View from the Cab: See you on the airwaves

The first ever severe weather coverage last week on the brand new 93.7 FM.

By Kent Casson

You now have a new option for a radio preset featuring the latest ag news, area sports coverage, local news and weather information. It’s all on 93.7 FM.

Casson Media has acquired the station, which is licensed to Pontiac, returning it to local ownership. Route 24 Radio serves area communities such as Pontiac, Fairbury, Forrest, Chatsworth, Graymont, Dwight, Flanagan, Streator, Gridley, El Paso, Odell, Lexington, Colfax and many others. The signal even stretches through Bloomington-Normal.

This new on-air signal complements our existing online coverage of area high school teams, news and event coverage at www.route24radio.com and the Route 24 Radio broadcasts on Facebook and You Tube.

It is all coming full circle for me as 93.7 was where I began my radio career almost 30 years ago! I worked for the Pontiac radio station throughout high school and college, eventually taking on the news director role in 2002 and program director in 2006 for our sister station. I left in 2012 to pursue a career in farming, radio and journalism as I formed the Central Illinois Farm Network to report on the latest ag news and that still exists today. Expect to hear plenty of our CIFN farm shows on the new station throughout the week.

As a 10-year-old boy playing radio on the farm back in the day, I never would have imagined where my career has taken me. It has always been a dream of mine and lifelong goal to own a radio station and here we are. We won’t let the listeners down as we provide unmatched news coverage in our broadcast radius.

The radio station is your one-stop shop for everything local such as community calendar events, important severe weather coverage, live remotes from the towns we serve, and sports broadcasts of area teams during the fall football and winter basketball seasons. We’ll even have a little fun along the way with entertaining personalities during the day, trivia questions and Central Illinois’ largest music library stretching all the way from the 60s to 90s with 24/7 on air programming.

Stay current on area news, sports scores and more by following Route 24 Radio on Facebook and by checking the website often. We also offer an online stream and on-demand audio on the “podcasts” page. The popular Route 24 Radio Forum program can be heard weekdays at 9 a.m. where we interview different local guests in the studio, whether it is an area school superintendent, mayor, elected official or business owner.

Like other media outlets, we count on advertisers and listeners to keep us going. If you would like to be a sponsor on the radio station, submit a news tip or add an upcoming event to our community calendar, you can e-mail cassonmedia@yahoo.com or call/text 217-530-3107.

As Charles Osgood used to say, “I’ll see you on the radio.”