Randy Eccles
General Manager, NPR Illinois/ Co-Host, Community Voices/ CAB Ex-OfficioSpringfield
Please reach out at randy.eccles@nprillinois.org.
Randy Eccles became NPR Illinois general manager in 2013 after serving as development director since moving to Springfield in 2008. Randy served on the Governor's Local Journalism Task Force 2023-2024.
Randy currently serves as the past-president of the Illinois Public Broadcasting Council (IPBC) – the association for all public media organizations in Illinois.
Randy previously worked at KTAR in Phoenix and WGN in Chicago in programming and marketing management after producing talk shows and sports coverage. He also served in management and news stints at student-run stations WHFH, WONC, and WUEV.
Born in Hinsdale, he was raised by teachers in south suburban Glenwood and graduated from Homewood-Flossmoor High School, then North Central College in Naperville. Randy also spent a lot of time at the family farm in Industry, Illinois (south of Macomb).
Randy served on the Springfield Area Arts Council board and was awarded the best of show in the Springfield Art Association's 2023 Art Synergy program in a collaboration with professional artist Alissa Ohashi.
Randy co-hosts Community Voices and its music-focused edition, CV-X, Saturdays 5 to 7 p.m.
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Amina and Hafsa Rahman completed their project as the first NPR Illinois J-Corps citizen journalists. Before the recognition dinner on June 17, we reviewed the experience with our mother-daughter team. -
Community Voices has a new theme thanks to the Micah Walk Band dusting off the masters and stripping the vocals from their song, Last One Home. The band shares what they have been up to since playing together. -
Williamsville Public Library & Museum Director Natalie Albers explaines why libraries are relevant in the digital age. -
#centralIllinoisMusicScene duo Bill Poss and JJ Passalacqua share their project LoveSeat and their new album, Our Way. Bill also organizes the Moccasin Creek Festival at Lake Sara in Effingham, this year June 19-22, and he shares this year's lineup. -
Michal Dawson Connor performs his arrangement of spirituals that he has researched from the era of American slavery Feb. 28 at the Hoogland Center for the Arts. He joins Community Voices to share his passion, reflect on his time performing in "The Lincolns of Springfield" here, and share how the Los Angeles wildfires affected him. Connor has published a book on his research, The Slave Letters. -
This week, team Rahman shares how persistance can warmup intervierw subjects and reactions to a Muslim reality dating show.Follow along each Friday through May with this J-Corps Audio Journal. -
Jack McLaughlin and Jordan Shea are joined by Noah Thuma in Scarlet's Darling. I Didn't Mean to Call Your Name, is their Feb. 7, 2025 album release. -
The central Illinois band, Crash Planet, has two EPs out — 2023's Subconscious and 2024's False Summit. They play shows in the area and are planning a regional tour. -
Press Forward Springfield is awarding its first project grants. NPR Illinois along with the Illinois Times and Capitol News Illinois will each receive funding to report on a different untold story in our community. The three reporting projects will be posted in May.
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Mark Barlow and Joe Wallace found each other musically through DIM Art House leading to the formation of Illinois Department of Sound. The result plays in a unique genre of music that has them seeking collaborative art partners.
