Will you Consider This, we've seen and heard from him for years.

I'm Christine Zak-Edmonds, but this time, it's all new for him.

(upbeat music) He's covered all of Central Illinois for over 30 years, but Phil Luciano has a new look now.

Well, at least a new iteration, involving an upcoming program right here on WTVP Peoria Magazine On Air.

Welcome.

- Thanks for having me here.

There's only so much new you can do with this look.

- Okay.

- It's what it is.

(both laughing) - Well, you said you're not doing jeans so much anymore, so.

- Yeah, dressing up- - Yeah.

- Like a big boy.

- [Christine] It's interesting, yeah.

So welcome to the world of television.

- It's great.

- So you've done print for the paper, and then you did radio again for a while.

You were the looch.

- Yeah, about 7, 8 years almost.

So broadcasting, not entirely new to me, plus I've done some stuff a little bit here and there with WTVP so it's not an entirely different animal.

But full time, yeah, new thing.

(both chuckles) - Well, and you've done some video blogs and things too?

- [Phil] Sure.

- You and Vanna Whitewall.

- Yeah, lots of stuff out there to see in Peoria.

- Yeah, so this is all evolving your whole show, Peoria Magazine On Air.

What do you envision for it just from grassroots starting?

- Well, that's a good question.

So right, you mentioned Peoria Magazine.

So now, the first thing doing here is working on Peoria Magazine, which was relaunched in March.

And so there's a new take there on that.

And so there might be some of the stuff we do there with the On Air element because how this is.

The print word does a lot of powerful stuff, but a lot of times you get that extra oomph when you're out there with video and sound.

- And you can see it.

- Yeah, and so there's a lot of stuff therein that we wanna do.

And again, we're trying to figure this all out as we go along, but the WTVP has so many great shows like this one and other stuff.

And a lot of that's done in the studio.

What we hope to do with the weekly show is get out there more, to get out in Peoria.

There are so many interesting people and things going on and we wanna see them, hang out with them in their element.

So figuring out that technical aspect is part of the first thing we're gonna do.

- Sure, well, they'll be so much more comfortable in their element.

- Right, it's hard to say a guy like George Manias from George's Shoeshine, always a great friend of mine.

He's always a great to talk to.

But to have that guy come into the studio, well, that not only would not do him justice, but it'd be hard to shine shoes right here.

- Well, (both laughing) he could probably figure out a way to do.

- He probably could.

- He's been doing it for a long time.

But throughout your career, your writing career, did you always like to write?

I mean, as a kid, I know you're a White Sox fan, I think.

- Well, when I was a kid, I wanted to play third base for the White Sox.

- Okay.

- That didn't quite work out and they haven't called lately.

So I'm thinking that dream is dead.

But when I was a kid, I did read and write a lot.

I went to college to... Well, who knows what I was gonna do.

I ended up at a business college.

And it was one of the best business colleges in the country.

And it was- - And where was that?

- At Northern Illinois.

- Okay, alright.

- And it was a really good place, a lot of smart people.

And I found it terrifically boring.

- Okay.

- So one day I had just said, you know what?

This is not for me.

It's just a bless.

So, a couple years later I found myself at the student newspaper.

And then, well, this doesn't seem like a whole lot of heavy lifting here.

Maybe I'll do this for the rest of my life.

So, at least a good portion of my life I did just that.

- That's really interesting, yeah.

That you could find yourself like that.

- Yeah, it was a plus.

I was already heading into overtime when I literally one day just happened, well, I'll just look in here.

What's going on at this old building where there's a newspaper?

And I didn't have a major, I didn't have anything.

And then it was like, boom.

Hey, this seems to work.

And gave me a way to get done with college a couple years later.

- That's good.

- Yeah.

- Always that end game.

- Right.

- What did your parents think about that then?

Because I mean, did they know that sometimes news reporters are poor starving artists?

- The part about my going into newspapering at first, I think they were just glad that I was going to be getting done with school at some point.

But I know the...

I remember the look I got from my father after my fifth year at college and he came up to visit me or make sure I really was leaving or show me the papers or whatever.

And I said, "I'm not sure but I think I might go to grad school to study newspapering."

And he looked at me like, "You gotta be kidding."

Because I was a lousy student.

And so I'm hoping all my... None of my Bradley students, I've been teaching at Bradley for 25 years, are not paying attention to this.

But I really was.

I was terrible.

