More than radio...

Mike McCurdy, Program Director/All Things Considered Host

Phone: 309-438-2394
Email:mjmccur@ilstu.edu

Mike grew up listening to WHB as a kid in Kansas City in the mid-60's.

"It seems like it was on all the time," he recalls. He also remembers it as sounding tight and entertaining and a place he heard hits like "Do You Know the Way to San Jose," all the hits from the Beatles, Herb Alpert,The Guess Who and more.

"The station made a huge impression," said Mike.

Outside of pretending to be on WHB, Mike got his first real radio experience at his alma mater, Kansas State University, in the mid-80's, working for the campus station, KSDB. After spending time in TV news, and both commercial and public radio in Kansas, Mike came to GLT as News Director in 1991. Since 1996, McCurdy has been the GLT Program Director.

The Program Director plans, schedules and organizes what's heard on air. A large portion of what's heard is music, and jazz makes up more hours than anything else on GLT. As Program Director, Mike has worked to create a deep and varied jazz library used to create a singular jazz sound crafted for central Illinois listeners and listeners worldwide on the web.

The one thing Mike values the most about his time at GLT is his jazz education. As he says, "there's as much nuance in one good jazz recording as there is depth in the entire history of recorded jazz. You'll never hear it all." The station won a national Public Radio Program Director's Award for Creative Excellence (ACE) in 2006 for its jazz programming.

And one of the things he likes doing now?

"I've really grown to like hosting All Things Considered, " said Mike. "I like talking to listeners on their way home, cooking dinner or whatever, highlighting for them what's coming up during the show, working with news guys Charlie Schlenker and Willis Kern and keeping them up to date on current weather. I'm think of myself as the glue that keeps the local and national parts of the show together."