In this podcast, Margaret Larkin interviews Jeff Burnett, a producer at WTHR in Indianapolis. Burnett is an Illinois native, with a non-traditional path to broadcast journalism.

Burnett talks about why he delayed going to college and what he learned from working at places like Walmart. Burnett participated in ISU’s TV-10 program and graduated from the Public Affairs Reporting Program at University of Illinois-Springfield.

He previously worked as a producer at WEEK-TV in Peoria and WHAS11 in Louisville.

What drew him to journalism was his interest in music and radio. From there, Burnett said he chose his college where he could get experience in Top 40 radio. To learn how he worked his way from ‘Jeff Jams’ on the radio to TV news producer, take a listen.

In this podcast, WBBM’s Margaret Larkin interviews NBC5 Chicago veteran reporter Phil Rogers.

Rogers joined WMAQ in 1991, and before that he worked at WBBM Newsradio, KOMA-AM in Oklahoma City, and KVRO-FM in Stillwater, OK.

Rogers talks with Larkin about the news stories he’s covered all over the world throughout his career including Olympic games, conflicts in the Middle East, and the Sandy Hook massacre.

Rogers also dives into how much transparency among public agencies has changed through the course of his career, specifically in Chicago. Spoiler alert: he says it has changed dramatically, but you’ll have to listen to the podcast to hear how he keeps doing the work he does.

To budding journalists, Rogers said, “News isn’t very hard,” adding that 99% of the job is just reporting what happens. He says what interests him is finding the information he’s not supposed to know about. He also talks about how stories can be unpredictable, “News a lot of the time involves things that don’t pan out,” he said, “You’re there to tell the story that you have not the story that you want.”

For journalists hungry for conversations on transparency, public records, and investigative work, this is the INBA podcast for you.

For work completed July 1, 2021-June 30, 2022

Entries accepted starting July 1, 2022 at https://rockourawards.com/register

Entry Deadline: August 8, 2022

Awards presented: October 8 at the Illinois News Broadcasters Association Fall Convention in Bloomington.

MORE AWARDS FAQs HERE

Categories for Station Entries:

INBA Crystal Mic Award: Best Station (Large and Small Market Television and Radio)

INBA Paul Davis Crystal Mic Award: Best Newscast (Large and Small Market Television

and Radio)

INBA Crystal Mic Award: Best Weather Operation (Large and Small Market Television

Only)

INBA Crystal Mic Award: Best Digital Presence (Large and Small Market Television and

Radio)

Categories for Individual Entries:

INBA Crystal Mic Award: Best Reporter (Large and Small Market Television and Radio)

INBA Crystal Mic Award: Breaking News (Large and Small Market Television and Radio)

INBA Crystal Mic Award: Investigative Report (Large and Small Market Television and

Radio)

INBA Crystal Mic Award: Use of Sound – (Large and Small Market Radio)

INBA Crystal Mic Award: Use of Video (Large and Small Market Television)

INBA Crystal Mic Award: Writing (Large and Small Market Television and Radio)

INBA Crystal Mic Award: Sports Report (Large and Small Market Television and Radio)

Susan Stephens is northern Illinois’ host of All Things Considered on WNIJ. She is also a reporter and former President of the INBA.

Stephens knows she was “bit by the radio bug” as a kid, and talks about her childhood interest in radio. In this podcast interview with INBA & WBBM’s Margaret Larkin, she talks about how INBA has always been an affordable outlet for learning, networking, and having fun with other broadcasters across the state.

Stephens says one of the things she’s learned throughout her award-winning career is, “just about everyone has an interesting story and the trick is getting it out of them.”

Whether you’re a sucker for radio, work in TV, or you’re still figuring out your place in broadcasting, check out this podcast for some valuable advice and anecdotes.

To book a room at our group rate of $109 per night with free parking, please click here or call 309-637-6500.

Deadline for room reservations is April 22.

Convention registration cost: 

Members: $115

Spouses: $95

Students: $95

Non-members: $130

Saturday day only (includes lunch): $50

Saturday evening banquet only: $50

In this INBA podcast with Margaret Larkin, she interviews Pat Cassidy just a couple days before his retirement in 2021.

Cassidy retired from WBBM Newsradio after several successful years of anchoring news in the morning there and at WMAQ, WBMX, and other radio stations; a half a century career.

Cassidy says he’s always been a person who sounds the same on-air and off-air. When asked how did he “keep it real” over all these years, he says he’s just himself and while on-air he imagines he’s having a one-on-one conversation with the listener. He says he would think of talking to his dad, mom, or wife, I would actually kind of picture them in my mind and talk to them one-on-one,” Cassidy said.

In this podcast Cassidy also talks about what he’s learned, notable stories, and the most embarrassing mistake he ever made on the air.

As a bonus at the end of this podcast, Larkin includes an interview she did with Cassidy at WBBM in 2013.

Bob Kessler recently moved up as a weekend fill-in anchor for WGN 720-AM, to midday anchor Tuesday-Friday.

“My heart just led me there,” Kessler said about why he does news radio instead of talk radio.

In this interview with Margaret Larking, Bob talks about how he went from producing to on-air work and why he lives at a Buddhist temple right now. He also talks about his past experience working at Voice News Network, Rivet, and The Ramsey Lewis Morning Show. Kessler also talks about lessons he’s learned from being a musician that translate to the radio world.

Bob was interviewed by Margaret Larkin on the streets of downtown Chicago.

After 20 years, Dave Marsett is retiring from WBBM Newsradio. He has worked in radio for half a century as a news director, reporter, and broadcaster at stations including WYSL in Buffalo, New York.

In this interview with Margaret Larkin, Marsett talks about everything from radio, marriage and relationships, and his journey to becoming a minister.

Marsett remarked he always said, “I do the good news on Sunday, I talk about the bad news the rest of the week.”

“What is news? It’s the extreme of either good or bad,” he said.

Marsett also talks about social media, bias, and the memorable lessons of his career.

2020 SINBA Award Winners

RADIO COMPETITION

Outstanding Hard Radio Program

1. Illinois State University
2. (no winner)

Outstanding Soft Radio Program

1. Illinois State University
2. (no winner)

Outstanding Radio Newscast

1. Angelina Campanile – Northwestern University
2. Maritza Navar-Lopez – Illinois State University

Outstanding Radio News Reporting

1. Farrah Anderson – University of Illinois
2. Catrina Peterson – Illinois State University

Outstanding Radio Sports Reporting

1. Maritza Navar-Lopez – Illinois State University
2. RJ Larson – Western Illinois University

Outstanding Radio Sports Play-by-Play

1. Joey Dwyer – Illinois State University
2. Anthony Ferretti – Illinois State University

Outstanding Use of Sound

1. Annamarie Schutt – Illinois State University
2. Catrina Peterson

TELEVISION COMPETITION

Outstanding Hard Television Program

1. Northwestern University
2. Illinois State University

Outstanding Soft Television Program

1. College of DuPage
2. Illinois State University

Outstanding Sports Television Program

1. Western Illinois University
2. Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Outstanding Television Newscast

1. Eastern Illinois University
2. Western Illinois University

Outstanding Television News Reporting

1. Devin Brooks – Western Illinois University
2. Oscar Rzodkiewicz – Eastern Illinois University

Outstanding Television Sports Reporting

1. Devin Brooks – Western Illinois University
2. Oscar Rzodkiewicz – Eastern Illinois University

Outstanding Television Videography

1. Ava Wendel – Illinois State University
2. Carly Bickett – Illinois State University