Robert P. Rickman 

My favorite place to walk is around Campus Lake at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.   I used to run around it when I was a student 50-years ago.

In high school I ate, slept, and breathed broadcasting, and spent as much time working on the campus radio station as I spent in class.   Because of my preoccupation with the microphone, I earned a weak 3.0 GPA   So, SIU was perfect for me for two reasons: it offered one of the top five radio and TV programs in the country, and it allowed mediocre students like me entrance into the university.    

After graduation in 1974, I worked as a news director and anchorman at KIEM-TV and KPWR-TV in California, and a radio news department in Iowa, and anchored morning and afternoon drive radio newscasts in Nashville, TN.  Those were the high points of my broadcasting career.

Ten years ago I wrote Saluki Marooned with the sole purpose of promoting SIU.

SIU has more than its share of problems now.  Enrollment Fall 2021 semester was 11,266.  While improving, this is less than half of what it was in 1970 when I was a freshman.  And COVID-19 isn't helping.
Sadly,  the Carbondale campus resembles Summer break 1971;  there are few students on campus.  (Fifty years ago, 24-thousand students jostled each other at an overcrowded SIUC)

So, I am doing my part to promote the school by recording the Saluki Marooned audiobook and offering it for less than the cost of a pack of cigarettes.  Check it out by clicking Marta on the sidebar.

While attending Southern from 1970 to 1974, I worked at WSIU Radio and TV, WIDB Radio, and as a teaching assistant in the radio and TV department. (Basic Knobs and Dials, "This is a microphone, this is a turntable, this is..."

So please, push...that...button at the top!