John Madormo has led North Central's radio station for 28 years

When North Central College's radio station, pure rock WONC FM-89.1 won four first-place national and state awards this year, it wasn't exactly a surprise.

Paige Spangler, a 2008 college graduate, being named the No. 1 Student DJ in the country and Nate Ronchetti, another recent grad, taking a first place state award for the Best Station Web Site were impressive, but in line with what can be expected from the student-run station.

WONC, after all, has won more Marconi awards - the highest honor given in professional and college broadcasting - than any college station in the country.

Students gain the honors, but the man behind the station is John Madormo, assistant professor of broadcast communication and general manager of WONC since joining the Naperville college in 1980.

Madormo acknowledges he's a competitive guy who gets great satisfaction out of the awards.

"The more you do it, the better you get at figuring out how these competitions work," he said. "I love winning,"

Career path change

Coaching students to awards wasn't the career Madormo envisioned for himself when he graduated from Northern Illinois University in 1974 with a degree in broadcasting and advertising.

He wanted to go into commercial radio - and he did. The young college grad landed a job at highly-rated WGN 720-AM and spent six years there.

But at age 28, Madormo felt he was too young to go into management at the station. So he answered an ad to take over the leadership of North Central's radio station ­- figuring he would get his management experience there and move back to commercial radio.

That was more than 28 years ago. Naperville was just too good a place to stay and raise a family, he said.

"I just never looked beyond. I said, 'This is what I want,'" he said.

Madormo brought with him a professionalism that the college radio station lacked at the time. WONC was hidden away on the fourth floor of Old Main, and the format was a potpourri of everything from language programs to heavy metal.

"There just was no identity for the station," he said.

Madormo hit upon the pure rock format as what he felt the student broadcasters would be knowledgeable and enthusiastic about. But they do more than just play music. Students give play-by-play coverage of high school and college sports, host a weekly sports show, give newscasts and traffic reports, and provide public service announcements.

Madormo reminds students that they have thousands of people listening if they should make a mistake.

"I try to set the goal just out of reach but not out of sight," Madormo said. "That way you give them something tangible to work for."

Hands-on experience

Students praise WONC for the hands-on experience it gives them.

Ronchetti, who won a first-place Silver Dome Award for Best Station Web Site in the Illinois Broadcasters Association's student competition, said he was able to hold a leadership position at the station even though he was not a broadcast major.

"John cultivates students' interests so they can take the opportunity of WONC and make it their own," Ronchetti said in an e-mail. "I was able to design a new site for WONC.org as webmaster, host the local music show (Local Chaos) and select music as music director."

Spangler, now working at three radio stations, was named the No. 1 Student DJ at the Collegiate Broadcasters, Inc.'s National Student Media Conference in Kansas City, Mo., and won the first-place Best Radio Aircheck at the IBA's Silver Dome awards.

Two other students, Michelle Corless and Angela Hager, shared a first-place Silver Dome for Best Newcast.

Dan Goulson of Lisle, the station's programming and production director, traveled to Kansas City to pick up the national awards and himself was a finalist for Best Promo in the competition.

Goulson said Madormo encouraged him to enter the College Broadcasters' contest and helped him hone his promo piece.

"He's open to give you constructive criticism if you're willing to take it," Goulson said. "He's very knowledgeable and helpful for those who want to grow."

Goulson, a senior, said he transferred to North Central as a junior specifically for its broadcast program.

"For radio broadcasting, this is probably the best in Illinois, if not the country," he said.

Madormo said the awards make North Central better known to potential students. Since 1992, the station has won 20 Marconi awards.

"No other college or university radio station in the country has won more of these," he said. "I feel we can compete with any college radio program in the country."

Madormo credits the college administration with its support of the station.

"They believe in what we do here," he said.

When the North Central renovated Old Main about a decade ago, WONC moved to a former dormitory house on Chicago Avenue - increasing its visibility. The station is in the process of moving to automation so all the music is on computer, replacing the need for CDs, minidiscs and tapes.

The move to automation makes the station more like most of the commercial stations that students will apply to for jobs after they graduate, Madormo said. Preparing students for the real world is what WONC is about.

"We're on 24/7, 365 days a year," he said. "On Christmas morning when people are opening their gifts, there's a student in that station.

"When they walk out that door, they'll be working holidays, nights and unusual schedules."

Looking ahead

WONC has one advantage over commercial stations - it does not have to depend on advertising and runs no commercials. Local merchants are asked to underwrite its programming in exchange for acknowledgment of their support, but it's not the lifeblood of the station.

Radio has been hit by the downturn in the economy, but still holds a promising future, Madormo said.

"This is still a medium young people listen to," he said.

WONC has a weekly audience of 22,000 to 28,000 listeners within a 30-mile radius. The typical listener is a 29-year-old male, but people in their 40s and 50s are drawn to a vintage rock program (with music from 1964-74) on from 10 p.m. to midnight daily, Madormo said.

"We play music that other stations would have buried years ago," he said. "When a song falls out of rotation, we never really kills any music."

WONC is manned by 85 to 100 students, with about 40 percent of them non-broadcast majors, Madormo said.

"They realize that once they graduate they probably will never again get an opportunity like this," he said.

The work at the stations forges a close bond between Madormo and the students.

"When students graduate, you don't lose track of them," he said. "A week doesn't go by that I don't get a e-mail or a phone call."

Madormo said one of the most important decisions he makes every year is choosing a leadership team of about a dozen students. If he chooses well, the station can run smoothly in his absence, he said.

"My goal has been as hands-on as I need to be, but not so hands-on that I get in the students' way," he said. "I don't want to suppress their creativity."

Madormo has pursued his own creativity by taking up screenwriting at the age of 40. Since then, he has won a number of awards, sold a family comedy titled "Coach Dracula" and brought hands-on experience to a screenwriting class he teaches at the college.

But Madormo has no plans to abandon North Central for Hollywood. He notes that WONC celebrated its 40th anniversary this year and said he hopes to be there for its 50th.

"If they'll have me," he said, "I would like to see that day."

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