I was disinterested.

I just was a lousy student.

It wasn't the school's fault.

It was mine.

And that look I got from my dad, "You gotta be kidding me.

You can go to school again."

But it worked out.

- How are you making it interesting for your students then?

- Well, I try to remember that, and this is my philosophy, that education it's not so much about education, like teaching, because especially nowadays with YouTube and whatever, it's not about education.

It's about motivation and just to get them to do the things that I think they need to do.

What I teach is...

I always forget what... What is this class?

It's a beginning comp like everyone has.

Every freshman has it.

But the stuff we do, we focus on what they'll need to do in the professional world in addition to what they have to do in classes too.

But mostly when you get out of here, this is the type of stuff you'll wanna be able to do to communicate well in whatever job you got.

And I try to emphasize that a lot.

And then I just try to get them to do the stuff.

Not so much my telling them lots of thinky things, but you wanna do this?

Here's why you wanna do it.

And sometimes they're awake enough.

- Yeah, really.

(Phil laughing) What time's the class?

- It's at 4:30 in the afternoon.

- [Christine] Okay, so, maybe they've gotten in their nap before then?

- Yeah, they're ready.

They're kind of looking at their watch maybe because I'm boring but also 'cause we creep right up on the dinner hour.

So I try to be concise.

- Get me out of here.

(Phil laughing) Well, are they an inspiration for you in this new venture?

- Well, I don't know about that.

They probably don't know what I do at all.

I mean, I used to tell them I used to write for a newspaper and they would look at me like, "Newspaper."

I think I saw my grandparents read one of those one time.

(Phil Laughing) So- Well, it'll be... You think it'll be fun for you to be going out and doing this?

It's what you've already done, but without a camera.

- Yeah.

- No, you've had your own camera, right?

- Right, I've done video and here or there wherever.

But it will be interesting, I think because there is just that there's so much out there to show people and the written word.

I certainly respect it.

I paid the bills for 30-some years.

But there's also that element of wanting people to see exactly what I see.

And there are just those moments that are hard to capture with the written word, but when people, their expressions, their gestures, their whatever's, you catch those on camera and it's like, wow, that's pretty magical stuff.

- You seem to have over the years, with the column, uncovered a lot of things.

You've overturned some rocks and found some people that way.

So you think this will be a continuation of that as well?

- Well, I don't think I'm gonna be the Mike Wallace of WTVP.

I don't think I'm going to be the mad dog and doing anything like that.

I think most of our focus is interesting people and things.

And it could be stuff that's happening now.

There are some history pieces that I don't think have even ever been done at all, let alone done recently.

So I think it's that more than Trump and into to City Hall, and demanding to see the books or anything like that.

We'll leave that to others maybe.

- Just some reporters, yeah.

- Yeah.

- Because this isn't really reporting for you.

I mean it... Well, I'm not exactly sure how we describe what you'll be doing.

- Well, there is going to be an element of news.

There is, and I keep talking about the feature stuff, which I guess that's where I'm mostly gearing myself toward.

But in the whole program, who knows what all faces will be on this when we finally get it together.

But there's going to be more of like a news magazine discussion type stuff.

So there won't be, I don't think much breaking news, but it'll be more issue stuff, stuff that's happening right then that week, news makers or that sort of thing, and mixed with features and Peoria's stuff and this, that and the other.

It'll be a tasty stew.

- Okay.

Well, over the years, people either have loved you or hated you.

- Sometimes all in the same day.

- [Christine] Well, that could be.

(both laughing) - Me too.

(both laughing) - Look in the mirror.

- Yeah.

- But you're looking forward to it because you've had a lot of fun with finding interesting people, interesting stories.

- Yeah, the people who tend to hate me, I mean, there's your hardcore haters.

There's nothing I'll ever be able to do to appease them probably, so it goes.

But a lot of the people they might hate me just because it might be that one time I wrote about their cousins, brothers, dog catchers, best friend back in 1991 or something.

And it's like, man, that's a long time to hold a grudge.

And then you get to know him a little or I write something or whatever, like, okay, he's not half bad, that sort of thing.

- They're back, yeah.

- So, yeah.

And this is not going to be any of those.

I mean, there was the element of writing a column for so long that was the hammer and tong type stuff when needed.

It's like, "Boom, this is wrong type of thing.

This is my opinion.

But there will be no pounding of shoes on the desktop in this venture.

It'll be more like, "Hey, let's look at this."

