Bea Bonner does her exit interview on Community Voices with Sean Crawford and Randy Eccles after eight years at NPR Illinois.
AI transcription with human editing for readability:
Randy Eccles: This is, oh, wait a second, Bea, it's your last time. Go ahead.
Bea Bonner: This is Community Voices on NPR Illinois 91.9 UIS and I'm Bea Bonner here with my friends.
Randy Eccles: Sean Crawford and Randy Eccles. I greatly value the friendship and collegiality of Bea Bonner who has been with us for several years, but she's not going to be with us any longer.
Bea Bonner: I'm going away, guys. They got rid of me. No, I'm kidding. They didn't get rid of me.
Randy Eccles: They did not. And it has nothing to do with all the budget stuff going on. It was just the right time for you to grow.
Bea Bonner: Yep, I saw a job and didn't think I was going to get it and ended up getting it. =Now, Sean can get rid of me forever, Randy can get rid of me forever, and I'm moving on.
Sean Crawford: Well, it will be quieter.
Randy Eccles: As soon as we have the opportunity, we'll be asking you to volunteer and do things, if you don't mind.
Bea Bonner: Yeah, I would love to, but y'all let me get settled first. I gotta go to my new job and make them love me first.
Randy Eccles: Why would you leave Community Voices or what would you leave Community Voices for?
Bea Bonner: I've been doing Community Voices — it'll be 5 years coming up in October. This was our baby. This was all of our baby, and it has grown and evolved.
I'm going to the Teachers' Retirement System to do internal communications.
Randy Eccles: So what do retired teachers need to know?
Bea Bonner: I have to take care of the people that take care of the retired teachers, so I'll be doing newsletters. I'll be coming up with some creative things like videos and audio to highlight people in our department, doing emails, coordinating staff meetings. Some of what I learned here at the station, I'll be doing over there.
Randy Eccles: For those who don't know, Bea has been the main person behind getting the NPR Illinois Daily newsletter out each day here.
She started as a undergrad.
Bea Bonner: I was a UIS Leadership Lived student worker. I started in November of 2017.
Randy Eccles: And then what happened?
Bea Bonner: I graduated. Then I stayed over the summer as a graduate student worker. Then I applied for a full-time job in fundraising. I was the membership and engagement coordinator and took on additional responsibilities. I realized I don't like asking people for money. Then we started Community Voices in 2020.
Randy Eccles: As the pandemic was going on, we realized it would be important to talk to people and not always have it be a news story. To say, "Hey, what's going on? How are you doing?" That was the impetus to start Community Voices. Although Bea looked at me like she usually does, like I'm crazy as hell, she didn't completely reject the concept and joined in partnership to get it launched.
Bea Bonner: In talking to Sean, I realized that, like doing a show, it's not the easiest thing. As soon as I came and told Sean, he says, "It's like a hamster wheel." You know what it's like, Sean.
Sean Crawford: You really have to continue to produce something. You have to be finishing one thing and looking ahead to what you're doing next, it never ends in that respect. You also have to be somebody who finds a lot of things interesting because you have a lot of variety on the show. It's not always something that's a news item; that's a broad interest to a lot of different people. You have to find ways to make that interesting to the public and luckily, you've been able to do that.
Bea Bonner: I hope so. Sometimes I'm, "Oh, they're going to kick me off after this interview. I made too many jokes this time." But, I think it's interesting to people.
Randy Eccles: One of the things you brought to it right away is a different network of people that we can bring in. That helped the show too. Bea has a whole cadre of friends and places that she's gotten to know through the show.
We try not to pull Sean into the show too often, but I think around Pledge Drive he'd get sucked in.
Sean Crawford: Community Voices is not meant to be a news show. Sometimes it's just having a conversation with people. Not everything has to lead the newscast of NPR Illinois. We do a lot of different things here at the station and Community Voices is a big part of that.
