Kristiana Duvnjak | Feb. 3, 2010
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| Photo by Mengyi Sun |
| Media LLC students spent a day in Chicago visiting WBBM radio, with broadcaster Bob Roberts (left). They also visited cultural sites in the city. |
The group got a taste of radio broadcasting at news station WBBM-AM, where broadcaster Bob Roberts led a tour and talked about his nearly-40 year career in radio.
Roberts talked about the history of WBBM, which dates back to 1924, when it was known for its live music broadcasts and at one point stood for “We Broadcast Better Music.” Since 1968, it has reported only news and today also broadcasts Chicago Bears games.
About 40 staffers work at WBBM, including one webmaster, several beat reporters, anchors and producers, many of whom introduced themselves during the tour. WBBM reporters are on the job 18 hours a day on weekdays and 12 hours on weekends. But anchors, producers, writers and production assistants update stories at any time.
Roberts was involved in media as an undergraduate student at Indiana University.
“I discovered radio as a freshman at IU, when someone dared me to come in and do a better newscast than the one I was hearing on WIUS student radio one October afternoon in 1970,” Roberts said.
His first professional radio job was in 1974 when he was hired as a part-time DJ at WDHF, a Chicago Top-40 station. He later worked on the news teams of stations in Illinois and New York before coming to WBBM in 2000.
“I've never lost the curiosity,” Roberts said. “Few people get the access and ability to ask those questions that reporters do. Part of what drives me is the need to hold people accountable, explain to the public how events affect them and why.”
The group also visited arts, cultural and entertainment venues while in the city. Read their reports here.
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