Ryan Arthur

I'm Ryan, and I am a semi-professional race car driver and an amateur tattoo artist.

Oh, wait. That's not right.

Welcome to my little corner of the internet, otherwise known as the "Radio Personality Biography." Bill Curtis will be along in a moment, but now we shall dance. Yes, it will be a slow jam.

Let's start with the personal side of the coin. I generally don't like talking about myself, but here goes:

I'm originally from Arcola, where I was raised, which is about 35 miles south of Champaign-Urbana. Small town, around 2,700 people. I live in Rantoul now, though, with my wonderful wife Patti. I'm an only child (broke the mold and all that), but I don't think I was ever really spoiled or anything. My parents still live and work in Arcola, and we always head back frequently to see family and friends.

Being allergic to almost anything that's cute and/or cuddly, I have to give "props" (as the hip cats say) to the fine folks of Christie Clinics Allergy/ENT department. They make getting injections fun! And because of them, I get to spend time with a menagerie of pets that I've adopted as my own since getting married in November of 2006 - a lineup that includes cats, dogs, a rabbit and a fish. I'd eventually like to get a llama. And name him "Ralph, the wonder llama."

My free time is spent with my wife Patti and a small circle of friends that I've known for pretty much all of my life. I love movies: DVDs are my weak spot and probably my one vice, although there's still no substitute for seeing a movie in the theater. My tastes are pretty varied, as far as movies go: I love films from Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai and Ikiru especially) and Orson Welles (Not just Kane, but Touch of Evil and F for Fake) to Stephen Soderbergh (Out Of Sight) and Steven Spielberg (any of his older films)&to smaller films and filmmakers like Kevin Smith (Clerks.) and Alexander Payne (Sideways). But really, I'll watch anything at least once, from classic cinema to trashy low-budget horror (Peter Jackson, please return to your roots), and enjoy the really bad movies almost as much as the really spectacular ones, if only because I'll then be able to joke about how awful they are. It's the Mystery Science Theater 3000 influence, I guess.

As for television, I'm a fan of good dramas like Lost (what? It's still good!) and The Sopranos and non-traditional sitcoms such as Scrubs and my beloved (but now canceled) Arrested Development, which may just be the best thing on television since it was invented. I can't stand virtually any of the reality shows. I really want to punch Ryan Seacrest, and I am, in fact, not afraid to sweep the leg, even at the risk of disqualification.

My musical tastes are pretty varied, and the CD players in my Jeep and at home are probably spinning anything from Snow Patrol to Green Day to Stevie Wonder to The Eagles at any given moment. Musically, I'll give just about anything a chance. With the possible exception of Kevin Federline&although who would have thought that HE'D turn out to be the stable one in his relationships?!? But I digress.

Oh, you want more, do you? All right: I was bitten by the radio bug when I was in 7th or 8th grade. I took a tour of a local radio station here in Champaign and decided that being on the radio was what I wanted to do for a living. I took a College for Kids class in radio in 1989 at Parkland College that pretty much cemented that desire. I graduated from high school in May of 1994 and started at Parkland that fall, getting involved with the student-run station, WPCD. I was hired here at Lite Rock 97.5 WHMS in March of 1995, working weekends and overnights (usually both on the same day, actually). I graduated from Parkland in 1997, then transferred to Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, while continuing to work here part time, driving from Arcola to Charleston to Champaign three or four times a week. I was offered a full-time position in here at the station in the Spring of 1999, and I graduated from Eastern on a Sunday in May and started working here full-time the next day.

And I've been here ever since, working my way up from part-timer to utility guy to afternoon drive host to (as of February of 2004) Operations Manager. I can't imagine my life and career being anywhere else right now. Our listeners are fantastic, and I'm surrounded by a talented staff of great people both on and off the air, who make my job pretty exciting. Thanks for being a part of it.

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