Randy Eccles: Bea, what's going to happen with the show with you gone? Now following Vanessa in finding the big bucks of a state job?
Bea Bonner: Y'all, it was not supposed to happen like that. Things happen. Randy will continue hosting the show and we have some student help right now. Shout out to Ainsley Wilson who is doing a lot of editing remotely for us. She's away at college. She's really good at the editing. Then we have some friends of the station like Craig McFarland who have also been contributing, and Sean's been on recently too. You nterviewed the Lincoln Land Community College president.
Sean Crawford: There'll be opportunities to add to the show in things that we're doing and would do otherwise as well, but maybe we'll find ways to add to the show that way. It'll be a bit of an adjustment period, I think Randy would agree, but hopefully there'll be brighter days ahead here for NPR Illinois and for the show as well. At some point, Bea, a full-time host will come on and do that.
Randy Eccles: We've already placed requests with UIS to approve postings for two positions, Vanessa's and Bea's. We've been working to get that moving. In the meantime, we've got some help that'll help us. One of those things is we are looking for community contributors. Folks who feel comfortable with doing interviews and identifying people we should know, neighbors we should know. Having the ability to edit audio would be helpful — if you know how to use Adobe Audition or some other type of editing software to give what's basically a turnkey interview for us to get on the air, contact us. In the meantime, we continue the show. We continue to talk to people. You'll continue to hear forums or things you might have missed. We'll continue to talk with new people. But the other thing, Bea, that you've done over your years here, probably started when you were an undergrad, is This, I Believe.
Bea Bonner: Yes, that's a big project and it's going on right now.
Randy Eccles: That process has been interesting because it's not just kids submit some things and you pick a couple and put them to air, it's more involved.
Bea Bonner: There's a full-time job within itself. The first time I got to work with the program was when I was in undergrad and we had Carter Staley here who assisted me and helped me learn everything I needed to learn about This I Believe. I was immediately thrown in to organize the essays, record the essays, take pictures of the students, go to the Rotary Club meetings for their live readings, make sure everything gets on the website. It is a lot of work. Now we do a big event to cap everything. So not only are you organizing a program, you're organizing an event at the same time.
Randy Eccles: We're looking forward to this year. .
Bea Bonner: The essays air the last two weeks of October. The 'Meet the Authors' event is Nov. 6, 6.30 p.m. at the ALPLM Library in the atrium. The Union Theater is having some repairs, so they are kind enough to let us go in the library portion. We'll have deserts, some festivities, and it's the 20th class of authors telling us what they believe. We're reaching out to some folks to see if they'll come speak or submit a video of what they believe now.
Randy Eccles: At one point during our time together, we went to Dallas for a media fundraising conference.
Bea Bonner: I'm met Clifford.
Randy Eccles: The big red dog!
We got to talk a lot there, outside the office. It was clear you had background in content creation; programming is what we call it. You were doing a great job in development, but if there was an opportunity to do content creation, you'd be into that. Because you had done some stuff in high school, right?
Bea Bonner: In Chicago, we have a program called After School Matters and Mayor Daley's wife started it. It's basically to get teens off the streets and paid to learn different crafts. I went into the summer program, Teen Talk Radio Theater. I almost didn't get in because I was too nervous. They taught us about radio. We had to do a live show, learned about speaking and presenting ourselves well. After that, they do a weekly show and I was brought on to the weekly show as a multimedia editor. The year after that, I became a full-time host. I would leave my school, Lindblom, on 61st and Wolcott every Monday early. I would take the bus all the way to University of Chicago, because that's where the station was and I would co-host that show every Monday. We talked about different things when it came to teens. voting, driving, music, smoking. We talked about a number of different topics. It was a good time. That's how I I got my start in radio. Then I figured out I wanted to major in communications, I thought I wanted to go into TV. That did not work out because I'm shy around cameras, but I'm good to be around mics.
