Thomas, Bill | University of Illinois Archives

Bill Thomas is a career radio broadcaster. He grew up near Alton, Illinois. While attending Grinnell College (IA), Thomas got his start in radio as a volunteer for KDIC. During his summer break in 1969, he worked at KDNA in Alton, Illinois, where he got the idea to start a tape exchange among community radio stations. After returning to campus, Thomas established just such a network of community radio stations. The union of community radio networks began with a single partnership with WYSO at Antioch College (OH), but soon expanded to about 25 community stations in the midwest. After graduating in 1972, Thomas was drafted, but was exepted as a conscientious objector. He began is CO service by starting a non-profit 10-watt radio station, KBDY, in East St. Louis.

He followed his wife, Betsy Rubenstein, to Urbana in 1973. In 1975, Thomas created the Possible Tape Exchange Network, which improved upon a system established on the West Coast called the KRAB Nebula. In this system, stations would mail programs of interest to other radio stations in a loop. However, it would sometimes take more than a year to receive a particular recording from a station of interest. Thomas proposed a centralized location that would act as a distribution site for radio programs, where tapes would be shipped and stored. Urbana became the heart of this network and the Possible Tape Exchange network was formed. By the end of the year, he had created a library of over 350 tapes.

Around this time, Thomas met Bill Taylor, who had previously worked with WPGU. The pair collaborated to establish WEFT in Champaign, beginning their collaboration in 1975. Thomas abandoned his role as leader of the Possible Tape Exchange program in 1979 to devote more time to WEFT, but continued to support the union as it transformed into the National Federation of Community Broadcasters (NFCB). After a series of setbacks with the FCC, WEFT had its first broadcast in 1981. By 1983, Thomas had become WEFT's station manager and program director.

In 1986, when the NFCB moved its base of operations to Washington DC and joined with the Pacifica Program service, Thomas became its executive director. He would remain in the position for a year. In the 1990s, he became the director of Prairie Public Radio in North Dakota and served in this role until his retirement in 2023.

John Erickson, "C-U's Community Radio: After Overcoming the FCC Goliath, WEFT Faces an Even Greater Giant - Funding"  News Gazette (November 13, 1981): T10-T11. Online at: https://new.weft.org/downloads/NG_C-U_Community_Radio_1981.pdf

Rory Grennan, "Community Radio and the 'Possible Tape Exchange'" Recorded Sound, Society of American Archivists, Summer 2014, Online at: https://www2.archivists.org/sites/all/files/RecordedSound_Summer2014.pdf

Michael William Huntsberger, "The Emergence of Community Radio in the United States: A Historical Examination of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, 1970-1990." Linfield University, PhD Diss. 2007: 138-142.