Bland published in 'Air: A Radio Anthology'

Brian R. Bland (BS '63, journalism; MS '64, radio and TV) has been published in Air: A Radio Anthology, a collection of essays about the early days of radio. Bland's memoir recalls his first paid broadcast job at WLRW-FM in Champaign in 1963. Air was published in 2019 by the book division of Hippocampus Magazine. 

"It's dedicated to the days when every station had its own character; many were independently owned," Bland said. "In the early 1960s, WLRW was in a cornfield and had challenges ranging from field mice to thunderstorms. I worked there during grad school, but unlike my work at WILL-FM and TV, I was paid at WLRW—just over a buck an hour! I got a real kick out of writing my story, and reading the other writers' radio memories."

Bland retired in 2007 from a nearly three-decade career as an Associated Press Radio correspondent, covering stories across the country as well as the Persian Gulf War in 1991. He and his wife, Jeanne, a retired RN, live in Santa Monica, Calif.