Tornadoes, politicians and a pandemic: Peoria journalist looks back at 49-year career

PEORIA - At first, H Wayne Wilson didn't want to be interviewed about his long career as a news reporter in Peoria.

Wilson retired in August as the host of At Issue, the in-depth news program on WTVP-TV. He created the program and served as host for 35 years. After so many years of interviewing others, Wilson shied away from being the subject.

“The show was never about me – it's about helping the community,” he said.

Over the years, Wilson interviewed everyone from politicians to entertainers to the average Joe on the street, and tackled topics both controversial and fun. He also created documentaries for WTVP, looking in-depth at issues important to residents of central Illinois and beyond.

From radio to television

Wilson’s career as a news man began long before he went to WTVP. As the son of an airline pilot, Wilson lived all over the U.S. before his family settled in Libertyville. Because he was good at math and science, Wilson began studying to be a civil engineer at the Illinois Institute of Technology until a volunteer position at a local radio station changed his trajectory.

“I started doing both news and working as a disc jockey, and loved it,” he said. “I loved it so much I quit school after three years. ... I was wasting my time studying to get a degree as an engineer."

Wilson’s career was waylaid by the Vietnam War, but when he finished serving, he enrolled at Southern Illinois University. He got a degree in broadcast management in 1974. Though Wilson hadn't submitted any resumes to stations in Peoria, he was called by WMBD radio about a month after graduation – a professor had recommended him.

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Wilson did production work for the station until an evening disc jockey position opened up – WMBD played pop music in 1974. Two years later, Wilson went to WCBU, Peoria's public radio station.

“I really enjoyed that. They kind of left me alone and said, ‘run the news department.’"

As news director, Wilson had the opportunity to mentor Bradley University students.

“I really enjoy giving students the opportunity to follow their chosen path,” he said. "I had some very, very good students. It was very satisfying to train and develop these students. Some of them went into the business permanently.”

In 1982, Wilson made the jump to television. Channel 19, then called WRAU, was looking for an assignment editor.

“It was a pay raise and an opportunity for me to try TV," Wilson said.

He was assistant news editor and assignment editor until differences with management prompted him to resign in 1988.

At the age of 40, Wilson was at a crossroads in his career. Inspired by a talk show hosted by Celeste Kelly that aired on Channel 47, Wilson had an idea.

“I had volunteered at Channel 47 starting in 1975, so I was a known commodity there,” said Wilson. “I said I’d like to do a talk show and I’d like to do some documentaries, which they weren’t doing.”

Wilson was offered a full-time job the next day, but the offer was amended when Wilson said he wanted to work on a freelance basis.

The arrangement allowed Wilson to work for corporate clients such as Caterpillar, the OSF HealthCare system and Goodwill of Central Illinois. It also allowed him to make documentaries, something he’d never done before.

Over the last 35 years, Wilson made close to 90 documentaries on a wide range of topics, from the restoration of the Illinois River at Emiquon, to a look back on the 2013 tornado outbreak that hit Washington and East Peoria that aired on the one-year anniversary of the storm.

Many memorable stories

Wilson is proud of the work he’s done over the years. Of the many topics he explored, one of the most important was COVID-19.

“In 2020, there was a stretch of 15 weeks where 13 of the shows were on COVID,” said Wilson. “That might have been the most difficult time, in terms of finding fresh faces and different approaches, because COVID was the topic of the day, and continued to be the topic of the day.”

Wilson also enjoyed finding topics viewers weren’t familiar with.

“Clyde Tombaugh – have you ever heard of Clyde? He discovered Pluto in the 1930s. He’s from up by LaSalle-Peru. He came down to Peoria and did an interview with me. He was probably 80 years old, and he was wonderful, sharp, just a neat guy,” said Wilson.

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The craziest interview Wilson ever did was with musician Ray Stevens when he was in town to perform at the Heart of Illinois Fair.

“His band came back from the restaurant, and they had a tater tot war in the RV while I was doing the interview,” said Wilson.

His list of most memorable stories goes on and on, the legacy from a long, interesting career.

Concerned about the future of news

News has been Wilson’s life, and he’s deeply concerned about cuts that have happened at newsrooms all across central Illinois.

“It worries me a lot. With my involvement with the Illinois News Broadcasters Association, we talk about it a lot," he said. “There aren’t enough reporters. The reporters who are still working, most of them are green, in their first job, so they don’t have anybody to come back to. So they either have fact errors in their story, or it’s a short, glossed-over story without any meat to it.”

Wilson also doesn’t like the fact that so many board and council meeting are not being covered by the press.

“The result is a population and community that is less informed than they should be, and they rely on social media for their news — and that, we know, is not always a reliable source," he said. “I don’t know how the news industry, radio, newspapers, TV, is going to recover to provide that essential knowledge of how their community operates.”

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Leslie Renken can be reached at (309) 370-5087 or lrenken@pjstar.com. Follow her on Facebook.com/leslie.renken.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: H Wayne Wilson talks about his 49 years covering news in Peoria