New Radio Host and ‘Focus’ Producer Join WILL-AM Staff

Illinois Public Media welcomed two new staffers in January: Chris Berube, on-air host for Morning Edition and The Afternoon Magazine, and Lindsey Moon, producer for the morning talk show, Focus.

Berube, who has worked most recently for the NPR show Radiolab and the American Public Media program Marketplace, is a May 2012 graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. The Toronto native has also produced radio content for Public Radio International’s Bullseye and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s The Current, written stories for The Globe and Mail in Toronto, and been a guest host on CBC Radio 3.

“I’m very excited to join the team at WILL. It’s an ambitious station that is doing a lot of great work for the community and the region,” Berube said.  “With the afternoon show, I feel like there’s a great opportunity to explore complicated topics in an intelligent and thorough way.”

Moon has worked as a talk show producer and reporter at Iowa Public Radio, where she won first-place awards for both general and investigative reporting from the Northwest Broadcast News Association and Public Radio News Directors Incorporated, and most recently as a general assignment reporter at Wisconsin Public Radio. Her work has been featured by NPR’s Talk of the Nation, The Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism and The Daily Iowan.

“I am looking forward to building on Focus’ legacy while working to keep the show relevant in an era that is largely defined by new media,” she said. “I am also really excited to dig into the culture and community that WILL serves. I hope to try and capture that in Focus programs that I produce. I really would like to work closely with IPM’s community engagement team to try and produce some remote broadcasts in the Champaign-Urbana community.”

Kimberlie Kranich, Illinois Public Media director of community content and engagement, said Berube and Moon are rising stars in the fields of journalism, multi-media production and community engagement. “We are looking forward to their skill, passion and enthusiasm as they join an award-winning team that seeks to create impact journalism in the communities served by WILL,” she said.