© 2024 WVIK
Listen at 90.3 FM and 98.3 FM in the Quad Cities, 95.9 FM in Dubuque, or on the WVIK app!
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Rock Island Lines
Monday thru Friday 11 AM

A series of award-winning stories about our region's traditions, institutions, and people, past and present. Rock Island Lines is written and read by Roald Tweet, Professor Emeritus of English at Augustana College.

The stories in these three-minute modules are rooted in a specific place; a "kidney-shaped limestone island plunked down in the middle of the Mississippi River." It's the logical site for a storyteller. It is from the rich heritage of our region that Tweet spins his histories, biographies, and "stretchers."

Roald has spent much of his life travelling up and down the river, with forays overland, east and west, talking to the people, reading their journals, and enjoying the humor and history of America's heartland. His observations about life around Rock Island strike responsive chords across the region. It's a viewpoint that will enrich and enliven your day.

Listen below or subscribe on iTunes or RSS.

Sponsored by
Quad City Bank & Trust

Latest Episodes
  • Community
    This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.I have some good news and some bad news for Rock Islanders. The bad news is that Don Wooten turns 70 today, with all…
  • Community
    This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.This coming Sunday, May 19th, at approximately four in the afternoon, Augustana College will confer upon Don Wooten an…
  • Community
    This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.The fastest way to get a friendly argument going in the Quad Cities is to introduce the phrase "joined by a river."…
  • Community
    This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Now and then I make a mistake. Here's one example.About 20 years ago, I wrote a short piece about the small river town…
  • Community
    This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.The Moline Community Foundation was established in November of 1953, with $53,000 in seed money from the Moline Chamber…
  • Community
    This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.I wonder what John Deere would think if he could return to Moline for just a day and visit the site of the original…
  • Community
    This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.From the moment it was founded in 1843, the little manufacturing village of Moline grew rapidly. New England…
  • Community
    This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Henry J. Fletcher was a prominent Iowa lawyer and essayist until 1895. That year, he took a closer look at his beloved…
  • Community
    This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.A local Buffalo, Iowa historian once described his hometown is "a neat little town of happy homes beneath tall old…
  • Community
    This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Few colleges have had a more auspicious beginning than St. Raphael's Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. It was dreamed,…