Letter: Reverse the decision and quickly bring back 'Illinois Stories'

My employment contracts, as a consulting pharmacist with a federal agency, have placed me across the country. All four Illinois facilities, plus several in bordering states, have one thing in common. The medical staff, doctors, nurses and pharmacists, are fans of the popular "Illinois Stories." One pharmacy technician was sure we had worked together or had met at another location. That was not the case. Finally, one day she said, 'I remember you from the Illinois Stories film about an old school building in your hometown!' Mark McDonald interviewed me as part of a story about the historic East School Museum, in Pittsfield, Illinois. That aired 10 years earlier! This technician had remembered that "Ilinois Stories" all those years! The program has a long-lasting impact on viewers. This is a dedicated fan base.

See: Letter: Gun control is not the answer to mass killings; look to a higher power

"Illinois Stories" is also a billboard for Southern Illinois University. I know people who home school in my county, in addition to those confined because of COVID, and they have been using the 30-plus stories about my Pike County, Illinois as part of their teaching curriculum. They connect with the quality of the many fine "Illinois Stories" and SIU.

I am very much dismayed by the announcement to halt "Illinois Stories." WSIU is killing an extraordinary exposure of Southern Illinois University to a large, and educated population in central and downstate Illinois, plus audiences in Missouri, Indiana and our southern border states. In short, canceling "Illinois Stories" is a lousy business decision. Hopefully, it will be reversed quickly.

Warren D. Winston, Pittsfield

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: The end of 'Illinois Stories' causes dismay among dedicated fan base