David Tallacksen

David Tallacksen has been listening to radio since his early years, when he tuned in to crackly late-night AM talk shows on his GE radio alarm clock long after he had gone to bed and should have been sleeping. He became a public radio listener in high school when he discovered "Car Talk" and NPR news magazines on WNIJ and later worked at WNIU while a student at NIU.

He started his professional career at KMUW in Wichita, Kansas, where he hosted local news programming and managed digital properties. He then combined his love of music and public radio during more than a decade at WBGO, where he oversaw technical operations and hundreds of live and studio broadcasts and recordings, and served as technical director for NPR's "Jazz Night in America."

Tallacksen now resides in Sycamore with his wife, two children and feline companion Lilly.