Dear BEA District 4 Members,
It has been an honor serving as your District 4 Board representative for the last two years. I humbly ask for another two-year term.
As I am proud of my professional background, and for the benefit of new members, I feel compelled to summarize my life’s work thus far. I worked as a talk show producer at WLS-AM Chicago and on-air announcer at WXLC-FM Waukegan while still an undergraduate at Loyola University Chicago. Upon graduation I served as production director at H&D Broadcasting’s AM/FM combo in Waukegan where I oversaw production for $2.3 million worth of aired spots per year. I remained with H&D and transferred to do mornings at FUN 107 in New Bedford, MA where I moved the station to #1 in Arbitron ratings (and #5 in the co-located Providence market). This was followed by a three-year stop in St. Louis where (among other positions) I served as program and marketing director at KSD-AM and swing jock on Y98 FM, earning an M.A. from Saint Louis University along the way.
Knowing that I would one day pursue an academic career, I earned a Ph.D. from the University of Missouri and took a job at Northwest Missouri State University as assistant professor/radio station advisor. Though I enjoyed my two years in Maryville, a unique position as Director of Broadcasting opened at Illinois State University. This allowed Lauri and I to be just two hours away from family in Chicago. We have remained in Bloomington-Normal for 16 years as my career progressed from assistant to associate, and finally, full professor.
As a researcher, I am proud of my seven books and 17 scholarly articles/chapters, but nothing ever brought me more pride than serving as editor of BEA’s own Journal of Radio and Audio Media.
If given another two-year term my strongest wish is to increase District 4 Membership interest in the annual Illinois Broadcasters Association meeting as a site for our district meeting. We can hold paper presentations on site with them every year and let our members enjoy the fantastic broadcast sales, management, and engineering programming. I hope this symbiotic relationship with IBA can grow for all of your professional interests.
Lauri and I have three children. Maggie is a first grade teacher in Kansas City, Missouri where she lives with her husband, Dave. Matthew is a high school junior who plays football and throws shot and discus. Clare is an eighth grader with a love of reading, cross-country and track. As much as I love my work, I take even greater satisfaction watching my family grow
I ask for your vote and thank you for your dedication to BEA.
Joe Blaney, Illinois State University
