Top of the Morning, Feb. 4, 2023
Feb. 4—There's plenty of history playing on Champaign Multimedia Group's trio of radio stations.
With the help of the Champaign County History Museum, Tamera McDaniel is producing a series of short vignettes that air across WDWS 1400-AM/93.9-FM, WHMS 97.5-FM and WKIO 107.9-FM.
"My mother's side of the family moved to Champaign County, which was Vermilion County at the time, back in 1829," McDaniel said.
"Since then, a lot of really cool stories have been passed down through the generations, and so you pack these away in your memory and then you kind of want to do something with it."
Each installment of the "Locals C-U" series — which are available as podcasts on wdws.com — spotlights a different business, individual or event with ties to Champaign-Urbana's rich history.
The first of the six packages told the story of Francis Nelson, an instrumental figure in the local healthcare scene. Just before the holidays, McDaniel also dove deep into Urbana's Candlestick Lane. Another explored the tasty history of Vriner's Confectionary in downtown Champaign.
Feedback and story ideas can be submitted directly to McDaniel by emailing tamera@whms.com.
"We're trying to tell the stories of people around town that you don't normally hear about," McDaniel said. "There are those that you do hear a lot of, and there are those that you don't really get to hear a lot of, so we're having fun diving into those and trying to show those."