Maybe, "Let's find some solutions."

And then there's, "Hey, look, let's go out there and look at all this really wild, crazy, sad, happy, whatever stuff that's going on in Peoria."

- And you're looking forward to having a lot of fun with this as well?

- Yeah, it's gonna be a blast.

With all due respect for conventional TV, they don't get, I think a lot of time to do that sort of stuff.

- Minute 30?

- Yeah, and so this will be, if there's someone who is interesting and that person needs five minutes, 10 minutes, whatever, we'll do it.

And there are certain...

There are projects we've been talking about already that might not be part of the weekly magazine.

It would be the video magazine.

It would be... We would just present them otherwise.

Here's a special show on this thing, that thing, whatever it is.

Like the one that I think of is, and I've written about this and when I wrote about it was just a year ago.

And I don't think it'd ever been covered in Peoria.

It's the fact that the first slave freed by Abe Lincoln, who was freed 20 years before he came president, she's buried under an asphalt parking lot in South Peoria - South side, yeah.

- Yeah, and it's like, I can't... And when I first read this, I was like, "I can't believe this."

And I had been in Peoria already for 30-some years.

I had never heard of it and I read a little story from out of town.

I'm like, "We gotta cover this thing."

And that's one of those aspects of the print word there works really well in terms of history maybe here's all these things that happened.

But then when you get to that asphalt parking lot and you can take a picture, but to actually go there and show people, "This is where she is."

I just imagine that would be a much more powerful story with that sort of element added in there.

- Right, exactly.

Too bad that you couldn't do the dig and actually find the grave.

- Well, yeah, I don't think that's possible.

- Right.

- But certainly we can.

There's something I'm sure can be done to commemorate, not just her, but others who are buried at that long lost graveyard.

- [Christine] Was it a poppers graveyard or do you know?

- I think to a degree it was.

And then it just became a forgotten graveyard and it just got paved over.

And then almost by accident, it's like, "Hey, there's a graveyard under this parking lot."

And boom.

So there are some people working on those types of things and great story to tell.

- And you like history then too?

- Yeah, it's one of those things where one, if it's a good story and you know the story, you kind of like to hear the story again.

I mean this is, if you talk about the history of restaurants in Peoria, you mentioned restaurants about... And we're talking ones that have been around or excuse me, that haven't been around just for a short time.

People are like, "I remember Hunts, and it was so great.

- Right, Metro Peoria.

- Yeah, and on and on.

And it's just one of those big touchstones.

So if you know the story, you like to relive it again.

But if you've never heard of that, it's like, "Wait a minute.

I've been in this town for umpteen years and I never knew about that type of thing."

And that's neat.

- Right, all the family stuff too.

Those family connections.

- Yeah, absolutely.

Because people have been around here a long time and they they're like, "Wow, I'm connected to that somehow."

(Christine laughs) - I'm related.

- Right, you never know.

You never know.

- So no random acts of snideness?

- I don't think that's gonna happen anymore for anyone who might not have ever enjoyed that or hated it.

That's where I would have my replies to people who perhaps weren't- - Weren't thrilled yet.

- Polite.

Yeah, neither thrilled nor polite with what they had to say to me.

So yeah, that's one of those things in the dust bin of history that I'll remember somewhat fondly, but things change.

- When this came along, were you ready?

I mean, this just came out of basically nowhere?

- Well, I guess so because here I am.

(both laughing) But I guess my point is, it was like, hey, I didn't think I'd be doing this a year ago.

But once it was explained, hey, here's some of the things we're thinking about here over at WTVP.

And I was like, "Well, that's interesting."

There are these things here and these things there and this over here that are all in the mix.

And what do you think we can maybe do with all these?

I'm like, "Let's do them all."

(Phil Laughing) - Yeah, tie them all together.

- Yeah, we'll see.

- Now you're also doing some writing then for the actual magazine, like you said.

- Right, and in the magazine, it's as a business focus, but it's not like, say, Forbes.

And I respect Forbes when I see, hear Forbes, I think serious business stuff.

And there is going to be serious business stuff in Peoria Magazine.

But also there are features, there are other types of elements just that are fun.

And so that it's gonna be a healthy mix and especially moving forward with those types of things that people wanna read.

Maybe you are a business person, I wanna see these business things that are happening, these developments, these trends, these whatever's.

But maybe you're not a business person.

Maybe you're not into that at all.

