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| Chicago Lighthouse's Beacon Show w/ Bill Jurek Moves To WCPT |
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| Written by Larz | |||
| Friday, 04 June 2010 11:53 | |||
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The Chicago Lighthouse's Chicagoland Radio Information Service (CRIS) continues to grow and expand. The latest expansion has to do with their weekly one-hour radio program, The Beacon Show. The program, previously only heard on CRIS Radio, can now be heard every Sunday on WCPT AM & FM.
The Beacon Show is a radio program that fills the void for information concerning people with disabilities, seniors and veterans. Each program covers a wide range of disability issues, primarily focusing on vision and hearing impairment. Like CRIS itself, The Beacon Show is produced by the Chicago Lighthouse for People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired, a non profit agency committed to providing educational, clinical, vocational, and rehabilitation services for people who are blind or visually impaired. Two weeks ago, The Beacon Show switched over to broadcasting on WCPT, airing on four radio frequencies: 92.7 FM in Northern suburbs, 92.5 FM for West suburbs, 99.9 FM in the South, and over much of Chicagoland on 820 AM. The show show now airs each Sunday from 4:00pm-5:00pm. The show is produced and hosted by Bill Jurek, who may be best remembered as a personality on The Lite and morning show host on FM100 in the late 80s. He has also worked at Chicago AM radio stations WGN, WLS, WMAQ and WIND in his almost 40 year radio career. In addition to all that, he was a staff announcer for WMAQ-TV for 27 years and did a great deal of commercial voice-over work. Since losing his vision in the mid-90's, Jurek has dedicated much of his time to causes helping the blind and visually impaired. The Beacon Show is co-hosted with Lainie Williams, Kevin DePhillips, Edie Manzano, and Sue Lamm. Topics covered on the show are law, policy, access, specific disabilities, guidance and advice, as well as events and services offered by The Chicago Lighthouse and other organizations serving the blind and visually impaired community. Also, technology for people who are blind or visually impaired is reviewed and discussed in a segment titled "Tom's Corner" in which Tom Perski, the Lighthouse Director of Rehabilitation, contributes his critiques and expertise as a guest of the show. "We are the only show covering vision loss, hearing impairment, and disability. This show means a lot to a lot of people, and many more can benefit, can learn something new, can feel part of a community" said Bill Jurek. "Now that we have a great time slot, on a great station, we're really seeing the responses come in." Jurek pointed out that after only two weeks of broadcasting over the new airwaves, The Beacon Show has had a cumulative audience of 250,000. In addition to Sunday afternoons on WCPT, listeners may listen live by visiting The Chicago Lighthouse website. Downloadable podcasts of The Beacon Show are made available at a later date on the website, as well. 
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