After a completed semester of their television production class, six students approached their instructor Ken Erdey with a simple question; “What else can we do?” They still had one semester to go but they finished their core classwork. Erdey asked a simple question back. “What do you want to do?” After a brief pondering, they suggested that they wanted to “sit and talk and drink coffee”. Erdey smiled and said, “So you want to do a morning show”.
With that simple statement a new idea began. The challenge of getting college students to commit to early morning show. Air time at 9am. Getting in the newsroom as early as 6:30. These are two things that would typically kill an idea from getting off the ground. Surprisingly their 6 turned into 15. Now the the biggest challenge is GMI would not be a class. Not only would they need to arrive early, but it was volunteered on top of it. Knowing these “benefits”, planning began and after eight short weeks GMI was set to fade up from black.
The Original 15
On February 10, 2017, Good Morning Illini aired for the first time. Caitlin McClure and Devyn Tammons, with GMI cups in hand began a new tradition on Friday mornings. The show had some bumps and bruises, but slowly began to find its voice. Surpassing 25 shows by season two, GMI is now positioning itself to become bigger and better each semester.
Good Morning Illini segments are focused on campus and telling Illini stories. Segments that include the great diversity and activities on the Illinois campus. Who Am I or Get Movin’ Illini are just a couple great segments focused on what Illinois students do and who they are.
GMI does not shy away from difficult conversations. For example the death of a student at an Unofficial party in the Spring of 2017, causing even more questions about the “holiday”. Or the Spring 2018 strike of graduate students that caused classes to be cancelled for nearly 2 weeks. These stories are treated with the same respect as any newscast. The conversation may be hard but necessary to help our Illinois community understand the effect and impact of these stories.
In short, GMI is Illinois. Celebrating and discussing all the great and difficult things the University has to offer. Good Morning Illini wears that statement with pride.