But I think it'll be an element of what's in there this month?

What sort of things are in... Like there's a feature that's on a cocktail recipe of the month.

How does that fit in a business magazine?

Well, it fits on that page and... (both laughing) And it's just an element of things that people do and recipes and other stuff like that.

So it is going to be an unconventional perhaps mix, if you just think business publication.

But it's not supposed to be just this super serious thing.

It's just gonna be an interesting magazine.

- Life.

- Yeah.

- Life in Central Illinois?

- Yeah.

And you think about how much of what we do, is at least in some way connected to business.

I mean, pretty much everything, right?

- Right.

Exactly.

And you're gonna try to cover all of the counties that WTVP airs in?

- Yeah.

It's a big chunk of Illinois.

I guess, it's probably like about 1/4, 1/5, I don't know.

Maybe even more than that.

it's a big chunk of territory.

- Sizeable.

Will you reflect or revisit some of the columns that you've done you think maybe in the beginning, because it's easier for you?

You already have that relationship?

- Well, on one hand, when someone hears a question like that, they think, it's gonna be a rerun type of thing.

On the other hand, I learned a long time ago that as precious as a reporter might think his story in a newspaper is, "Hey, there's this thing I wrote."

Not everyone reads them.

I mean, it's a newspaper.

It's out one day and it's fish-wrap the next day.

And so there are many stories that I've told that a lot of people have never heard of to wit.

This will be the 50th anniversary of the creation of an elephant graveyard in, I don't wanna say the town.

I guess you could find it, but it's not far from Peoria.

- Alright.

- Where this elephant was at it circus and boom, lightning struck in this elephant.

What do you do with a dead circus elephant - I think I remember reading that.

- Yeah, you know it's like.

And that was a quite...

I mean, what do you do?

And then they buried it and there's an elephant graveyard.

And it's just an interesting story about how all this- - You mean, there's more elephants there then?

I guess, I didn't- - Well, there's the one there.

And I know of at least two other elephant graveyards in Central Illinois.

And so I know it's like... And I've told those stories and people are like, "What are you talking about?"

I'm like, "I've written about it, man.

You mean you missed that one?

You missed that one column of the 5,000 that ran?"

- Well, you do get attached to some of the stories.

What story were you particularly attached to?

Like Willie York, I know that, and George's Shoeshine.

- Well, with Willie, I just will say this about Willie.

When I would write about him, and these are the type of things that I file under, "I never understand readers in the least," is I would write about him and people would write in, and this is before he died of course, a couple years ago.

And they would say, "How can you give... How can you cover this guy all the time?

You write about him all the time, blah, blah, blah."

And it was like I was his publicist or something.

I checked the number of columns I wrote over 30-some years.

I think it might have been like four.

So it was like, well, I don't know.

Maybe they just resonated with people about this vagrant who was just very, very interesting in many ways- - And colorful.

- Good and bad, but it just people with, "You write about him all the time."

No, once every, maybe 10 years.

But certain things grab people and they never leave.

- But there are some things that you'd like to revisit or catch up or update?

- Yeah, there are many places that... And I think we're all like this a little bit where maybe you're out driving in your car with a friend and you happen to be passing something like, there's that thing over there.

Or they'll even say, "What's that?

You've never been in there?"

- Right.

And they're like, "No."

And like, "How could you never have been to this place?"

And it's like that with stories that boy, "I'm not the only one who's written about this or covered it in some way.

You've never heard the story about this?"

And so you go back and you tell it because that's how it is.

If it's a good story, it just sticks forever.

- Yeah, it really does.

It really does.

So what do you think your biggest challenge might be?

- The biggest challenge I think is going to be quite frankly, if we're doing this weekly.

It's not easy to just make people up here.

I mean, one of those secrets about broadcast, be it radio or TV is to make it look like, "Hey, they're just having fun.

They're just sitting around.

They're not working hard at all."

And to do that, you really gotta work hard.

You really have to prep.

There's so many things that happen that aren't on air to make the on-air stuff good.

You know what I mean.

And so scheduling all that and setting that all up and keeping that flowing all the time, I think it's gonna be a challenge.

It's certainly not impossible.

It's just that's the part where I look at and go, "Okay, some work to do here."

- Yeah, so stuff doesn't always have to end up on the, well, it used to be the editing room floor, and now it's digital somewhere.

- Somewhere into the Etheria or whatever.

- Yeah.

