ROGER MONROE
Radio isn’t what it used to be. The changes, the unfortunate changes, haven’t changed my affection and love for the communications medium. I think I was 18 or 19 when I was hired as a part-time announcer on WTVH as a Senior at Bradley University. At 90, and still a Senior, I’m still broadcasting and love it.
Going back in time, listeners by the thousands were tuning to WIRL, WMBD, WAAP, WSIV, and WPEO. And that was it. Due to satellite programming, CD players, cell phones and other electronic devices, fewer people are listening to radios. I suspect 90% of listeners do so while in their cars or on computers.
Oh how I miss early Peoria radio. At one time, WPEO, a day-time only station, was No. 1 in the city with “Morning Mayor Harry Harrison,” who went to New York, and WIRL became the top station with Robyn Weaver and the “Early Birds” along with his “Rancid Recipes.”
What a great station it was with professional and experienced news reporters like Ira Bitner, Ralph Smith, and Ed Hammond, plus “Big Red” and “Little Red.”
Weaver was loved for his quips such as, “You have only 21 shopping days before Halloween.”
WIRL promoted itself as “The Mighty 1290.” It isn’t anymore. No announcers, just an echo chamber of the same commercials heard on WMBD and other stations owned by Duke Wright of Midwest Communications.
Everything is automated with syndicated programs featuring right-wingers from Sean Hannity to Mark Levin. Robyn Weaver would be shocked if he could hear WIRL today.
WILL THIS QUESTION BE ANSWERED? No one was shocked to learn a Limestone High School female student was arrested for carrying a gun as she was driving around Bartonville with three friends. She allegedly drove up to a drive-thru window where she apparently worked at one time, with the gun on her lap. The word reached city police and she was taken into custody. It wasn’t shocking because a lot of kids are carrying guns today. In my day, we were too busy and too smart to give such a thought any consideration.
I might add, our parents were too busy and too smart to even have such weapons in the house. How sad that’s a part of today’s society.
Many who own guns are hunters. Many are not. Many are scared and have them in the event the country becomes overwhelmed by illegal immigrants from the jails and prisons of other countries.
The high school student needs to be punished. I’ll leave that to the appropriate law enforcement agencies. The community does need to know where the girl got the gun. Was it stolen? Did the weapon belong to a family member?
In a recent court decision, 59-year-old Jeffrey Reinking of Morton was sentenced to 18 months in prison for illegally giving his 29-year-old son, Travis, the gun used to kill four people in a Waffle House in Antioch, Tenn.
I’m not suggesting prison time, but parents need to be held accountable for not keeping their weapons safe and secure.
LOSING YOUR RIGHT TO SPEAK: Kansas City football player Harrison Butker, a Catholic, was asked to speak at commencement services at private Catholic Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan. At the end of his remarks, students and faculty gave him a standing ovation.
It was followed by a huge volume of hate by such well-known mongers as panelists on “The View” and other liberal communication outlets. Many of these same people are attacking Jews for their belief system. There was a time when we respectfully opposed the views of others. Not anymore. More and more people wrongly believe if you don’t agree with them, you should shut up. I don’t like the panelists on “The Views,” so I don’t watch it. But, I don’t demand that ABC-TV drop the program. Rush Limbaugh was hated, but efforts to get him fired failed and he became the most popular radio host in the history of the broadcast industry.
As the hatred for Butker for what he said about his family values increased, so did sales of his replica jersey. People are sick and tired of efforts to censor anyone who disagrees with them. This country has never been more divided because of efforts to silence opposing thoughts. I remember when Republican Bob Michel was House minority leader and Democrat Tip O’Neill was majority leader. They would argue on the House floor and then go to lunch and even play golf with one another. The chance of that happening now is as likely as Fani Willis being named Woman of the Year on Fox News.
TRAGIC LOSS: It is with sadness, I close this month’s column with word of the death of Tye Elliott. The 59-year-old young man was found dead in his newly purchased home in Weaverridge. Tye is the son of my late dear friend comedian Royce Elliott and Helen Elliott. Tye was a happy-go-lucky man who was an outstanding athlete in his early life who went on to become very successful in marketing.
A loving husband and father, Tye had a magnetic personality and enjoyed laughing, and like his father, make others laugh. He put his personality into words, writing two books, “Diamonds Are A Man’s Best Friend,” and “Sales Mob.” We need more people in life like Tye, not less.
As a proud friend of the Elliott family, my thoughts and prayers are with Tye’s wife and family, and his mother, Helen, brothers Brett and Brian, and sister, Hedy.
QUOTE OF THE MONTH: “The two hardest things in life is to say hello for the first time and goodbye for the last.” — Moira Rogers