More than radio...

Mark Hill, Chief Engineer

Phone: 309-438-2650
Email: mahill@ilstu.edu

“It was 1976 and I wanted to be a rock star. I only had one problem, no musical talent,” says Mark. His solution? The electronic synthesizer. In the early days you had to be an electronic genius to run one and since Mark couldn’t afford to actually buy a Moog, he decided to get the electronics knowledge first.

While at school in Minneapolis, Hill worked for a company that manufactured and distributed Old Time Radio programs on cassette, leading to his own collection of over 30,000 Old Time Radio programs. Mark’s first radio job was at KDAN Newport, MN, which was in an old house out in the middle of a field. The Program Director and the morning DJ both lived in the basement!

After college, Hill worked for International Tapetronics Company, a business built from the founders’ invention of the broadcast tape cartridge machine, then took a second job as engineer at WZND, the student radio station at ISU. When his second child came along, so did another job - engineer at GLT.

Mark spent some time as Chief Engineer of WIRL, WSWT, WMBD, and WPBG in Peoria. Relocating all four stations and building a new broadcast facility is, in his words, “the crowning achievement” of his career thus far.

After 18 years of part time service for GLT and WZND, Mark became full time Chief Engineer in 2002.