Gary Ebeling was a journalism student at Bradley University headed for a summer job at Yellowstone National Park in 1971. Then a Bradley administrator suggested he check out a possible opening at a local TV station.
Instead of heading off to Yellowstone, Ebeling worked at WEEK-TV Channel 25 in Peoria for a decade.
Tom Connor, who interviewed Ebeling for the position, was remembered as “the consummate newsperson,” said Ebeling. “I was involved in broadcasting because of Tom Connor, whose real name was Emil Sepich. I had no intention of going into broadcasting until that interview,” he recalled.
While a serious journalist when delivering the news (while also serving as the station’s news director), Connor, off-camera, was “one of the funniest guys you ever met,” said Ebeling.
After Connor died in 1977, he was succeeded by Tom McIntyre, who served as 25’s news anchor for 40 years. Another longtime veteran at WEEK was Bill Houlihan, the weathercaster who was one of the first three on-air people at WEEK when the station first went on the air in Peoria in 1953, said Ebeling.
“Some people would stay on the air for years. I’m not sure that people will stay that long in a market like Peoria today. Plus the business has changed,” he said.
While familiar faces were common on Peoria TV stations, media talent would flow through this market—not just at 25 but on other local TV stations, said Ebeling. One of the three original broadcasters at 25, Chick Hearn spent 41 years as play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Lakers, he said. Bob Jameson and Sander Vanocur were also noted newsmen who worked in Peoria, said Ebeling, who went to work for CILCO after his tenure at 25.
The WEEK general manager during Ebeling’s time at the station was Bill Adams, later known for local history columns he wrote for the Peoria Journal Star. “Jeff Hawkinson (another longtime 25 newsperson) and I would write the editorials that Adams would read on the air. That was a time when stations delivered their own editorials,” said Ebeling.
Along with the station’s news personnel, Ebeling also recalled Stan Lonergan and George Baseleon who led the station’s weekday afternoon kids show as Captain Jinks and Salty Sam.
“When we conduct tours at Springdale Cemetery, adults who see their grave markers always recall how much they enjoyed the show as kids,” said Ebeling who serves as a tour guide for the Peoria Historical Society, offering tours of the cemetery, Grandview Drive and the High Street-Moss Avenue area.
