Chuck Miller

Chuck Miller marked 30 years in broadcasting by joining WNKU in December of 2007.  A Chicago native, he carries influences in progressive radio. 60’s AM's all stars became a daily treat. FM stations like "The Fox," "Triad," all jazz WSDM, and WXRT (German until 3 p.m. when Miller discovered them) offered a musical depth ranging from A to Z. Even his dad's favorite, classical WFMT, left a mark.

A graduate of Southern Illinois University, Miller started his career at WSIU-FM rising through the ranks to student manager.  Two weeks after graduation, Miller worked in production at KHCC in Hutchinson, Kansas - "State of the art 1981, lots of jazz and bluegrass, and a good place to cut one's teeth."

Miller jumped to KWGS, Tulsa producing a weekly jazz, classical and singer/songwriter concerts and supervised the jazz programming. An opportunity to work in Vienna, Austria found Miller hosting morning and midday pop (yikes!) shows in English, leading to a full-time evening news magazine production role. He also joined the Vienna and Saalfelden Jazz festivals and free-lanced as a local production manager for numerous concert and TV productions or tours. Miller continues to hold the production manager role for the Vienna jazz festival “retiring” from Saalfelden after 25 years.

Stateside in the late 80's led to work as the morning and production guy on early AAA adaptor KDHX St. Louis, followed by a stint as program director (PD) of WGLT in Central Illinois. "We moved it from smooth jazz to a soulful beat and personality." Miller followed this with a break for a Master's degree in Mass Communication Theory.

WRTI in Philadelphia offered Miller a PD job in 1997 forging a new daytime classical / evening jazz sound and producing live jazz broadcasts. His first management job was with the Georgia Public Radio (GPR) network in 2002. Solving a budget deficit, drafting a unique evening music show, and writing a statewide hurricane plan for the Atlanta based GPR helped prepare Miller for an unwelcome greeting.

Miller arrived at New Orleans’ WWNO six weeks before Katrina struck.  “It's a good thing we left or we would have been shipped all over the country." Back in Atlanta, he led the stations' recovery as GPR agreed to host WWNO offering a satellite delivered service back to New Orleans. Four of the evacuated staff remained in Atlanta four months.

Miller thinks he enjoys working at home repair and gardening though he grumbles to Denise about those tasks. An avid music fan, his library ranges from Lenny Bruce to Beethoven's Ninth. Miller is the “father” of a 1957 Chevy convertible enjoying “land boating.” Stuck in technology he refuses to give up a Nikon F3 or his 35mm slide film.

"Public radio has been very good to me. WNKU and NKU is a perfect match: a great radio station and a progressive university. All of us at WNKU owe our administrators a debt of gratitude for allowing us to grow into what we are today."