Jonathan Turner
Jonathan Turner has three decades of varied Quad Cities journalism experience, and currently does freelance writing for not only WVIK, but QuadCities.com, River Cities Reader and Visit Quad Cities. He loves writing about music and the arts, as well as a multitude of other topics including features on interesting people, places, and organizations. A longtime piano player (who has been accompanist at Davenport's Zion Lutheran Church since 1999) with degrees in music from Oberlin College and Indiana University, he has a passion for accompanying musicals, singers, choirs, and instrumentalists. He even wrote his own musical ("Hard to Believe") based on The Book of Job, which premiered at Playcrafters in 2010. He wrote a 175-page book about downtown Davenport ("A Brief History of Bucktown"), which was published by The History Press in 2016, and a QC travel guide in 2022 ("100 Things To Do in the Quad Cities Before You Die"), published by Reedy Press. Turner was honored in 2009 to be among 24 arts journalists nationwide to take part in a 10-day fellowship offered by the National Endowment for the Arts in New York City on classical music and opera, based at Columbia University’s journalism school.
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Augustana College sophomore Sawyer Carver now has a short documentary available on Roku, “Rock Island Change Maker,” which highlights The Atlas Collective. -
Visit Quad Cities is making it easier for people with physical challenges to learn how area attractions are becoming as accessible as possible, working with Wheel the World. -
Nearly two years after opening its new downtown Rock Island facility, the YWCA Quad Cities is getting ready at its old building blocks away to open a state-licensed group home for youth who have been removed from their families due to abuse, neglect or other circumstances. -
Davenport North senior Hunter Morrow is the 2026 recipient of the Dr. Thomas Anthony Dooley Memorial Scholarship, awarded annually by the Davenport Community School District Scholarship Selection Committee and QC Community Foundation. -
The new Moline City Services Center, at 1830 6th Ave., formerly home to Bethany for Children & Families, is now home to the Parks & Recreation Department and the Community & Economic Development Department. -
Byron "BK" Davis' inspiring life story is the subject of a cinematic new autobiography, “Invisible Secret: A Novel of Fire, Faith and Music.” -
Kendal Ritchie, a 30-year-old Davenport native, is fighting for his life, in a coma with brain damage at a Las Vegas hospital. -
The Eisenhower Elementary School PTA in Davenport got creative for its latest fundraiser, and has won far-flung support in donations from across the nation. -
University of Iowa Health Care transplant surgeon Ramy El-Diwany recently performed the first robotic living donor nephrectomy, paving the way for more living kidney donations in the state. -
Michelle Schwarz is working on a suicide prevention bill in Congress named for Blake; offering dogs as pet therapy in a new nonprofit, and recorded a video urging others to help reduce suicides.
