by Steve “Slimb” Landgraf
I sat on the porch of Wright I waiting. It was August 1998, and I was a 17-year old freshman at Southern Illinois University. Wright Hall would be my new home for the next year. Opportunity and anxiety hung in the air, but mostly I was just annoyed that my mom was late to pick me up for new student convocation. Tom Chapman was lounging on the porch that morning too, sporting a blue bathrobe over his pajamas. He was leisurely enjoying his morning coffee and a cigarette. I had never owned a bathrobe, and I didn’t drink coffee or smoke – so Tom was a curiosity to me. He wasn’t like anyone I knew in high school, and he was the first of many peculiar characters in my college story. As fate would have it, we were both freshmen studying Radio/TV, and both randomly assigned to live in Wright I. I never made it to convocation that morning, but I did get some advice from Tom: “check out this radio station called WIDB.”
Slimb around the time he started at WIDB
Now I had actually heard about WIDB from my older brother Bruce already. Bruce had graduated from SIU several years before, and he spent a semester volunteering at WIDB reading sports stories. However, radio wasn’t truly on my radar. I had spent senior year of high school immersed in my TV Production class, so working at WSIU-TV seemed like the logical next step. That lead me to “River Region Evening Edition”, even though I had no passion whatsoever for news. I remember the head of River Region charting out my college and career path, explaining that if I paid my dues at WSIU, he could help me get a job in local news after college.
Nevertheless, WIDB kept creeping into my world. When I flipped through the channels on the Wright Hall lounge TV, channel 5 had a boring blue screen and scrolling menus for Trueblood cafeteria. But Channel 5 also played WIDB, and the DJs just sounded so…cool. As you might have guessed, I ended up tagging along with Tom for a WIDB meeting. What I found there on the 4th floor of the Student Center was pretty magical. Here was a group of misfits eager to welcome more members into their fraternity, regardless of your clique, your major, or actual broadcasting experience.
“A group of misfits.” Front row: Slimb. Bret Alyssa, Justin and Paul; back row: Rob and Aaron
Obviously WIDB appealed to me because I wanted to work in media, and I was eager to get hands-on experience as fast I could. I promptly recognized that even though WIDB had no frequency on the FM dial, WIDB could grant me more creative freedom than I’d ever find in the Communications Building. I volunteered to be a DJ, trained behind the board, and took a written test to become a full-fledged IDBer (and prove I knew which bad words to not say over the “airwaves”). Tom and I went on to be roommates and radio cohosts freshman year, and I only volunteered at River Region for one semester!
WIDB Public Relations Director Doug Bigham made so many of us IDB rookies feel at home. Several of us got nicknames from Doug: Tom was “Pink Floyd Tom” (because he wore a Pink Floyd shirt to a meeting), Troy was “Hippie Troy” (for very obvious reasons), etc. Obviously I became “Slimb”, but I really disliked the nickname at first, which only served to give it more staying power! Despite my very scrawny frame as a college freshman, I didn’t actually get the nickname because I was skinny. Doug and his best friend Christina simply thought it would be funny to have a friend named “Slim”, and they decided it would be even sillier if the nickname had a silent “B” at the end. (Did I mention that Christina and Doug were English and Linguistics majors respectively?)
Doug Bigham (pigtails) leads the “Mardi Gras Saluki style” Homecoming parade troops for WIDB. Can you find Slimb in this photo?
Obviously the “Slimb” branding quickly grew on me, and it became my identity throughout college. But more than that, I grew to understand that WIDB would be my true home throughout college. Several of us freshman were elected staffheads by the end of our first year, with me moving up to Promotions Director. I went on to serve as General Manager for two years and oversee a fantastic team that applied for an LPFM license, rebuilt live sports broadcasting, hosted concerts on and off campus, and so much more. Playing in that radio sandbox on the 4th floor for five years (1998 – 2003) is only part of my WIDB story though.
Doug hosted the best WIDB parties since the mid-70’s. Here at Doug’s in 1999: Karen, Slimb, Doug and Christina.
WIDB also helped me to make connections with great mentors like Student Center Advisor Don Castle, “Nightlife” editor Chris Wissmann, Universal Records rep. Victor Lentini, the one and only Gary Goldblatt, and many more. My time at IDB also gave me more confidence to tackle projects outside of radioland too – like writing a weekly column for the “Daily Egyptian”, serving as SPC Lectures Director, hosting “Studio A” on WSIU-TV, and even running for SIU Homecoming King! But most importantly WIDB introduced me to lifelong friends that made college truly unforgettable. We danced to Weezer at house parties, ate “Tuesday specials” at Pag’s, rocked out to bands at Hangar 9, cheered on the Dawgs at football games, and even got to hang out with “Weird Al”, Mick Foley, and Ice T!
Slimb and WIDB cohorts at SIU-Loyola basketball 2017 Ryan S. Todd, Steve, Ryan K. and Slimb.
There would be no “Slimb” without having a place like WIDB to test myself and have the freedom to experiment and even fail. There would be no “Slimb” without the community of fellow misfits who helped me become the man I am today. Above all, there would be no “Slimb” if my new friend Tom and my brother Bruce hadn’t compelled me to check out my first WIDB meeting!
