Today is my last day with WNIJ. I started here just over three years ago. Since then, you’ve heard me report on our prairies, our wildlife, our rivers and how life here in northern Illinois is adapting to climate change.
The general thrust of that work will continue as I transition to a new job at our sister station in Chicago.
But before I take off, I’d like to say something that I want you to know about this station, about what I quickly learned and saw in action everyday: And that is that the people who work here, day in and day out, are always thinking about you, the public that calls northern Illinois home.
They wake up every day and figure out how to transform the electromagnetic waves flying through the air into the very foundation of a free, open and interdependent society.
On our good days, this daily exercise should yield useful and even basic information. What did the city council just vote on? Why’d the power go out? Where’d all the prairies go?
But on our best days, even for only a couple minutes…. the stories you hear on this station will transport you, connect you to very many strangers in surprising and sometimes challenging ways. Until maybe, we aren’t such strangers anymore. And that’s what’s so special about radio and the people who care to employ it.
It’s been a tremendous privilege to contribute to this station… in my own way … and work alongside the patient and supremely talented team at WNIJ these past three years. You’re in good hands.
I’m Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco and that’s my perspective
