countries—be it food, memories, language, or the weight of the past. It was reported and produced by Nidhi Shastri with assistance and editing by Kulsoom Khan, Arielle Raveney, and Arjun Thakkar.
Best Small Market Radio – Breaking News
On October 30, 2024, Illinois Public Media journalist Jim Meadows and meteorologist Andrew Pritchard broke into programming on WILL-AM 580 and WILL-FM 90.9 to report on a fast-moving fire on dried-out farmland in eastern Champaign County. The intense flames and massive smoke decreased visibility, closing Interstate 74 for hours.
Best Small Market Radio – Political Report
In the spring of 2025, 11 people competed in the election to fill five open seats on the Champaign Unit 4 Board of Education. Education reporter Emily Hays created an innovative way to explain the candidates’ positions to the public. She asked the members to answer a questionnaire. In addition to on-air reporting, she created an interactive digital story. Users hovered above the board members’ faces as their quotes about particular issues popped up on the screen.
Best Small Market Radio Station
This entry represents a compilation of spot news, features from an in-depth series before the start of the second Trump administration, and excerpts from our new podcast focused on weather and climate as well as our statewide talk show that aired on six NPR member stations at the time. We also included a feature produced with the Illinois Student Newsroom, which is a unique partnership with the Department of Journalism in the College of Media at the University of Illinois. At least 10 students each semester help us with local reporting, including spots and features. Veteran public radio editor Christine Herman edits them.
