The WVIK community is mourning the loss of former station general manager Jay Harold Pearce, who died yesterday morning after a short battle with stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer.
Pearce was known as a compassionate, driven individual who dedicated 40 years to TV and radio, half of that time working in public broadcasting.
The native of Detroit grew up in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka and graduated from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.
Those who knew Jay remember him as a person who values community above all else and went above and beyond in helping his fellow broadcasters.
Mike Savage is the WEKU Director & General Manager, an NPR station in Richmond Kentucky, and he remembers first meeting Pearce in central Illinois when he was managing a newly opened public radio station in Kankakee, Illinois.
Savage was attempting to hold the station's first fundraising drive. Pearce was working at WILL, an NPR station in Champaign-Urbana, at the time. Savage had a last minute cancellation to assist the fund drive and he asked Pearce for help.
"And so he took a day of leave. He took a vacation day, and he drove up and he pitched on the air and helped me raise money for my station." Savage said in a phone interview with WVIK. "He, you know, which was just kind of the guy that Jay was. He just, he just would help people and do things that other people wouldn't do so that was really how I met him, in the first experience I had with him."
He remembers Pearce's desire to offer something more than just a station on autopilot and recommended him to join the NPR's board of directors in 2015 until his retirement from WVIK in 2022.
WILL Jim Meadows started at the Champaign-Urbana station back in 2000. At that time Pearce was the WILL station manager and AM program director. He remembers Pearce's dedication in informing the community during the September 11th attacks.
Meadows says in a statement to WVIK "He interrupted the network feed at WILL to read AP bulletins about the attacks, adding updates as they came in. I remember hearing him on the car radio as I drove to work --- I had not listened or watched any news at breakfast that morning (unusual for me), so Jay's news bulletins was the first I heard of it. It was followed by a day of changes in the program schedule to get as much coverage of the attacks on our air as possible."
In late 2011, Pearce moved to the Quad Cities to work as WVIK's station general manager. Augustana College Executive Vice-President Kent Barnds remembers hiring Jay for the position and immediately impressed with his experience and personality.
Barnds says he cherishes hearing Jay on Morning Edition.
"He loved that show, loved that craft. [He] loved sharing with others. And it was such a warm comforting moment when you turned on WVIK in the morning and Jay Pearce was there as a live host," Barnds said in a phone interview with WVIK.
Former WVIK News Director Herb Trix met Jay at broadcasting conventions over 25 years ago. He remembers Pearce juggling fundraising, hosting Morning Edition and covering the daily station manager duties at WVIK.
"Well the fact he was willing to host Morning Edition for many years. He thought we needed to do it better," Trix said in a phone interview with WVIK. "So there are very few station managers that are willing to get up on ungodly hours to work the morning shift. The fact that he was willing to do that for a long time spoke volumes about his dedication."
Barnds, Savage and Trix all credit Pearce for steering WVIK in the right direction.
"It was at a time when WVIK needed to be reinvented," Barnds said. "And Jay was the right guy to do it. He had a vision; he had drive; he didn't back down from challenges."
Trix echoes Barnds' sentiment to Jay's dedication to public radio.
"Station manager is not just programming and being there, but also doing public relations. Also dealing with the college that owns the license," Trix said. "He was good at talking with donors and potential donors and helping to convince them to support the station. So, you know, its not just being a good radio guy, you have to be good out in the community too and I think he was excellent at that."
Pearce was involved in numerous organizations, including the Quad Cities Illinois Rotary Club, ONE Foundation, Bettendorf; Illinois News Broadcasters Association Foundation; and the Illinois Associated Press Broadcasters Association.
Recently, he was the Executive Director of the Illinois Public Broadcasting Council and, during his battle with cancer, the co-host of the Pancreatic Cancercast with his brother Gary Pearce.
Jay Harold Pearce was 69 years old.
