Norwich Bulletin

WILI’S PILOT OF THE AIRWAVES A REAL PRO

by Jerry Lamb

     When a new job changes your commuting pattern, one of the many tasks is to re-program the buttons on your radio.  Going north to Willimantic instead of west toward New Haven forced me to to do just that.  In the process, I added another local station, WILI in Willimantic.  My morning commute listening is more likely;y to be National Public Radio or a Mary Chapin Carpenter CD than local radio.  However, it seemed that everybody at Eastern Connecticut State University kept mentioning Wayne, the morning show host on WILI.

    So, I listened in as I approached town one morning.  The weather report seemed to occupy most of a 15-minute segment.  It wasn’t really that long, but the banter between Wayne and Ron Anderson went much further than the “80 degrees and partly sunny” that usually fills a short break between commercials.  Some interesting tidbits surfaced during the repartee, so I kept listening and was rewarded with more sports than usual, again with unusual connections or the odd fact.

    On about my third day in the office, Dwight Bachman, ECSU’s public relations guru was taking my mug shot for the obligatory press release.  He said something like, “We’ve got to get you on Wayne’s show soon.”  I asked if this was the same person I had heard and other people were talking about.  Yes, and he is a real institution in town and a very nice guy.   Assuming that Dwight was practicing his PR talents on me, I said sure, sign me up.   By the way I asked, does Wayne have a last name or is it one word like Madonna or Prince?  I was assured he did have a last name, Norman.

    With the vicissitudes of radio programming (after all, a new dean is not the hottest topic) and my schedule, it took a month before I was to show up at 7 a.m. at the studio on Main Street in downtown Willimantic.   Heeding Dwight’s sage advice, the night before I had faxed some puffball questions for Wayne to ask me, like “Why are you so great?”

Into the basement maze

   At the appointed hour, I was admitted to the basement maze that houses the studios.  Someone pointed to the one containing a mustachioed man whose hands and arms seemed to be flying in all directions, pushing this button, listening to that tape and watching the Weather Channel playing silently on the TV monitor.  Cheerfully, he greeted me and said that I wasn’t really needed for about 20 minutes.

    During the breaks while the news was being read, Wayne told me that he had not gotten my fax until just before I walked in, but had surfed the School of Continuing Education’s web site and printed our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page.  Unfortunately, he had not printed out the answers, expecting me to know them.  He said he would lead with a typical question, like “How did a boy from the military-industrial complex get to be a dean in academia?” and go from there.

    Over the next two hours, I learned more about the person at the mike across the table from me.  Moreover, I was impressed by his ability to handle the multiplicity of tasks without missing a beat when we returned to the interview.  His technique was very adept with a knack for keeping us Nervous Nellies at ease while talking about the most interesting tidbits.  We talked about Paris, Civil War artifacts and the South, as well as about the changes and challenges of continuing education in today’s world.  Just before we signed off, he said “You sound just like Dan Rather,” and made me sign off as if I were closing “The CBS Evening News”.

    In the break periods, I learned Wayne is indeed a multifaceted individual, broadcasting ECSU and UConn sports, even to covering the Final Four in Tampa.  That explained the additional information I heard while driving up.  He is also truly a weather nut, even to publishing his own eastern Connecticut weather calendar.  Thumbing through the calendar, I found that Wayne had started at WILI on Aug. 24, 1970.  That longevity in the revolving door of the broadcasting industry is simply unheard of.

    Also, Wayne’s calendar gave a clue that he was more than just a local radio show host.  Asking about the picture of him “pulling” a bus disguised as a boom box in the Fourth of July parade led to the fact that he actually started the parade as a civic focus.  Wayne is an integral part of the community, both town and gown.

    Back at the office, I checked again with Dwight who informed me Wayne had been honored with ECSU’s President’s Medal a few years past.  It detailed his support of ECSU and noted that he was the program director for WILI.

    When I set out for the studio, I wasn’t sure what I’d find.  After all, one wouldn’t normally expect much of a station with only 1,000 watts of power and a listening range only to the outskirts of Norwich.   Instead, Wayne is a “big city” king of guy with a worldwide viewpoint and an eclectic range of interests and knowledge.

    Rumination on what I had learned about a person whom I met for only a couple of hours, I decided Wayne was a kind of airwave Renaissance man, gently inserting his broad knowledge into the listeners’ ears and quietly building community.  It may not be “Broadcast News” or even “WKRP”, but WILI has a jewel who does far more than simply fill air time.

   Dr. Lamb is the former Dean of the School of Continuing Education at Eastern Connecticut State University lambo48@aol.com

(c) 2000 The Norwich Bulletin