Randy Eccles: That's for sure. We enjoyed lots of different milestones together, including Sean. I think he ate all the food at your wedding!
Sean Crawford: That's not true. That's not true. You got married. It's been just over a year now.
Bea Bonner: Yeah, I met Amon in 2017. We started dating right before I started interning here as a UIS Leadership Lived student worker. It was fun to see the adjustment of having a relationship and working, because I was working pretty much full-time hours here back then. You all came to my wedding, and you all threw me a very nice wedding shower at Vanessa's mother's house. That was really fun.
Sean Crawford: I've worked with a lot of students through the years, and it's always interesting to watch students grow up. Sometimes they grow up away from here. They will work here as a student. They go find other jobs and they're gone. But Bea has been here now, what'd you say, 8 years?
Bea Bonner: Yeah, it'll be 8 years.
Sean Crawford: We've been able to watch her grow up out here. It's like watching one of the family leave.
Randy Eccles: It's one of my favorite parts of the job — getting to see that. Bea has been amazing. She's tackled just about anything we threw at her and dealt with it, whether or not it was a good thing to throw at her. Bea, people would be curious what stands out to you from your time here?
Bea Bonner: Man. There's been so many things. Some of the interviews I have done, especially this year. You're on the radio and I'm talking about pelvic wellness or I'm talking about LARPing, live role-playing in the parks. People do some really interesting things here. I even got to interview the FBI this year. That was fun. When they emailed me I thought it was a joke. I'm like, who is this? Can't be the real FBI.
Randy Eccles: You thought they wanted to interview you?
Bea Bonner: I didn't know what was happening. And then my dad was like, you better watch out. They're coming to get you. But that ended up being fun.
One thing I've really enjoyed was having this family here at NPR Illinois, because I'm new to Springfield. I still call myself new to Springfield. I came down here for school in 2014. and hadn't really ventured away from the university. I've met some really incredible people here. My parents were worried one year about me coming home for Christmas because it was so snowy. My mom was like, she has places to go. She has friends and family there. And I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna go to Audrey's house. Then I'm gonna go to Vanessa's house. And then Sean, I'm going to go there. And then Randy, we're gonna come have a bonfire at your house.
Being around everybody, the cool opportunities I've had, like Randy said, going to Dallas. We traveled A lot. You remember we did the forum, Sean, and we had to travel all over the state. We went all over the state in 2018. Being able to stay at hotels, especially in Chicago, that was a nice hotel. Y'all put us up real nice. Being able to have that experience, you don't get that everywhere. I've been able to go to a lot of places, meet a lot of people, make a lot of important connections. I'm just grateful.
Randy Eccles: Bea has also been a great contact for us because as she talked about being a student here at the school, she's stayed in touch and been very involved with different aspects of the university.
Bea Bonner: When I was an undergrad, I was on the charter line for his data Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated, the Alpha Phi chapter, stayed on as their staff advisor on campus. That gives me some crossover. Also used to be involved with UIS Theater, so I keep in contact with a lot of those folks. Seeing the students around campus, I feel like I know everybody. Not so much anymore. When I first graduated, yes, but now I don't know who these kids are. They don't know me. I've also gone to help teach different classes on campus, especially the UNI-101, the freshman class. I've done a lot in that. It's Sean's turn to take that over and go teach the classes.
Sean Crawford: I will say this about Bea. I've worked with a lot of people, a lot of hard workers at the station through the years. She's right near the top. She's one of these people that if she says she's going to get something done, she gets it done. Now, that may mean she's working over the weekend or she's working late at night, but she gets it done. When you have a small staff and an operation that relies so much on everybody pulling their own weight, that's really appreciated. So thank you for all the work you've done.
Bea Bonner: Oh, you're so welcome. I try to get it done, y'all. But sometimes I get mad. I'm like, take this! I'm going to get This I Believe done now.
Randy Eccles: That's when I see her on Monday and she says, "I hate it here."
