Central Illinois radio station adds misinformation to the mix

A radio station in Normal, Ill., has merged activism and coverage, organizing protests and pushing back against criticism of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. "Since President Biden’s election, the talk radio station has upended the traditional media ecosystem in this part of central Illinois with an unusual mix of hyperlocal news coverage — crime, weather and the like — and election misinformation," Annie Gowen of the Washington Post reports.

McLean County, Illinois (Wikipedia, adapted)

Cities 92.9 (WRPW) Station Manager Catrina Peterson said "that they are simply providing coverage that serves as a necessary counter to the liberal bias they see in the established local media outlets, which include a newspaper and two other news radio stations," Gowen writes, adding that Peterson is also a self-professed QAnon supporter. 

Gowen summarizes some of Cities 92.9's activism, such as organizing a Jan. 6 bus trip dubbed “Stop the Steal,” defending a Nazi salute at a school board meeting, and involvement in a festival where a Marine attendee called for revolution, saying, “Violence is always the answer.”

Steve Suess, the director of convergent radio broadcasting at Illinois State University, the faculty adviser to its student-run radio station, and a Cities weekend host, told Gowen, “They certainly have carved out somewhat of a niche in the market. They’re not winning the day, but they’re not going bankrupt, either.”

"Suess has been one of the chief defenders of the station locally, saying that it broadcasts a wide range of views," Gowen reports. "He said that the station had not covered the Jan. 6 bus trip as a news event and that he was unaware it had organized protests, then covered them."