Lunch with the Boss: Lillie Bleu Duncanson

It's not Tony Danza, it's the real boss, Lillie Bleu Duncanson for this week's adventure. I have know Lillie ever since she started working at WILL-TV (the much more posh named Illinois Public Media nowadays). She was just out of college and full of energy and swore she'd moving up in her career and out of Champaign in five years. I warned her that Champaign has that stickiness that keeps people here for a lot longer than they initially planned. Almost twenty years later and the Lillie did indeed move up in her career, but didn't manage to get out of Champaign. She is now the Director of Broadcast Operations at Illinois Public Media (IPM).

I just refer to her as the boss, but she insist that she isn't in charge of everything and has a boss above her. I don't really know about any of that, but I do know she is pretty boss herself and I am sure she makes the place go.

Back in the WILL days she was a really good friend. I hate to admit it but she says that the kind treatment that she got from me and another co-worker, Farzo, helped convince her that WILL and the Champaign area in general were a good place to be. Sorry, not sorry for keeping you in here, but it is great to have you in the area and I am sure IPM is glad to have you there. I think finding a super talented guy to marry might have been another reason to stay, but we will talk about him later.

Today was such a blast. Even though I have been back in town for four and a half years, we have only seen each other in person a couple of times. Once, out and about at a street fest and once where I was doing a photo shoot and had a broken stand, so I needed her to hold my strobe light for me. (still sorry about the broken equipment and putting you to work as a light stand.) Even though we haven't seen each other in person we have stayed in contact online and through texts. So it was just like the old times getting to see her again.

And I just realized that I haven't mentioned where we had lunch. The Esquire of course. Love that place. I used to eat lunch there every day before COVID happened. It is just across from where I work and has good food at affordable prices. I occasionally have one of their Italian Beef or Pulled Pork specials, but today I had my usual, a cheeseburger, American, and Fries. Loved it. But one of the reasons that Lillie chose Esquire was because they have the fish special on Fridays. I think this was the first time she had had it there, but had been wanting to have had had it there before she had had it there today. Had had, but it wasn't haddock. I think it is Cod, but I am not sure. And of course I didn't ask her if she liked it because when I meet up with an old friend it is mainly about the company and not the food.

OK, back to the conversation. We talked a lot about work. She has moved up quite a bit and is in charge of so many things. She kept getting message notifications on her Apple Watch until she took it off and put it away. I on the other hand got a total of zero messages while I was having lunch. So even though it may seem like we have very similar jobs, hers is so much bigger than mine. She has people working for her and everything. She's actually got people to call if something goes awry. I just call my cell phone from my office phone to make it feel like I'm important.

Speaking of going awry. She told me the funniest story about a time when the AM station at WILL went off the air because a cow bumped into an electric fence and then backed up into their transmitter and literally knocked them off the air. And for you animal lovers out there, the cow was fine afterwards, so you can feel free to ease up and laugh at a story about a cow taking down a radio station. Ha. That was so funny. Lillie has such a great laugh. I miss that so much. It was great to see it again today.

Lillie of course loves her job and is happy with her career decisions, but I mentioned her husband earlier. Those of you who like the Blues, may know Andrew Duncanson as the lead singer of Kilborn Alley and The Dig 3. Amazing award winning blues bands that travel the world, but are based here in Champaign. This town has always had some great music of different genres. Check out his website andrewduncanson.com to find out more about him and listen to his work (but more importantly just to look at the photos on the front page gallery. I took those with the help of Lillie holding the lights, ha). But for real, check out his music on what ever music place you get your music from. Or check them out live all over town at the many venues they play. As I am writing this they are getting ready to play at The Rosebowl in Urbana tonight.

Very talented guy, but what I like most about him is that he and Lillie seem to go well together. He seems like a good man in addition to being a good musician. They are a wonderful match.

One last thing I will mention before I close up this post is that IPM has a new music service called Illinois Soul (will.illinois.edu/illinoissoul). It elevates Black voices, music, and culture throughout central Illinois. You can listen on the air at FM 101.1 or online on their site.

Thank you Lillie for getting lunch with me. I hope we can do it more frequently now that we are back in the habit of it. Oh, as you can see in the photos, I cut my hair.