Bea Bonner: I have this catchphrase. I say, "I hate it here," all the time. I say it everywhere. I say it at home. I say it outside. I say it here. I feel like we need to get that on a shirt (which she received as a gift at her going away party).
Randy Eccles: It's been a weird year for sure. As you walk away for now, right? What advice would you give Sean, me, the audience?
Bea Bonner: Hang in there. because NPR matters, NPR Illinois matters. I don't think you all realize how much people appreciate the work that we do. Sometimes I'm out at restaurants and people will stop me and say, "You work for NPR Illinois? " And I'm like, "Yes." And they tell me how much they grew up with the station, or how their parents used to listen to it, or how they didn't know something, but they went to an event because they heard it on the station. Whatever happens, we have to find a way to continue the legacy NPR Illinois. We just celebrated 50 years. It needs to be around for 50 plus 50 plus and beyond, because the work that we do matters.
Sean, people always talk about you and State Week and how you and Charlie bring so much knowledge to that area. I don't know anything about politics and government, but the way you all can explain it, people really appreciate it.
Randy, People appreciate the liveliness you bring to The X. Seeing you out at events, because you're always going to events and being out with people and bringing people together. People really appreciate that. Keep the work going. I know it's hard. I know we have a small staff. Don't get discouraged because people really enjoy it.
To the audience, keep supporting and listening to the station, whether it's monetary contributions, whether it's calling in, suggesting a guest, whether it's bringing a story to light. We all need to stay connected right now.
Randy Eccles: This almost sounds like This Is Your Life. It was a show where they'd come surprise you with aspects of your life. We talked about your marriage and working as a student. You recently had a new member join the family.
Bea Bonner: Yes, I got a doggy.
Randy Eccles: What's its name?
Bea Bonner: Her name is Sky, and she's one years old, and she is a dachshund cattle dog mix. She is absolutely wonderful. She will come cuddle with you, but she is scared of other dogs right now. We are trying to break her of that. She has brought so much joy to my life. She's my little baby.
Randy Eccles: Vanessa and Bea very much like their dogs, and I think you used to sit for Vanessa's dogs?
Bea Bonner: Yes, and now she's going to return the favor.
Randy Eccles: Good thing is we didn't bring hot sauce today like we did for Vanessa's goodbye. Apparently, that didn't work out real well.
Bea Bonner: We all got punished for that.
Sean Crawford: Thanks for all your effort, and your time, and being a friend to everybody here. You're going to be missed.
Bea Bonner: Thanks, Sean. He can't wait to get rid of me. He's lying.
Randy Eccles: It will be quieter around here. Besides the fact that it's gonna stink not to have you around, you've been an incredible colleague. I have really enjoyed working with you. Much like Sean, you develop friends at work. It's been incredible. I'm excited for you and wishing you the absolute best going forward.
Bea Bonner: Thank you. I'm not dying, guys. You can still find me out and about in the community. I plan to be out at a few more things. I really like reading. You may find me at the book clubs that the Lincoln Library does where you can bring your own book and you don't have to read the same book. I'll be at that. NPR Illinois events coming up, I hope to be at, especially if you all do Thank You Fest next year. I can't wait to just come and be a donor.
Randy Eccles: ...and not worring about how things are set up.
Bea Bonner: I know. I don't have to plan the event anymore. Thank you, Jesus. I'm just really excited. You all, this won't be the last you're hearing me. Vanessa and I have some things up our sleeve. I'm not going to tell you what it is yet but just know you won't get rid of us.
Randy Eccles: I would usually wrap this interview up, but I will say this, we have enjoyed having Bea Bonner as part of the NPR Illinois staff for years. Bea, please do your last closeout.
Bea Bonner: Is there anything else you all want to add before we leave today?
Randy Eccles: There's a ton of stuff, but we can't say it on the air.
Bea Bonner: Well, thank you both for joining me today on Community Voices on NPR Illinois 91.9 UIS.