So the 50 years, WTVP celebrating its 50th birthday this year, too.

So that's an interesting little tie in for you.

- Yeah, maybe something there, you never know.

You never know.

- So we think that we're gonna go beginning of June, this summer, the show's gonna air for sure.

- [Phil] Right.

- Things have to be still worked out.

- [Phil] Right.

- Everything's evolving.

And that's fun for you because I don't think you've ever backed down from a challenge.

- No.

Well, and you look at...

I mean, when I say the following, people are saying, "Come on, that's a little too of a higher of a bar to hit.

But I know one of the shows I like to watch, and I think it's...

I messed up the name.

It's CBS Sunday Morning Show they do.

It's an hour-and-a-half every Sunday.

And then realize they've got a network of people who are putting that stuff together and they're covering a whole country.

And that's a big threshold to try to hit.

But that's the type of thing we're thinking of, stuff that some is serious, some not so serious.

Some, "Where on earth that you come up with that type of thing?"

So, that's what we're looking for.

- Well, that's what you were doing every day in the paper?

- Right, the only difference is with people...

I'm sorry, with paper, I could call them on the phone and there, wherever they are, and then boom, knock that out.

This here, you have to grab people, find them, sit still, don't freak out about the camera, don't talk like this because you're so scared type of thing, that whole mix and- - Right.

- So it'll be interesting.

- And you like to pound out stories?

You're a fast writer?

- Yeah.

(both laughing) You got to be usually to keep on moving on to the next thing so.

- [Christine] You get it.

- Yeah.

- [Christine] And a lot of people don't?

- Yeah, it's one of those things you learn to do after 30-some years.

- Alright, so let's see challenges, enjoyment.

You really do think that you will enjoy this and now you're gonna be the actor and the producer basically of your show?

- Well, it's not just me.

There are others that are involved in this.

Am I sure as we speak who all that's going to be?

I'm not.

So, gosh, I hope there's... - Again, we're evolving?

- Right.

I hope there's other people.

- Please.

- Because for one, if it's me, it's a lot of work.

For another, if it's just me, it's like, come on, that same guy, that same face all the time.

No one wants to see just me, no way.

So that's why we wanna have a good mix of folks contributing- - Right.

- In doing different things.

- Well, again, like Sunday Morning does.

- Yeah.

- You're the in-studio host, but you've gone out and done some of the things.

- Sure.

- But you also have other contributors.

- Yeah, Hopefully there are...

I know there are a lot of voices that Peoria is familiar with who know a lot of these stories and others are people who tell the stories too.

There are some storytellers that are in the offing to help contribute.

So that'll be good too.

- Yeah, well, and there are a lot of recognizable voices, a lot of people who have been in the business and are doing other things, but they can still jump right back on the horse.

- Right, and if they've got things to share things to bring to the table there, that'd be great.

- Yeah.

Well, I have a couple of story ideas for you then too that wouldn't quite work with what I'm doing here- - Sure.

- But I think they would be great with you.

- That's the one thing...

The question I got the most when I was a newspaper columnist, aside from when are you got to quit?

When are you got to leave?

When are you gonna stop?

Stop putting these pieces of garbage out.

In all seriousness, it was, where do you get so many columns?

And the answer is, there's a lot of different places.

But the biggest answer is from readers, readers who would write me.

Even to the end, still got letters, emails, calls on the street, at here, or there, wherever, grab my coat and say, hey, that sort of thing.

- Right.

- So that will be, I would think, I hope still a big font of contributions to things we wanna do.

- Everybody's got a story.

- Yeah.

- I used to get that too.

Well, where did you come up that idea?

"I was at the grocery store today and that's what everybody was talking about."

So, yeah.

- Yeah.

And walking around all the time used to be, I'd be at the end of the day, I'd pull out a cocktail napkin or some scrap of paper and it would be something I'd scribble down.

Now, it's a little easier with the phone, walking around all day just taking notes.

And that's how every morning starts.

All these emails from me- - To yourself.

- Yeah.

But someone who grabbed me and told me this or that or whatever.

- Well, good.

Thanks for sharing.

We look forward to seeing the evolution of Phil Luciano and PM On Air.

- Great.

It's gonna be fun.

- Okay, thanks for joining me.

I hope you learned a lot and again, this summer it's gonna be all new.

So thanks for being with us.

Thank you for being with us, and stay safe and healthy.

(upbeat music)