You know the voices, and you know the stories. But behind every story on WGLT is a person who calls this community home just like you do.
The Meet the Newsroom series pulls back the curtain to introduce you to the team that makes WGLT possible. The series continues with news director Eric Stock.
"The idea of being the person behind the mic who has the power to inform the public what they need to know still fascinates me after all these years," Stock said, "even though the way in which we do it now has changed a lot from when I got started a long time ago. I also like that it's a different thing that we do every day."
WGLT: So your job title here is news director. Can you tell me what that means and what you do every day?
Eric: So I'm responsible for our day-to-day news coverage, making sure that we are telling all the stories that should be told, working with our staff of reporters. That includes our full time staff, our correspondents and our students, who are a big part of what we do being part of an educational institution, and we want to give our reporters the capacity to go out and do what they do best, which often means me just getting out of their way.
Why do you work in journalism? And what do you like about it?
Eric: Well, it's about the only thing that I have known professionally. The idea of being the person behind the mic who has the power to inform the public what they need to know still fascinates me after all these years, even though the way in which we do it now has changed a lot from when I got started a long time ago. I also like that it's a different thing that we do every day. You have to have a working knowledge of a lot of different things, at least enough to know what questions to ask, and to whom to ask them of, to be able to tell the stories in the best way. So we are all general assignment reporters. We have to cover it that way with the staff that we have.
Is there a specific interaction that you've had with a listener that reminded you why public media matters?
Eric: Well, there's not really one interaction that stands out to me, but the sheer volume of them that I had with people in the community over the last year, when NPR was going through its really public fight over its funding, many people said to me how much they value public media and rely on it to keep them informed, especially from people that I didn't even know or expect to hear from about this. So that was very encouraging to me.
If you could force everyone in Bloomington-Normal to listen or read just one story we've produced this year, which one would it be and why?
Eric: Well, there's so many that I would love to, if I had a way to force people to read our website, I would certainly do it. But I'd recommend just about any of our coverage regarding the homelessness issue in Bloomington-Normal over the last year. There's one story in particular that hit me as pretty powerful and uplifting at the same time. Charlie Schlenker talked to a group of unhoused people who are part of a writing group, so to read about the hardships that they'd faced throughout their lives and how writing gives them agency and power, unlike anything else, was really moving. Now that was last year.
If we're talking about specifically 2026 I'd refer you to a story that Lauren Warneke did with Bloomington-Normal’s oldest social club, the Longfellows. They've been around for 144 years. Some of the group had been around for decades. Lauren talked to five of the members, people who are mostly retired but have done a lot in their lives, and it was really fun to see them in their setting, enjoying each other's company in a time when we are bombarded with a lot of high stress, negative news stories which we need to report on. It was fun to read about the kind of story that could put a smile on your face.
What's one thing about your daily job that would most surprise a reader or listener who only hears the finished product?
Eric: My guess is people might be surprised to know how much time it takes to produce a lot of our in-depth stories. Those include comments from multiple sources. Some of those stories can take days. Others can take weeks. It depends on whether people want to talk to us and what other means that we need to take to get the information that we need. Some of the harder stories can take months. There's also stories that we pursue that turn out to not be a story for whatever reason, we can't verify the information, it turns out not to be true, or perhaps it's not that interesting or that impactful as we thought at first. But that's all part of the reporting process, and it takes considerable time and effort on the part of our staff, and we're grateful that we are given the time to report in a way that's thoughtful and thorough.
This is WGLT's 60th anniversary. So let's do a prediction. What do you think news media will look like in 60 years? The year 2086.
Eric: Boy, that's hard to tell. I couldn't tell you what it’s going to look like in six years, to be honest, probably more splintered than it is now even. You know, I think the demise of radio has been predicted for a really long time, but I still think today, it's one of the best places that people can turn for news on a daily basis. Podcasts are great. Love them, but they can't tell you the story in the moment like radio has the flexibility to do. I'd like to think that radio will be around forever, and it just needs to tell its story better. But there is also a chance that it could be replaced in 10 years by something that has not even been invented yet.
When you aren't at the station, where are we most likely to find you? And what are you doing to unplug?
Eric: Well, during the wintertime, you'll probably find me at Shirk Center at Illinois Wesleyan and I call games there for the Wesleyan men's basketball team. In the spring and summer, most likely to find me on Constitution Trail. You can say ‘hi’ as you go past me.
Let's wrap it up with the speed round to get to know you just a little better. So first question, what's the last good book you've read?
Eric: Last one is a book called Wave. It's about a decade old. It's a memoir by Sonali Deraniyagala, a woman who was caught up in a tsunami and amazingly survived, but she lost her entire family, her husband, her kids or parents, and she struggles to find new meaning for life without them.
What's the movie you've seen the most?
Eric: I'm not a huge movie watcher anymore. The ones that come to mind that stop me when I see them, A Few Good Men, A League of Their Own, The American President, those are probably near the top of my list.
Who's your favorite NPR host or reporter?
Eric: I have two answers from my two lives in public radio. Long before I came to WGLT, I came to appreciate the work of Mara Liasson. She was covering the Clinton White House when I was in college and getting started in journalism. Always thought she was very good, very fair, and she's still going strong today. And from this era, Steve Inskeep is as good as it gets when it comes to interviewing guests, pushing back when appropriate and always doing it in a very tactful and professional way.
Let's say you've got out of town relatives coming to visit you in Bloomington-Normal you've got one day to show them around. Where do you take them to show off the town?
Eric: Well, I'll think about when I first came to Bloomington-Normal, a few decades ago as a visitor. We went to the David Davis Mansion, so we probably got to start there. Head to Downtown Bloomington, Uptown Normal. You got to do Route 66, maybe Miller Park Zoo if they bring the kids.
